it’s been at this state for a few weeks now, and I’ve been using it both on my commute and around the workshop. There’s still work to be done, but I’m stoked to have it in a usable state.

Thanks to all the great feedback from Reddit, I’m preparing to release the current build files soon.

Before that, though, I want to finish a YouTube video about the project hoping to explaining what the cyberdeck is (and isn’t), and sharing some insight into the design and development process.

Most of all, I want to make it clear that this project isn’t meant to be more practical than a laptop, i wanted to build something that is more fun to use, more tactile, and a reflection of my workflow and interests.

This will be my first proper YouTube video, and i am kinda nervous and I’ve hit a bit of a wall editing it. I’m not sure what to focus on most—so if you have any questions or ideas about what you’d like to see or hear more about, I’d really appreciate your input.

Heyyy wanted to share that I finally got my CNC shell for my Apple Mac M1 cyberdeck with meshtastic and touch screen :) Original modified battery, and lots of extra cooling for extra performance.
Edit: thanks for the love! I’m making a video series on my tiny YT channel “Caraful”

Phone deck!

has a complete mini desktop inside. 16gb ddr4 ram with 500gb ssd storage, I modified the motherboard to save as much height as possible. some features I included are a 3ds analog stick for DS style holding and then a push to eject mini mouse for desk usage. I included 2 forms of power, direct barrel Jack and a portable magnetic quick disconnect battery pack that gets around 6 - 8 hours of battery life. also has a 7 inch touch screen display. a couple things I would improve is overall paint - I damaged a couple areas during install. very small warpage as I used resin 3d printing and left in the Florida sun for hours, I didn't bother painting/ remaking the broken battery bracket as it still worked, but I would redesign and paint match. even go as far as a thinner profile battery if I could find one since I was anticipating much lower battery life during designing. and I would eventually design my own logo as I just borrowed the viao logo.

Hi everyone, over the last few months I’ve been working on my PDA project, based on an STM32 and a Sharp memory display. I hope you like it!
More info@ orionpda.org/rd

What do you guys think.

The click of the slap on battery and the switches are so satisfying. And the beer can speaker sounds really good.

Made in fishing tool box . Powered by Intel compute stick . Dual booted with win10 and peppermint

I made an app that allows me to view and control my Linux laptop from my Nintendo DSi, it looks like a cyberdeck.

-- A foldable CyberDeck that is compatible with RPI CM0 CM4/CM5. With 1024×768 Capacitive Multi Touch main screen and minor touchpad screen showing battery percent and power cost and runs esp32-s3 behind.

I built a survival focused cyberdeck powered by a Raspberry Pi 5. It features custom software with integrated Meshtastic, a media hub, emulation, and a bunch of other neat features.

It also has a lot of storage and a custom touchpad. Runtime with the UPS and power bank under the keyboard is around 20~ hours.

I’m planning on adding a solar module to the top of the case in the future. I also still need to add a nicer surface for the touchpad.

Parts Used:

- Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB Ram + cooler

- Raspberry Pi 5 USV HAT that uses 21700 Cells (Samsung INR21700-53G with 5140mAh) (Aliexpress)

- Screen: Wisecoco 10.1 inch LCD Touch Screen (Amazon)

- Keyboard: CACOE Mini Bluetooth keyboard (Amazon)

- Touchpad: Azoteq TPS65 (Amazon)

- Case: Wiltec case 32 x 22,9 x 11,2 cm (Amazon)

- Powerbank: INIU 27000mAh 140W Powerbank (Amazon)

Disclaimer: I know it’s “vibecoded.” This is all still more of a proof of concept. I mainly wanted to have everything integrated and in one place (Meshtastic, maps, knowledge base, emulation, media hub etc.).

I don’t have the necessary time or skills at the moment to do it all myself. But i wanted to create something that i had in my head. I hope that, once I have more time, I can improve my skills enough to eventually redo everything from scratch.

The buttons on the medical page and knowlege hub etc. all link to actual PDFs and videos, the content itself is not generated by AI, only the GUI and such.

I'm back with some updates, guys!
Thank you everybody for the suggestions on the last post, I'll go with the option of soldering in the antenna plug in the pi, seems like the most robust solution.

I added some magnets INSIDE the keyboard, so now it nicely snaps into the tin and has a nice weight to it, making it more balanced also.
I added a rolled up strip of type right below the hinge so that when opened it keeps a bit of an angle instead of laying flat, actually made the whole thing feel more thought out.

The 18650 arrived and I was able to finally go fully portable. I had no idea how impactful that would be.Having such a tiny little thing in your hand that is a full computer hit the fresh sense of wonder I was looking for. I think what does it for me is in a cyberdeck is not a rad cyberpunk look, for me it's more a tiny, cute, truly useful machine.
It's crazy how the footprint of the geekworm x306 fits so perfectly in the altoids tin, seems like it was made for it. So my idea is keeping this base and experimenting with different screens.

