The cyberdeck trend has evolved to a relatively straightforward formula: take a desktop computer and strip it to its barest essentials of screen, PCB, and input device, before clothing it in a suitably post-apocalyptic or industrial exterior. Sometimes these can result in a stylish prop straight from a movie set, and happily for [Patrick De Angelis] his Raspberry Pi based cyberdeck (Italian, Google Translate link) fits this description, taking the well-worn path of putting a Raspberry Pi and screen into a ruggedised flight case. Its very unremarkability is the key to its success, using a carefully-selected wired keyboard and trackpad combo neatly dodges the usual slightly messy arrangements of microcontroller boards.
If this cyberdeck has a special feature it’s in the extra wireless interfaces and the stack of antennas on its right-hand side. The Pi touchscreen is a little small for the case and perhaps we’d have mounted it centrally, but otherwise this is a box we could imagine opening somewhere in the abandoned ruins of a once-proud Radio Shack store for a little post-apocalyptic Hackaday editing. After all, your favourite online tech news resource doesn’t stop because the power’s gone out!
I like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6OCizr9MwI
Those cases are handy. I am using one for a motor controller.
Take Care,
BrendaEM
I still think TSA would balk at letting it on the plane.
I used to get baggage inspection notices in my checked baggage all the time. Once, in Utah, I stripped the PCM and entire engine harness from a Toyota sc400 and stiffer the works into my checked baggage. I spent the entire time in the terminal waiting to be called, and the entire flight wondering if my bag just got lost because it looked like 17 bombs worth of wiring. At the end of the flight I got my bag and lo and behold, not even a “we checked your bag” notice.
I stil wonder to this day if some agent took one look at the X-ray and said “nope, not today!” And let it slide.
Sometimes I’m really proud to live in Russia. We don’t live in a country where simple baggage inspection at airport is armed like special forces.
Sorry comrade, even Russia has universal healthcare 😉
I hate it when people drill holes in the outer shell to mount generic antenna connectors or other simple stuff. Makes the whole water and dustproofing thing absurd.
You can still seal the hole in place with some glue/epoxy/whatever. Besides, how else are you going to put antenna connectors on there?
It’s a plastic case, the radios won’t even know it’s there.
Real antennnas are outside the box. And you know this has some kind of radio capability, you see the antennas.
How about connectors reachable when the box is open? Or sealed connectors? There are plenty of ways.
There are ways, Milspec connectors and RTV can solve a multitude of sins
I agree. Given that the case is *plastic*, which is radio transparent, I see no reason why the antennas couldn’t be mounted internally. Even if they DO need to be out, could they not be positioned so that they’d be out when the case is OPEN, yet stow inside the case when it’s closed?
I’m not just thinking about water-tightness; those external connectors look like they’re at risk of bumps and knocks as well.
And yet, I have to admit that this is better than any cyberdeck that *I’ve* ever built.
Here is a reason: it looks cool
And any real Cyberpunk will tell you that style is *mandatory*.
Next step: put power on the ring & sleeve of a 3.5mm headphone jack for power, an optic fibre down the middle for data, then route all the screen data to a pair of AR Smart Glasses. Eliminates the screen from your build, brings back the much maligned headphone jack, glasses don’t need another battery to recharge… and you can even watch your pr0n videos on a crowded airplane.
Not a bad idea. I’ve seen the sockets that support optical + TRS 3.5 mm (for TOSLINK-like audio connections that support either copper or fiber in the same connector. Also available in XLR.). I have never seen a plug that does both though. Might require some careful drilling to make one.
Putting an RPi in a plastic case is underwhelming
trouble is not ‘take anywhere’ but working long time!
month, or more?