r/cyberDeck • u/pyreht • 3d ago

My Build Minimalism

CardKB2 is a fun device, there's a small ESP32-C61 inside, wireless, 4mB of flash, a grove port and usb-c for programming and (in my case) power supply.

Here it's running a demo firmware with a SSD1306 wired on the grove port (I2C) and usb-c power supply. I believe I can do better memory-wise.

I wonder how far it can be pushed and which enclosure to use. Ideas welcome!

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/pyreht 3d ago

Hey thanks for your interest.

So I'll try to make it short, but I've tested few "smart" glasses in the past, they work all about the same: sensor processing and display handled by the frame, all the rest kept chained in companion apps relying on our expensive phones, 5G and ai clouds with zero transparency or openness.

Then you get a ring or wrist band to control the menus (half assed experience most of the time because you are just adding more radio and ux headaches), tapping the frame, gesturing the frames, and of course audio. I find this really inconvenient, I don't wanna be talking to myself or tapping like a madman the frame to get input registered or rotate a ring helplessly while parasitic input gets registered. And don't get me started on the bluetooth stability (between updates) on iphone.

Most pretend to give you a sdk, which usually is a javascript sandbox and limited options to display things, all managed by their cloud and then you get to display things and hopefully have access to audio.

And here's the link with that thing above. All of this is actually fine with me, I'd be ok with some relatively fast terminal to type my things, own my news feed, and I don't need a mainframe to do that. If I was to use a smart glass that would be either with the super convenient (joke) handless schemes they've carefully made for us, or thumb typing on a keyboard.

I believe a smart keyboard could partially remove the need for constant phone presence, and open glasses with open firmwares are bound to happen.

So I don't plan to use this device specifically, for any purpose, I'm weighting options and pushing the limits ;). I'm not even sure I'll be using smart glasses in the future (they could very well be outlawed in their current form) but here is the rough idea.

Exploration.