cyberdeck

93 Articles

Cyberpack Puts All The Radios Right On Your Back

September 25, 2024 by 28 Comments

A disclaimer: Not a single cable tie was harmed in the making of this backpack cyberdeck, and considering that we lost count of the number of USB cables [Bag-Builds] used to connect everything in it, that’s a minor miracle.

The onboard hardware is substantial, starting with a Lattepanda Sigma SBC, a small WiFi travel router, a Samsung SSD, a pair of seven-port USB hubs, and a quartet of Anker USB battery banks. The software defined radio (SDR) gear includes a HackRF One, an Airspy Mini, a USRP B205mini, and a Nooelec NESDR with an active antenna. There are also three USB WiFi adapters, an AX210 WiFi/Bluetooth combo adapter, a uBlox GPS receiver, and a GPS-disciplined oscillator, both with QFH antennas. There’s also a CatSniffer multi-protocol IoT dongle and a Flipper Zero for good measure, and probably a bunch of other stuff we missed. Phew!

As for mounting all this stuff, [Bag-Builds] went the distance with a nicely designed internal frame system. Much of it is 3D printed, but the basic frame and a few rails are made from aluminum. The real hack here, though, is getting the proper USB cables for each connection. The cable lengths are just right so that nothing needs to get bundled up and cable-tied. The correct selection of adapters is a thing of beauty, too, with very little interference between the cables despite some pretty tightly packed gear.

What exactly you’d do with this cyberpack, other than stay the hell away from airports, police stations, and government buildings, isn’t exactly clear. But it sure seems like you’ve got plenty of options. And yes, we’re aware that this is a commercial product for which no build files are provided, but if you’re sufficiently inspired, we’re sure you could roll your own.

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VR Headset With HDMI Input Invites A New Kind Of Cyberdeck

September 1, 2024 by 30 Comments

Meta’s Quest VR headset recently got the ability to accept and display video over USB-C, and it’s started some gears turning in folks’ heads. [Ian Hamilton] put together a quick concept machine consisting of a Raspberry Pi 400 that uses a VR headset as its monitor, which sure seems like the bones of a new breed of cyberdeck.

With passthrough on, one still sees the outside world.

The computer-in-a-keyboard nature of the Pi 400 means that little more than a mouse and the VR headset are needed to get a functional computing environment. Well, that and some cables and adapters.

What’s compelling about this is that the VR headset is much more than just a glorified monitor. In the VR environment, the external video source (in this case, the Raspberry Pi) is displayed in a window just like any other application. Pass-through can also be turned on, so that the headset’s external cameras display one’s surroundings as background. This means there’s no loss of environmental awareness while using the rig.

[Note: the following has been updated for clarity and after some hands-on testing] Video over USB-C is technically DisplayPort altmode, and both the video source and the USB-C cable have to support it. In [Ian]’s case, the Raspberry Pi 400 outputs HDMI and he uses a Shadowcast 2 capture card to accept HDMI on one end and outputs video over USB-C on the other.

Here’s how it works: the Quest has a single USB-C port on the side, and an app (somewhat oddly named “Meta Quest HDMI link”) running on the headset takes care of accepting video over USB and displaying it in a window within the headset. The video signal expected is UVC (or USB Video Class), which is what most USB webcams and other video devices output. (There’s another way to do video over USB-C which is technically DisplayPort altmode, and both the video source and the USB-C cable have to support it. That is not what’s being used here; the Quest does not support this format. Neither is it accepting HDMI directly.) In [Ian]’s case, the Raspberry Pi 400 outputs HDMI and he uses a Shadowcast 2 capture card to accept HDMI on one end and output UVC video on the other, which is then fed into the Quest over a USB-C cable.

As a concept it’s an interesting one for sure. Perhaps we’ll see decks of this nature in our next cyberdeck contest?

Kali Cyberdeck Looks The Business

August 7, 2024 by 17 Comments

Even though we somewhat uncharacteristically don’t have a cyberdeck contest currently underway, there’s never a bad time to get your [Gibson] on. That’s especially true when fate hands you an enclosure as perfect as the one that inspired this very compact Kali Linux cyberdeck.

Now, that’s not to say that we don’t love larger cyberdecks, of course. The ones built into Pelican-style shipping containers are particularly attractive, and it’s hard to argue against their practicality. But when [Hans Jørgen Grimstad], who somehow just sounds like a person who should be building cyberdecks, found a new-old-stock stash of US Army Signal Corps spare parts kits from the 1950s, designation CY-684/GR, he just had to spring into action. After carefully gutting the metal case of the dividers that once protected tubes and other parts, he had some PCB panels made up for the top and bottom. The bottom had enough room for a compact USB keypad, with room left over on the panel for a cooling fan and various connectors. A 7″ HDMI display was added to the panel on the top lid, while a Raspberry Pi 5 with a 500-GB NVMe SSD went below the lower panel. The insides are properly decorated with cyberpunk-esque regalia including a “Self Destruct” button. Sadly, this appears to be unimplemented in the current version, at least for the stated purpose; there’s always hope for version two.

While we love the look and feel of this build and the subtle nods to the cyberpunk aesthetic, it sure seems like you could get some serious work done with a deck like this. Hats off to [Hans] for the build, and here’s hoping he left some of those cool cases for the rest of us.

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Linux Handheld Packs Dual Batteries So It’s Never Out Of Juice

August 3, 2024 by 23 Comments

There was a time — not so long ago — when a handheld terminal would have been an expensive and exotic piece of kit. Now, all it takes is a Raspberry Pi and an off-the-shelf TFT display, as [ZitaoTech] shows us.

