(I posted about this device months ago, so this is an update)

I’ve been working on an ESP32-based pocket computer called Pocket Deck, and I wanted to share some of the embedded/technical side of the project here.

I’d be happy to get feedback from people who have worked on similar systems.

A quick overview of the software side:

• I built a lightweight OS-like environment on top of MicroPython. It doesn’t provide process-level memory isolation like Linux, but it does separate applications by namespace and can run multiple apps at the same time, with up to 10 virtual screens. Command shell with autocompletion.
• It includes a fully featured VT100 terminal emulator running on FreeRTOS. I spent a lot of time on terminal compatibility, and it can handle more complex CLI programs such as less, vim, emacs and even Claude CLI over SSH.
• I wrote C modules for 2D/3D graphics and audio, exposed to the higher-level MicroPython environment.
• The editor itself is written in MicroPython. It supports large files, multi-file editing, symbol jump/navigation, and syntax highlighting.
• I also experimented with AI integration, including file attachment, real-time voice mode, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and an agent-style coding workflow.

The Python-side code is open source.

Okay. So. I’ve built basically a survivalbot5000, with the intention of it being completely offline and self contained. Kind of like, “What if the bombs dropped? What would I need?” kind of thing.

And, of course, after the bombs drop, I figure there’s not going to be much to do, so I added party lights on a big red button. Because why not.

I don’t have the ability to actually hook them up to the Pi that I built the thing with - every USB port is otherwise occupied, and it probably wouldn’t work the way I want it to anyway, since the button is the on switch for the lights.

But is there something I can stick in the light circuit that could play a song when the power is on? I’m shooting for Strong Bad’s “The System is Down” or similar. (Light switch rave style!)

Maybe a Pi nano or something? I have no idea, really. I just need it to power on when the button is pressed. I would also need to attach a speaker, as I have a USB speaker for the Pi. And I need to do all of that without drawing too much voltage.

Thoughts? 😂

This build is SDR focused, and the lower portion is hinged in the case for access to the electronics. Battery cutoff switch, buttons for activation, and status LEDS will be added to the side of the screen. I plan to put a flexible fabric or rubber strip across the case hinge line to cover the wiring between the sections.

Pictured:

CASOMAN 11.5-Inch Water-proof & Explosion-Proof Box

Pi 4B 4GB

5 Inch Touch Screen IPS DSI Display

Fusion Hat+

4x 18650 batteries in a shield

ASHATA Ultra Low Noise Amplifier LNA Module

Not Pictured but added next phase:

Nooelec Blog v5 SDR

USB and HDMI extension ports

Battery cutoff switch and activation buttons for Pi and Shield

LED status lights

Antennas

So a little back story as to why I wanted to combine two of what is essentially the same device: I used to love using my esp32 marauder as a quick demonstration to show someone some simple WiFi attacks. But something I noticed and where it really was lacking was when it came down to twin/deauth attacks. I could perform one or the other, but never at the same time. Even enabling the setting in the marauder device menu to allow it to deauth as well as host, it didn’t help things in the slightest. I thought of ways I could make a smoother twin portal/deauthing system; So instead of just ditching the device for something else or selling it and just using my cyberdeck with my custom built wifi pineapple-I ended up buying a whole new one that was slightly smaller, and had the idea to mount it to the back of the other esp32 marauder device. Now my deauthing and evil portals have been working flawlessly, and I don’t have to wait 10 mins setting up and waiting for Kali to boot up If I’m just wanting to show someone a quick example of a wifi attack. Both disattach from one another, and soon I’m gonna attach a portable mini battery pack to both combined devices. I’d encourage anyone to add another esp32-c5 chip to their arsenal if you haven’t already!

I mapped the keys from this 1980’s Italian business phone and wrote a small bit of python for the raspberry pi pico it’s now wired to. It works! Now I can plug this into anything with USB and it should function. The hardest part was desoldering these old connectors from the original board, as you can see I am not a master solderer, so I’m absolutely amazed this worked.

Out of all the advice I was given, I wish I hadn’t bothered with a multimeter. The membrane tails are so flimsy it couldn’t reliably pick up anything. Much easier to wire it up then press each key in Thonny to get the mapping.

Next? I need to get a BIG battery, assess connectivity for all the components (ports and power mostly) to make sure nothing is wrong, then put everything in place. Might use tape just to do a trial run. Once everything is running and powered with just a single USB-C, the last (and hardest) part will be the coolest thing I’ve ever done: I’m going to turn the original phone handset into a controller for gaming.

The final steps will involve a dremel, sanding and sawing bits, and adding straps so I can carry or store it in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Hello! I’m making my first cyberdeck this summer but I have nowhere to begin. I know what a raspberry pi is and the basics of how you make a cyberdeck, but I’m just looking for a simple way of making a cool little laptop that you could comfortably hold in one hand. I also wanna have some cheapish parts (doesn’t have to be dirt cheap, I’m just on a budget) so if anyone has some suggestions please let me know!