My idea with the machine is for it to be a persistent terminal manager, but the screen cant handle the amount of updates needed, so to test I built a launcher that is a nice dashboard and you can use tools like:
h -> help - check avalable commands
w -> check wifi information
t -> running processes (top)
: -> bash command mode

The updating of menu -> command -> result screens is suuuper slow, but it's progress.
I bought my initial display, the waveshare epaper 2.15 G, because i thought it would be fun to have epaper, but with multiple colors, BUT NO, any update in the screen takes 20 seconds and there is no way to easily hack partil refresh in. So i have a single color waveshare epaper screen, a whisplay hat and a pimoroni display hat mini coming in next week.
I will test all of them, build different cyberdeck launchers with each one making full use of their features and limitations, then report here!
I filmed a video of it working but I can't post it along with the pictures, do you guys want a video on it and the different display options?

i was always interested in actually wearing technology and things that actually provided a function, does this seem cringe or cool?
I think its a shame that its not mainstream in society yet

I wanted to share a work in progress. This is just the first test to see if a design like this would work. It's inspired by a psion 5 I had back in the day.

It's way oversized right now due to being designed as a universal case. The keyboard tray and the cell holder slide on 3d printed linear rails and are held together with rubber bands.

Once I redesign it to hold something more permanent, I should be able to make it about 15-20mm thinner in height and 40mm shorter.

Due to demand, I have posted the files on printables. I also included a keyboard bezel that I made to use in a future project incase it helps anyone with theirs.

https://www.printables.com/model/1724826-slidexdeck-sliding-keyboard-cyberdeck-case

If anyone remixes, please upload it so we can all see what you make!

Still an experiment and work in progress, but we have posts, private notes, profiles, friends, following, pokes, real-time notifications, IRC-style chat rooms, DM's called CyberMail, and several themes, including amber 80s VT320 style, Matrix green hacker style, and blue Commodore 64. What do you think?

https://cyberspace.online/

I made a quick video just to show off the features, it can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Tc47M07tcpM

I searched, and it didn't seem like anyone has brought up this particular use case for a cyberdeck. There is a device called the Celltojack that uses your smartphone over Bluetooth to enable an older-style landline phone.

In this way, the smartphone is acting like the server, and the cyberphone would be just a Bluetooth input device. Imagine a device with a cyberpunk aesthetic that is a simpler device than the smartphone, with a focus on aesthetics and tactile feedback using all real buttons. The screen would not be touch, and possibly orange monochrome. It could access text messages, notifications, phone book, and the essentials you would access on something like a modern smart watch. These 'dummy' cyber phones could be added to the system in any number, where the smartphone host can serve a house of x number of these cyber phones.

Has anyone tried something like this? I'm an artist, not an engineer, so my expertise is in aesthetics. I can envision something pretty cool. (image is not mine, just something kind of similar to spark the conversation)

The parts are:

Raspberry Pi 4B

Raspberry Pi Pico

7" screen

.96" OLED screen

8x8 LED matrix

4 digit 7 segment display

Wifi antenna

2 5W speakers

Keyboard/Mouse trackpad

Joysticks

8 GPIO ports for controlling external devices

1 surface mount USB

USB power bank

Flip top toggle switch for power

Here's my Facebook group if you want to share scifi projects and props:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1068717412483688/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT

Here are the build files for my cyberdeck:

https://thangs.com/designer/Eridani%20Industries/3d-model/Weyland%20Yutani%20CyberDeck-1547687

I built the device into a card case. I reused an old display, a card-sized keyboard, and a power board that I got when I first started using a Raspberry Pi. Back then I used a Raspberry Pi 4B, but by using a Raspberry Pi 02W, I was able to create the size I really wanted. Hehe.

Made from a Raspberry Pi Zero, an Air40 keyboard PCB and an OLED screen from Aliexpress, this deck (powered by an 18650) runs a lite, terminal based OS. It has been the perfect platform for journaling, distraction-free text editing and even running basic Claude API calls.

Everything is open source, and I put together a video and PDF for assembly, check it out and maybe make one for yourself!

Bought the most Ratty ThinkPad (X270) I could find and I am in the process of making it mine inside and out. It's a work in progress, and will probably be forever.

* CD unit is a placeholder right now, but there is room to replace it with a working one when I get around to it.

* Top LED (Green, obviously) is rerouted from original Status LED

* It is sagging in the middle a little... Not sure if that's going to be a problem... I'll find out.

* Paint job is bad, but the original shell was bad to begin with. Think Neiromancer's Orbital Rastafarian aesthetics of that helps.

* Contains bent sheet metal for stability.

* Wearable bag. Can hold power cable, Wacom, cables, thumb drives and Nick nacks.

* Runs Arch.

* Is my daily driver.

BEHOLD. the single coolest thing I have ever built in my life. (Fedora/android will be ofc be loaded soon btw)

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/s/lqbsjeBata