The resemblance to a Blackberry isn’t a coincidence

Admittedly, we are now seeing these all over the place, but this build looks well thought out. It looks suspiciously like a Blackberry, which isn’t a bad thing. It also has an interesting dual-battery system that lets you swap between two identical Nokia BL-5C batteries without missing a beat.

The device looks like a Blackberry because it uses the Q10 or Q20 Blackberry keyboard. There is a pass-through switch that lets you use the keyboard and pointer as a USB device on a different host computer.

Rounding out the design are three USB ports, an I2C port, and a TF card slot. Size-wise, the device is about 140 mm tall and 82 mm wide. The thickness is less than 16 mm. Even with the batteries, it weighs a lot less than 200 grams.

In the “Something-you-can-try” directory, there are images for Windows 3.1, mini VMAC, and — of course — DOOM. As you might expect, most of the project is 3D printing the intricate case.

We’ve seen similar projects, including one that has a case inspired by the ZX Spectrum. Then there is Beepy.

A black and brown planner opened like a laptop. Inside is a greyscale eink phone inside a brown piece of MDF on top, and a black keyboard fills the bottom half.

Foliodeck Squeezes A Writerdeck Into A Planner

July 29, 2024 by 2 Comments

When it comes to writing, sometimes a computer or smartphone is just too distracting to keep on task. [vagabondvivant] found this to be the case and rolled their own distraction-free writing tool, the Foliodeck.

With the increasing availability of parts for cyberdecks, it’s not too surprising to see we’re seeing the emergence of the writerdeck. Typically designed to be a no frills word processing device, they are designed to help their creators focus on writing and not be subject to the myriad notifications present trying to work with a more general computing device or smartphone.

In this case, [vagabondvivant] took a classy looking planner folio and removed its paper management components to leave a fabric and leather shell. The heart of the assembly is a HiSense A5 eink smartphone magnetically attached to a piece of MDF cut to mate the phone to the planner shell. A 10 Ah powerbank slots into the MDF below the keyboard which is also magnetically attached, and the whole thing zips up nicely. Future improvements are planned like a hinge, so it doesn’t have to be propped against something and a custom-built mechanical keyboard.

This isn’t the first writerdeck we’ve seen, and we’ve seen some other writer-focused decks and typewriter replacements.

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Retro Inspired Cyberdeck Scrolls Around Cyberspace

July 25, 2024 by 24 Comments

It’s difficult to nail down exactly what counts as a “real” cyberdeck in this brave new era of bespoke computing. But at the minimum, most in the community would agree that a proper deck should have a non-traditional form factor, and be designed to meet the unique needs of the builder. If you’re looking for a fantastic example of both concepts, check out the Cyberdore 2064 from [Tommi L].

At first glance the 3D printed enclosure of the Cyberdore looks a bit like a Speak & Spell, but it’s really more of an amalgamation of everything that made 1980s computers so unique. You’ve got the vents, the chunky switches, the undersized display, and of course, the handle. The case might have been extruded in 2024, but it’s doing a fantastic impression of a piece of tech from 40 years ago.

One of the key external features of the Cyberdore 2064 is the side-mounted rotary encoder that allows for smoothly scrolling through online feeds (such as your favorite hardware hacking site) or long documents. The cheap and easy to work with KY-040 encoder has been converted to a USB input device by way of a Pi Pico, and has been paired with an over-sized 3D printed knob that really makes this build stand out — not only visually, but in terms of usability. These cyberdeck builds often rely on touch screens for input, but we always appreciate a physical interface.

Under the hood you’ve got a Raspberry Pi Zero and an 18650 cell to keep the whole thing running while on the go. Though the Zero is certainly showing its age compared to the more modern variants of the Pi, for a device like this, raw computing power isn’t really the driving concern. A mechanical keyboard usually rounds out these cyberdeck builds, but in this case, [Tommi] went with a fairly common Rii 518BT portable board that’s been skillfully integrated into the front of the Cyberdore.

All of the STL files necessary to print out your own Cyberdore 2064 are available on Printables, and while [Tommi] didn’t exactly provide build instructions, the write-up provides plenty of information to get you started.

So is it just us, or does looking at Cyberdore 2064 make you think it’s time for another Hackaday Cyberdeck Challenge?

A cyberdeck/portable PC sits on a deck rail in the sun.

T3rminal Cyberdeck Has Looks To Die For

May 1, 2024 by 7 Comments

One of the greatest things about the hacker ecosystem is that whole standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants thing. Somebody makes something and shares it, and then someone else takes that thing and remixes it, sometimes making it objectively better. For their T3rminal cyberdeck, [calebholloway08] was inspired by a number of projects and came up with something that looks simply fantastic.

Whether you want to call this beauty a cyberdeck or a mobile PC, the guts are what you might expect — a Raspberry Pi 4, an affordable mini keyboard, and a touch screen. But this one took some doing, as in [calebholloway08] had to do a little bit of surgery on the Pi 4, the PiSugar S plus power supply platform, and the display. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from standing on the shoulders of giants, as [calebholloway08] provides (or guides you towards) clear instructions for all three mods.

One thing [calebhollway08] would have done differently was to use something other than a 18650 battery for power, like a 21700. The question is, what will you do differently?

Maybe this is a little too small for you. If so, check out this EMP-protected cyberdeck.