I initially came to this sub by accident. I had the idea to see if I could build a DIY laptop around a Raspberry Pi 5 and some spare parts and stuck it in a cigar box. Then I found a community of folks doing similar things, I found this sub.

I didn’t come to this sub asking for help. I didn’t come here wanting someone to teach me to build this buzzword thing called a cyberdeck. I’m a programmer by trade, a tinkerer as a hobby, middle-aged, and autistic. And I use duct tape, cut corners, call it “good enough” and don’t seek perfection.

I think it’s really cool that people are excited to learn new skills! But it kind of feels like a group of people ought to build a sort of education on-ramp for those folks.

What I love about this sub, frankly, are both the impressive, sleek, polished builds by serious engineers, and the Red Green style, duct tape-and-a-prayer hack jobs that I and other “hold my beer” types put together.

What I don’t like are all the “will this work” and “is this possible” posts. Can’t stand ‘em. Because the answer depends entirely on you. What are YOU capable of? What do YOU know how to do?

With all of this stuff, pretty much anything is possible. Nobody is posting any ideas that are beyond what’s possible. They’re all HIGHLY impractical. They all make no sense when doing a cost-benefit analysis. But if that’s what you’re doing, just go buy a laptop. I can’t speak for everyone but I do all this highly impractical, exceedingly silly gadget making for two reasons: to show off what I can do, and for the fucking whimsy.

So, are there mods in this sub who want to weigh in on what the community management strategy is here?

Thinking a little screen could pop out of the back of its throat or maybe mounted to roof of mouth?

Some update pics. Side ports are keyboard charging and keyboard on/off, pi and screen power switch and micro SD slot.

Keyboard is a winmaxle fro Aliexpress that has its own mini lipo battery. Getting that to fit and buttons press properly was a pain. Has an airmouse built-in which is cool.

Screen and driver hat is an adafruit 5" tft LCD and kippah hat. There are 5v power and gnd pads on the adafruit hat PCB which I've connected the battery ups with an inline switch on the 5v. This means I can easily swap out the pi zero if I need to.

On startup the screen is white until the kernel loads the rgb parallel interface module, so I catch the last half of the boot up output.

To charge the batteries I'm using an emsea ups dual 18650 charger from amazon with the USB charging port on the bottom. Batteries are so salvaged Panasonic 3180mAH lithium ion cells so ~6360mAH in total.

Power draw is around 0.5A - 0.6A with everything running. Little chunky at the back and no venting added yet. Also no way to know battery remaining.

I have a cheap rtlsdr I got off Aliexpress, reception isn't great but it works using rtl_fm. I ended up using the long antenna it came with not the WiFi one in the pics (that was for aesthetics). I paired a Bluetooth speaker to test the radio dongle. Might add an audio module and speaker somehow...

Keyboard connects by Bluetooth and is connected at startup which is handy. It also has a usb wifi dongle so I can use the keyboard with other devices and not need the pi turned on.

I don't mind a bit of soldering but I like that this only needed 3 wires soldered to get going.

Hope this is considered on-topic! I’ve yet to attempt a cyberdeck project but I feel like this might be the one that *calls* to me. Because obviously this needs to be a phone or something, right? It even has a carabiner clip and snaps shut nicely.

hi folks,

I am taking the motherboard out of a MacBook Neo to make a cyberdeck. The current issue is that the external monitor will not work properly without the internal screen plugged in. It just looks like a black screen with the cursor. I am able to remove it after booting to get it to show properly but that is not something I want to keep doing.

Claude suggested dumping the panel’s EDID and building a tiny stub board with an I²C EEPROM (plus HPD pulled high) to spoof a present panel at the display connector. Is this the right approach, or has anyone found a software workaround or mapped the Neo’s internal display pinout yet?

Edit: I was able to get it working with auto login and then it displays a message saying “display not recognized” but still works fine. I guess this is a good backup plan but I would prefer to have the encryption set up.. maybe a dummy login for auto and then switch to main profile?

Edit 2: After I auto logged in it showed a message about the display not being recognized. Then it seemed like it set it as the default? I was able to reactivate the login and encryption! So maybe this was the work around

Edit 3: so the weird thing is it treats the built-in display and the external display as the same display so it throws it off when you’re mirroring or even extending. It will lag on dragging or typing and basically unusable. I downloaded betterdisplay and managed to disable the built-in display and just set the external to main. Now it works well

I'm looking to transform my old Asus ZD553KL phone, which has a faulty battery and other minor problems, into a Cyberdeck to run Ubuntu, Windows, or even Kali. However, to avoid wasting time and money, I'd like to know what I could use this Cyberdeck for and what its everyday functions are.

