The ESP32 family are the microcontrollers which just keep on giving, as new versions keep them up-to-date and plenty of hackers come up with new things for them. A popular device is a general purpose computer with a QWERTY keypad, and the latest of many we’ve seen comes from [StabbyJack]. It’s a credit card sized machine whose special trick is that its keyboard is integrated in the 3D printing of its case. We’ve seen rubber membranes and push in keys, but this one has flexible print-in-place keys that line up on the switches on its PCB.
It’s not complete yet but the hardware appears to be pretty much there, and aside from that keyboard it has an ESP32-S3 and a 1.9″ SPI LCD. When finished it aims for an ambitious specification, with thermal camera and time-of-flight range finder hardware, along with an OS and software to suit. We like it a lot, though we suspect it might be a little small for our fingers.
If you like this project you may appreciate another similar one, and perhaps your version will need an OS.
Just like a cardputer, but for some reason, hackaday seems to dont know about that device
https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-cardputer-kit-w-m5stamps3 for those interested
Missed the “and the latest of many we’ve seen comes from” line in the article? As they say what sets this one apart is the way the keyboard is made.
That’s really cool! 😎
Back in the 90s I had a calculator collection and
always wondered when we would get BASIC computers
in the size of those flat, telephone card sized solar calculators.
Sure, there were those pocket computers made by Sharp, such as PC-1500.
But they weren’t ~1mm flat like those solar calculators were from the 1970s onwards (CASIO SL-750 etc).
These pocket computers all were thicker than a CR2032 coin cell!
Dang I would love to have something like this. Especially if the screen was wider. Excited to see how they handled the keyboard
Nice little device
Just like a M5 S3 Stamp Cardputer
For people bringing up the Cardputer, it is of limited interest for me as basically all the GPIO are used.
Had they left some open I would be all over it
One of the better ones of these I’ve seen.
Wow I can’t believe you guys have an article on my little project here, thank you so much!
If you guys have any features, suggestions or notice any glaring mistakes please pop it in a comment on the hackaaday.io page, I’ll do my best to take it on the chin. I’m still learning!