cyberdeck

106 Articles

Building A Clamshell Writer Deck

October 31, 2025 by 10 Comments

Most of us do our writing on computers these days, but the modern computing environment does present a lot of distractions. That’s let to the concept of the writer deck, a simplified device intended more specifically for word processing tasks. [Ashtf] has built a great example of the form with a modified version of the PocketMage device.

The PocketMage is a clamshell PDA device that [Ashtf] has been working on for some time. It’s powered by an ESP32, hooked up to a nice e-ink display. In its basic form, it’s not the ideal device for doing serious writing work, mostly because of its tiny keyboard. However, [Ashtf] has since added external keyboard support, which completely changes the game. With the use of a small USB C to USB A adapter, you can hook up any conventional USB keyboard that you like to best attain your maximum typing speed.

The result is a compact, simple device that lets you type away without distractions. If your latest fanfic isn’t coming along quickly enough because you keep losing focus to social media, perhaps this is a route you might like to go. [Ashtf] also included Markdown support so you can create richer documents on the device while operating in what is still fundamentally a text-only environment.

It’s neat to build custom devices that suit your own personal productivity needs. If you dig the PocketMage, you might like to check out the design files on Github. We’ve featured some other fun writer decks before, too. Video after the break.

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Handheld PC Build Is Pleasantly Chunky

October 22, 2025 by 20 Comments

The cool thing about building your own computer is that you don’t have to adhere to industry norms of form and function. You can build whatever chunky, awesome thing your heart desires, and that’s precisely what [Rahmanshaber] did with the MutantC cyberdeck.

The build is based around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. If you’re unfamiliar with the Compute Module, it’s basically a Raspberry Pi that has been designed specifically for easy integration into a larger carrier PCB. In this case, the carrier PCB interfaces all the other necessary gear to make this a fully functional computer. The PCB is installed inside a vaguely-rectangular 3D-printed enclosure, with a 5-inch TFT LCD on a sliding mount. Push the screen up, and it reveals a small-format keyboard for text entry. There’s also a hall-effect joystick and a couple of buttons for mouse control to boot. [Rahmanshaber] has designed the computer to run off a couple of different battery packs—you can use a pair of 18650 cells if you like, or switch to lager 21700 cells if you want greater capacity for longer running time.

If you want a portable Raspberry Pi cyberdeck, you might find this to be a great inspiration. We’ve featured many other designs in this vein before, too. Video after the break.

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Mini Laptop Needs Custom Kernel

September 29, 2025 by 12 Comments

These days, you rarely have to build your own Linux kernel. You just take what your distribution ships, and it usually works just fine. However, [Andrei] became enamored with a friend’s cyberdeck and decided that he’d prefer to travel with a very small laptop. The problem is, it didn’t work well with a stock kernel. So, time to build the kernel again.

Of course, he tried to simply install Linux. The installer showed a blank screen. You might guess that you need to add ‘nomodeset’ to the kernel options. But the screen was still a bit wacky. [Andrei] likens troubleshooting problems like this to peeling an onion. There are many layers to peel back, and you are probably going to shed some tears.

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A Dual-Screen Cyberdeck To Rule Them All

July 30, 2025 by 13 Comments

We like cyberdecks here at Hackaday, and in our time we’ve brought you some pretty amazing builds. But perhaps now we’ve seen the ultimate of the genre, a cyberdeck so perfect in its execution that this will be the machine of choice in the dystopian future, leaving all the others as mere contenders. It comes courtesy of [Sector 07], and it’s a machine to be proud of.

As with many cyberdecks, it uses the Raspberry Pi as its powerhouse. There are a couple of nice touchscreens and a decent keyboard, plus the usual ports and some nice programmable controls. These are none of them out of the ordinary for a cyberdeck, but what really shines with this one is the attention to detail in the mechanical design. Those touchscreens rotate on ball bearings, the hinges are just right, the connections to the Pi have quick release mechanisms, and custom PCBs and ribbon cables make distributing those GPIOs a snap.

On top of all that the aesthetics are on point; this is the machine you want to take into the abandoned mining base with you. Best of all it’s all available from the linked GitHub repository, and you can marvel as we did at the video below the break.

If you hunger for more cyberdecks, this one has some very stiff competition.

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A hand with dark skin holds a black device. The bottom is a small keyboard and touchpad. The upper half is split with a square LCD on the left and a square, pink notepad on the right. A sketch of a woman wearing a puffy jacket is on the notepad and an illustration of a woman looking through an old timey film video camera is on the screen on the left.

KeyMo Brings A Pencil To The Cyberdeck Fight

July 24, 2025 by 2 Comments

Computers and cellphones can do so many things, but sometimes if you want to doodle or take a note, pencil and paper is the superior technology. You could carry a device and a pocket notebook, or you could combine the best of analog and digital with the KeyMo.

[NuMellow] wanted a touchpad in addition to a keyboard for his portable terminal since he felt Raspbian wouldn’t be so awesome on a tiny touchscreen. With a wider device than something like Beepy, and a small 4″ LCD already on hand, he realized he had some space to put something else up top. Et voila, a cyberdeck with a small notebook for handwritten/hand drawn information.

The device lives in a 3D printed case, which made some iterations on the keyboard placement simpler, and [NuMellow] even provided us with actual run time estimates in the write-up, which is something we often are left wondering about in cyberdeck builds. If you’re curious, he got up to 7.5 hours on YouTube videos with the brightness down or 3.5 hours with it at maximum. The exposed screen and top-heaviness of the device are areas he’s pinpointed as the primary cons of the system currently. We hope to see an updated version in the future that addresses these.

If you’d like to check out some other rad cyberdecks, how about a schmancy handheld, one driven by punch cards in a child’s toy, or this one with a handle and a giant scroll wheel?

Punch Card Controlled Cyberdeck Lives In 80s Toy

July 19, 2025 by 11 Comments

Have you ever seen a toy and said “That wants to be a deck”? [Attoparsec] did, when his eyes fell upon the Little Talking Scholar, a punch card driven toy from the 1980s. It’s now a punch card driven cyberdeck.

The punch card interface on the toy is only six bits, but sixty-four application cards are probably more than parents would have wanted to keep track of in 1989. Originally, they cued up simple matching games on an anonymous epoxy-coated microprocessor; after [Attoparsec]’s surgery, they do the same thing, cuing up custom Python applications on the Raspberry Pi Zero he’s implanted into this thing.

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Bento Is An All-In-One Computer Designed To Be Useful

June 20, 2025 by 23 Comments

All-in-one computers in which the mainboard lurked beneath a keyboard were once the default in home computing, but more recently they have been relegated to interesting niche devices such as the Raspberry Pi 400 and 500.

The Bento is another take on the idea, coming at it not with the aim of replacing a desktop machine, instead as a computer for use with wearable display glasses. The thinking goes that when your display is head mounted, why carry around a screen with your laptop.

On top it’s a keyboard, but underneath it’s a compartmentalized space similar to the Japanese lunchboxes which lend the project its name. The computing power comes courtesy of a Steam Deck so it has a USB-C-for-everything approach to plugging in a desktop, though there’s a stated goal to produce versions for other boards such as the Raspberry Pi. There’s even an empty compartment for storage of peripherals.

We like this computer, both for being a cyberdeck and for being without a screen so not quite like the other cyberdecks. It’s polished enough that we could almost imagine it as a commercial product. It’s certainly not the first Steam Deck based cyberdeck we’ve seen.