Hand-rolling a palm-sized Linux computer with just a few parts from a Raspberry Pi?
You read that right, someone has done it.
A 36-key touch keyboard, a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, a Linux system, all the features and a one-handed grip.
Up to 4 hours of battery life, external monitor and input devices.
The project has now received over 300 stars on GitHub.
A DIY Pocket PC for coding anywhere, anytime
When it comes to why he built a Pocket PC, he reveals that…
At first, he just wanted to replace his Orange Pi-based homemade computer, and when the epidemic first broke out, he had a stock of Raspberry Pi RPI4s, so it seemed logical to make a PI computer a small terminal with an external screen and keyboard on weekdays.
But he wasn’t satisfied and wanted to redesign the keyboard layout and screen size to improve convenience – and for the purpose of doing so, he said he wanted to make it more user-friendly.
As for the purpose of this, he said he wanted to be able to grab his computer and do some coding at his friends’ houses and studios whenever and wherever he wanted.
And so, he got started.
Hand-rolled from scratch
To solve the problem of ‘coding anywhere’, the keyboard had to be designed properly.
But, having fiddled with keyboards many times before, and even designed several of his own, he chose a keyboard called Plaid, which he was involved in.
This keyboard has 4 rows and up to 12 columns, with a through-hole shell covering the keys, which are arranged in the same way as an everyday computer keyboard.
Interestingly, the whole keyboard is separated by an AtMega328, allowing the left and right hands to have a part in each.
(The AtMega328 is an 8-bit compact instruction-based microcontroller with flash memory that can write and read simultaneously.)
As a result of his previous brilliant projects, a Chinese company, PCBWay, sponsored him with a free keyboard case, and he even gave him a ‘positive review’ in his blurb (manual dog head).
You may be wondering what exactly is this ‘brilliant project’. Don’t worry, there’s more on that at the end of this article.
Next is the OS part.
This Pocket PC uses Raspberry Pi OS, a derivative of the Debian Universal Operating System.
The window manager was chosen to be i3, which is lighter for a terminal with limited running resources and friendly to all kinds of keyboards.
But the i3 window manager often requires multiple key combinations to operate, which becomes cumbersome on a two-handed typing handheld.
The creator has added arrow keys down the middle of the keyboard, which is used to adjust the window and switch back to the desktop by keying up, down, left, right and down. As for changing the default window, the four keys h, j, k and l are used for pointing operations.
For peripheral connectivity. The handheld offers an HDMI port, a USB port, an audio output port and a charging port for the PiSugar battery – to make it a little thinner.
To make the device a little thinner, the Ethernet jack and a bunch of USB external ports have been removed.
Finally, the guy provides a partial list of accessories:
Raspberry Pi 3/4
Waveshare 4.3″ DSI display
Pi Sugar 2 Plus battery
SD card
Keyboard circuit PCB 1.6mm
Keyboard enclosure PCB 1mm
Five-way switch with rubber cap
6 x 6mm x 7mm PCB Momentary switch…..
△ And a supervisor cat
More of the author’s DIY work
It’s worth noting that the guy who built the Pocket PC is a DIYer, and has many more projects on GitHub, which have helped him get a lot of attention and sponsorship.
For example, a GBA-sized mini-computer that has received more than 700 Stars.
He hand-rolled a Linux handheld computer from a Raspberry Pi so that he could code anywhere, anytime.
He also uses a billiard ball instead of a regular mouse to control the cursor in the computer by ‘scrolling in place’.
To learn more about the author and his project here is the original link: https://github.com/ brickbots / HandiPi
One final question for you all – what would you expect to do with a handheld computer?
Would you expect to be able to grab a computer and code anywhere, anytime?
