It's Critter Time!

For whoever doesn't know what a "cyberdeck" is, it is a custom computer assembled from assorted parts, be them off-shelf, printed, sculpted, assembled and any other customized variations.
There's ones that look like laptops, wearables, pip-boys, you name it. It's a computer in a very weird shape that still works as a computer.

I wasn't sure where to put this, the art and crafts corner doesn't look like the right vibe for this (at least initially, with all the tech stuff involved in general) so I guess it goes here.

I'll be posting later what I'm messing with here, gotta get the pics in ORDER and the text. It'll probably be easier to keep everything together too.

<post reserved for my cyberdeck process - there will be more edits later on> Look at this mess. Can you imagine a working computer from all this? Well, I can't, because those weren't even all the parts!
Most of my proccess was over on bluesky, you can still find it over on my profile... over the past 7 months

Custom build day 1
It begins!
The correct battery (and the reason of me waiting four months to properly start) is finally here!
It's too late right now, tho. I'll flash the raspberry OS and start experimenting tomorrow.
PiSugar 3 plus on the left, fitting most of the raspberry 3 and 4 boards, and PiSugar 3, fitting the zero and zero 2. raspberry boards. If the battery wasn't so weak, I COULD try to use the small one, but nah, I wanted the big one. The seller sent me the wrong one by mistake, and now I got two. Custom build day 2
Ain't I lucky? The PiSugar ups board AND battery seem to have arrived with some damage :')
I'll use it on my old pi instead of a new one, and see where we go from there

Ooh, I’ve definitely wanted to make one of these! But I haven’t been able to come up with a good input method that’s still small enough to be fun.

I’d love to see what everyone here is doing!

I've wanted something like this ever since eeePCs stopped becoming what they were and turned into "Kinda small-ish full sized laptops" (and now they're just... full sized laptops, I don't know, meh)

I was looking into premade stuff for awhile. I mostly just need a device with a keyboard I can carry in a cargo pants pocket or purse and SSH into my server where all my Actual Stuff is.

So I teeter with building my own every couple months or so.

Trysdyn wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 1:18 am I've wanted something like this ever since eeePCs stopped becoming what they were and turned into "Kinda small-ish full sized laptops" (and now they're just... full sized laptops, I don't know, meh)

I was looking into premade stuff for awhile. I mostly just need a device with a keyboard I can carry in a cargo pants pocket or purse and SSH into my server where all my Actual Stuff is.

So I teeter with building my own every couple months or so.

Got any projects ongoing?
By the way, in the middle of my project, something came up that I just had to get, a "tablet" for the Raspberry 5 called "pilet". It's chunky af even compared to what I'm doing, but it does come with some amazing bells and whistles.

gardevoir wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:22 pm Ooh, I’ve definitely wanted to make one of these! But I haven’t been able to come up with a good input method that’s still small enough to be fun.

I’d love to see what everyone here is doing!

For a small keyboard, I'm sure it'll be hard to get, but the most interesting option I saw was a modified blackberry keyboard by SolderParty - it even had a working mic! They aren't being made anymore, but the project is open source. You can just commission the board to be produced, find the suitable keyboard part off of Aliexpress and have it working instantly. I'm considering using a modified version of the original, it's just not as interesting as the original tho.

Oh yeah, I have seen so many of these on YouTube. Definitely on my bucket list to make my own.

So, it's in a pretty standard form factor, of a thick & heavy tablet, but I suppose my daily driver otherwise counts as cyberdeck-ish.

This first picture shows the back, as it currently stands with its rough first design made of balsa wood & wood glue,

showing the RPi 5 w/ 16GB RAM in the center, also with an official RPi USB3 hub with case removed and coveree in kapton tape,

two AmpRipper 4000 battery managers at the sides of the Pi (one for the Pi 5 itself, one for the USB3 hub which also powers the monitor,

and two sets of four 3Ah LiPo batteries, connected in parallel (matched to the millivolt before joining each other, first two sets of one+one, then one set of two+two), for 12Ah per AmpRipper 4000. Here are two older pictures of the front, though of course it hasn't changed. I'm using a WaveShare OLED 2560x1440 13.3" monitor, which can thankfully be powered with 5V 1.5A.

I went with a tablet kind of form factor, as opposed to a laptop kind of one, so that I could set the monitor in landscape or portrait mode. A tablet-like form factor also allows me to not have to bother with laptop hinges, which I'd otherwise been trying to figure out how I could make it work, especially if I wanted to maintain the ability to rotate the monitor. The best answer for me, at current time, is just to go simple instead. Here's my Fediverse thread with more details and more photos of my progress to date.

The Pilet was mentioned above, and I'm indeed curious about how the design turns out! In particular, I want to see its schematic for getting 5V 5A from its batteries.

I've been wanting to make a cyberdeck for ages but have never really figured out what sorta form factor or aesthetic I want. I have a ClockworkPi DevTerm but its keyboard is *painfully* small and not really comfortable to actually type on... at least the built-in thermal printer is fun! I rigged it up to the Little Printer revival system so I can receive messages on it, but it's not much more than that because the drive mechanism in it is too weak to get sticker paper going through smoothly.

Not sure if it really counts but I've been working on this thing on and off for about 6 months (mostly off recently, hence the dust XD)
Maybe not a true cyberdeck because I was just planning on running W11 on it (I'm not a linux girlie) but it has some cool features planned i think! Mostly going for style over functionality, although I have plans in the works for another one after which has a ton more tech built in. Thought I'd start out simple!

Berto, un huargo wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 2:27 am ...two AmpRipper 4000 battery managers at the sides of the Pi (one for the Pi 5 itself, one for the USB3 hub which also powers the monitor,

and two sets of four 3Ah LiPo batteries, connected in parallel (matched to the millivolt before joining each other, first two sets of one+one, then one set of two+two), for 12Ah per AmpRipper 4000.
...

The Pilet was mentioned above, and I'm indeed curious about how the design turns out! In particular, I want to see its schematic for getting 5V 5A from its batteries.

Goddang, that's a lotta battery power! Super cool!
Can't wait for the proper release of the pilet, the whole package is certainly cool, but the additional parts in it will probably be great additions to future pi projects by themselves!

Sadie wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 11:20 am Not sure if it really counts but I've been working on this thing on and off for about 6 months (mostly off recently, hence the dust XD)
Maybe not a true cyberdeck because I was just planning on running W11 on it (I'm not a linux girlie) but it has some cool features planned i think! Mostly going for style over functionality, although I have plans in the works for another one after which has a ton more tech built in. Thought I'd start out simple!

Oh it sure does count if it has a custom shell and keyboard even. You'll come to the FOSS side someday, don't worry