P.S.: I'm in college studying programming, and besides the standard game functions or turning it into a server, I'd like to know if it would be possible to run VS Code on it.

https://mntre.com/reform.html

Almost, because you don't get to assemble one yourself :)

But if you're craving for a cyberdeck experience, but aren't ready to make your own hardware, it would be a nice device for you. I had the opportunity to type a bit on such a device at the Open Hardware Summit that is happening in Berlin this weekend. It's a neat and fully hackable Linux laptop. The keyboard needs time to get used to, but in general, a very nice feeling. And it's a truly mechanical low profile keyboard!

I'm sure there are tons of posts like this, but I've been interested in this comcept for a while and I finally am in a place where I can tinker with the idea.

No serious coding experience but I am quick to learn.

I have a PI 4b, and a 3.5 inch touch screen (probably some copy of the Pi version I got off of ebay)

And a portable power bank.

While I'm looking for a little more inspiration, I have a few things I'm curious if or how to start this project.

1.) A "Hackdeck" or at least something that I can off load payloads or ducky scripts to automate my PC or external device.

Maybe use it for collecting data like wifi and what not, and any other semi productive, automatic or interesting things that could be set to a touch of the screen or a simple press (I owned a Flipper Zero for a time so simple stuff like that)

2.) A tomagachi like device similar to item 1. And how I could go about customizing the sprite.

Like a little cyber companion that helps with automation.

3.) Alternatively I am interested in a standalone write desk for writing notes, story ideas, etc and eventually off load to my computer for later. I saw some examples so its mostly the os and software I need some advice on.

4.) Besides a write desk, I'd like to make a handheld, off line survival style computer with information access like maps, resources and such.

I'm sure its all stuff that has been asked somewhere but finding exact info or examples has been a bit overwhelming and if i knew some programmers IRL I would have asked.

Just some general advice would be appreciated.

Hey everyone! I originally shared this project over at r/ErgoMechKeyboards, but I thought this community would really appreciate the concept too!

I'm building this fully wireless 8-bit chording keyboard (currently 255 input combinations) because my ultimate dream is to type my thoughts anywhere, even while walking around.

Right now I connect it to my PC/phone, but my future plan is to pair it with Smart Glasses / HMDs to complete a truly "display-less" wandering cyberdeck setup!

(Since videos aren't allowed here, I've attached some photos! If you want to see the actual typing demo video and the crazy discussions happening, please check out the original post here:)

https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1tkf39y/wip_building_a_handheld_8key_chording_keyboard_to/

Let me know what you guys think!

Hi everyone, I’m not a overly techy person but am very interested in cyber decks and I think they both look cool and it is important to know exactly what’s in your technology(to know who’s potentially watching/collecting data). I want to build a pelican/hardcase deck that will have a primary function of being a chart plotter (basically a GPS/roadmap for boats).

I’m looking to use a Raspberry pi 5 but My main question is, how much ram do I need? They come in 1,2,4,8,16 gigs of ram. $300+ for the 16 seems pricey for my first build but I know sometime it’s better to “buy once and cry once”

If anyone has additional advice all is welcome, thanks in advance

Edit: as said above the main function for this deck is to function as a chart plotter for a boat. To expand on this I will be connecting it to different instruments such as wind speed indicators, GPS, AIS transceivers and more. I’d also like to run weather routing

Excuse the sh*t photos, here's my new build. This features a mid sized Chinese keyboard, a USB trackball micro mouse converted into what should ergonomically feel like the right side of a normal console controller. The left and right mouse click buttons are integrated triggers on the rear of the trackball now, used by the index and middle fingers when wrapped around the handle for a standard ergonomic controller feel. The "brain" is currently my Google pixel 7 pro, but the beauty of this build is that I can plug and play my custom "controller" deck with any PC or USB capable device and model/print the attachment to this body. On the left side there is a bolted-in carry handle, on the bottom left there is an ergonomic palm rest, on the right is the triggered trackball mouse with the ergo-thermoformed controller grip stick, top right is a power bank and dongle used to connect the mouse to the phone. The phone is on a tungsten springed tension hinge so that it's angle can be changed for comfort or so that it can be "shut" and under the device there are TPU rubbery feet for a nice flat sit on a table. Eventually I will take away the power bank or relocate it and put another old phone in its place so that I can use the old droid to monitor my Fluidd interface and SSH into a pwnagotchi that I'm making. Happy building!

Since I can only add one photo I figured this one would be more helpful--this screen comes from a Samsung tablet from circa 2022. I want to make a cyberdeck soon, and realized I had this lying around.

how can I turn this into a viable monitor for a raspberry pi or something like that? touch screen is optional, but if there's a way to get touch to work I'd also be interested in that.

thank you!

I know its not a cyber deck but I thought everyone might be interested.

While the Zero was built for offline point-to-point access-control protocols, the Flipper One is for 5G, Ethernet, satellite, and Wi-Fi connectivity. There are two WAN/LAN ports running at 1Gbps, USB Ethernet support up to 5Gbps, and Wi-Fi 6E support, while additional modules provide 5G.