A Linux handheld computer is, in theory, easy and inexpensive given the availability of single-board computers, but in practice the budget invariably edges well into three figures. There’s an interesting alternative from [bkovac] that won’t break the bank as much, using a cheap 4G wireless hotspot, an iPhone USB keyboard case accessory, and, though a cheaper display could suffice, a fancy Adafruit Sharp memory display.
The hotspot is available from AliExpress for around 20 dollars/Euros/pounds, and it’s referred to by its model number, MF800. It’s powered by a Qualcomm MSM8916, also known as the Snapdragon 410, which you might have found in a budget cellphone early in the last decade. Importantly, though, it’s supported by mainstream Linux, and while it’s by no means the fastest on the block, it can be a poor man’s alternative to a Raspberry Pi. It comes with a small SPI display, but this project replaces it with a much bigger Sharp SPI memory display.
The build walks through a few case mods and a PCB mod on the modem, getting the keyboard to fit, and making a custom power board. Perhaps the software setup is the most interesting part, because this isn’t a simple case of installing a distro. Instead, there’s quite a bit of hackery to get the display working.
We really like this project because while a Linux handheld is nothing new, it’s making one using an unexpected starting point. It reminds us of the old days of running Linux on an old router.
hey hey – an sbc with reasonable mobile performance?! too bad you have to buy it off-label, huh?
The AliExpress search is a major PITA, apparently they learned from Amazon or so, so a picture of the front of the original device would have been helpful to quickly identify it in the mess of other stuff i am not interested in. But the blogpost only has images of the back of the device.
Well… I guess you can always email the guy (address at the end of the website).
Hi, author here. I didn’t notice I hadn’t put a picture of the original device there. I will have to look into my camera roll. For now, I have found a picture of that same one but on the openwrt forums so I have linked that below. I also have a similar one which doesn’t have a display, though I didn’t try linux on that one yet. It is always a bit of trial and error with these though, and It’s possible that despite looking okay on the listing it ends up being a different product when you actually get it.
https://forum.openwrt.org/uploads/default/original/3X/9/6/966675f9866f335da636ac3e9dc5097dd3c31a5f.jpeg
They did pick up Amazon’s habit of removing half the results and scrambling the remainder, if you’re audacious enough to try to sort by price. I’ve found the best search method is to filter for “Free shipping” on Amazon items, or more expensive AliExpress items, or “Choice” on inexpensive AliExpress items, then not changing the sort but looking for the lowest priced item in the first page of results, then filtering for prices up to that price, looking again for something cheaper, then repeating until there’s only one page of results.
That one gives you filtering: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/551244-aliexpress-advanced-search-ui
Nice!