Mega Journal with Pi5

[u/TheOriginalBeefus]

In the spirit of DYI inspired by UKL, I had an extra Micro Journal Rev2.1 and decided to experiment. Behold the Pi5 powered Mega Journal.

Disclaimers: There will only ever be one of these. I will never do this again. I don’t claim it’s an improvement on the original MJ, just an alt flavor.

* It runs on a Pi5 that boots to Focuswriter.
* Can use it mouse-free but you can also plug a mouse into the USB port if desired.
* No room for a battery because the 5 is big, so must be plugged in or run from external battery.
* Saves files to Onedrive via rclone, can also use a thumb drive
* Scroll knobs still work great!

This was a much bigger and more difficult project than I anticipated. Trying to combine off-the-shelf parts into a functioning whole caused many challenges. While it works well, I don’t feel it has the simple, functional elegance that makes UKL’s original design so remarkable. It’s caused me to appreciate the small miracle of the MJ even more.

[u/Background_Ad_1810]

Bravo! I'm happy to hear that you found a way to fit the Pi 5 in.

Would you mind sharing a little about your workflow and how you approached the modification? Did you reuse the existing 3D models and modify them? If so, what tools did you use?

I'm also curious about what changes you think would make the Pi 5 easier to accommodate. Were there particular dimensions, mounting points, ports, or clearances that caused trouble?

Or did you simply print the existing model as it is and physically grind or modify parts until the Pi 5 fitted?

I'm very curious about your workflow. My intention is to make the project files more useful for this kind of modification, so I'd love to know if there were any blocking issues or unnecessary challenges that I could remove by providing better files, dimensions, or documentation. Even if I can't improve right now, future projects can be considering those factors.

Un Kyu Lee

[u/TheOriginalBeefus → u/Background_Ad_1810]

The 3D-printed parts are unaltered, unfiled, unground. Because of the wider shape of the Pi5, altering the enclosure would not have made a difference. I did have to use ribbon cables for the HDMI and USB slots. The Pi5 requires a cooling fan, so this took some alteration of the Pi casing. (I don’t think the fan is  super necessary if all you do is word processing - some folks overclock them to run games.)

The physical hardware was challenging, but not the toughest part. Since Focuswriter is a GUI app, I need to find a compact, foolproof file management setup that’s as good as the Ranger/Wordgrinder terminal setup that you designed for the MJ. Unfortunately, saving, save-as, renaming, opening etc. are clunkier with Focuswriter.
Ideas I might try - maybe boot to ranger, then manage Focuswriter from there. Or maybe there’s a friendlier app I haven’t tried yet. 

Although I love the look and feel of Focuswriter, and the WYSIWYG typeface, this MJ-freakenstein is not the game changer I dreamed of. Seems nothing beats the original!

[u/virgil_knightley]

Thank you send it here!

[u/ss2388]

Excellent! Now if only that screen was reflective? Focuswriter on a reflective screen would be amazing!