We feature a lot of DIY portable computers — rehash the “is that a cyberdeck” in the comments to your heart’s content — but how many of them are explicitly girly? Certainly, none of the ones that come to mind oozed the distilled femme energy of [cc] AKA [bossbratox]’s project, playfully titled “Mermaid in the Shell”.
The build started with a frame clutch purse, which, given that it comes with nice hinges and latches, is really a brilliant starting point for a project case. The fact that you can find them shaped like pink seashells really seals the deal for this particular project. A ZitaoTech BB Q10 keyboard — in white, naturally — pairs with a 3.5″ touchscreen as the interface for a Raspberry Pi 3A+. You might be thinking, “great, another toy with an old Pi inside. What can you really do with a Pi3 in 2026?” Well, admittedly, for full-fat desktop Linux, the 3A+ is looking a bit long in the tooth and short in the RAM.
If you are willing to work within its constraints and not run a full Linux desktop, though, 512 MB is plenty of RAM to work with. [cc] has set up a custom terminal user interface (TUI) to give her everything she needs — wifi, bluetooth, a full terminal, a remote serial monitor, a local LLM chatbot, a PDF reader, a text editor, and, of course, a mermaid digital pet. That last one is user-skinnable, though, so if you want a terminal tamagotchi of your own, you can grab the code off GitHub and swap the spites for whatever you want.
Thanks to [cc] for the tip. Whether your next build is dripping the femme-ergy and kawaii as heck, or just utilitarian tacticool, please let us know in the tips line.
Remember, too, that an aesthetic doesn’t need to be skin-deep. We have some tips for good-looking PCBs here that are relevant because they now come in pink — as we saw with this wearable circuit sculpture.
Can we have more details about how bossbratox has managed to run a local AI on a Pi 3? The Github doesn’t reveal much about how, though the python file for the AI chat appears to contain http/https functionality for the purpose of accessing a remote resource. If you can get an AI chatbot on to a Pi 3 you can probably get it on to any other local hardware too, would be very interested to know how. Thanks
hi! bossbrat here. I actually run local AI on my homelab and have Tailscale set up so my cyberdeck can communicate with it. the local AI doesn’t live on the cyberdeck, the cyberdeck merely has access to a chat portal that communicates with my llama.cpp instance that runs whatever models I want.
I feel NOLFed
For some reason I can only imagine some lady walking out of server room. Getting searched in her way out, no one opens the clam. Then a team of IT guys scratching their heads not knowing they got owned by a computational Polly pocket purse.
This one is definitely a cyberdeck
Phrasing.
I hope the terminal can run Perl.
No doubt in a shell.
This is the way.
I embrace the idea of tech being woven into personal fashion, rather than tech itself being the fashion.
Really cool!
A round or oval display would fit the case even better!
great suggestion. gonna weave that into my second cyberdeck build
I’m man enough to pull it off.
Secret Agent Barbie! (36-24-36)
Scaramanga stole her Golden Gun, you know.
the funniest part of this being those are the maker’s actual measurements
Having a personal (should be a voice) assistant in a purse reminds me of an old flick, My Stepmother is an Alien.
Crazy I was trying to find a round make up case compact mirror esp32 dual screen setup. Doesn’t seem like it exists surprisingly. Saw this and surprised how recent it was posted.