DIY Cyberdeck Thread

Recently i've gotten interested in cyberdecks, and thought we could do with a cyberdeck thread. Cyberdecks are like laptops, but unlike laptops they aren't limited to the generic form laptops have. r/cyberdeck has loads of builds which can be used for inspiration. Here we can share our own builds, give advice to other, etc.

I don't know of any other resources for cyberdecks besides the .cafe site Here's some inspo that aren't "Put it in a Pelican case"

I kind of hate what most people call cyberdecks. A bunch of 3D printed parts and almost all have the same form factor that makes no sense using modern parts such as an LCD screen being offset to the side with nothing taking up the empty space on the other side. An attempt to go for an aesthetic but completely missing any proper design principles that make cyberpunk aesthetics good.

I've always wanted to try make a deck so I just copped this dead Toshiba Satelite T1960CS. Keeping my eye out for an original ball mouse for this thing because they look fuarrrking sick. Planning on using it to house a pi 4 for various projects but my main goal is to try make something cool. Still deciding the quirks to give this build, I defiantly want easy access to the pi for hardware projects so some spring loaded compartments are defiantly on the menu.

Decent screens are very expensive. I feel like I already know the answer, but have we figured out how to reuse phone/tablet screens yet?

>>10035 Most phone/tablets each use their own proprietary interface, and would require extensive reverse engineering to figure out how to use, and probably isn't worth the time and effort (in my opinion). Alternatively you could get an old laptop lcd and find a driver board for it. It would probably come in cheaper than buying a new one.

>>10004 For a while i have this idea of making a handheld deck using a gameboy advance sp shell, rpi zero and a blackberry Q10 keyboard or xbox chatpad. I just haven't gotten round to making it, just thought i to share.

>>10057 I want to do an rpi0w with the m5stack keyboard but I don't see any good screens for the form factor.

I started thinking it could be interesting if i could turn a semi broken portable top loading DVD player with a screen i have into a cyberdeck with a BD-ROM or at least DVD-ROM to physical copy backup media which id possibly get more use out of than making it something like a videogame console emulator which is another option. Not sure how difficult it would be to pull off replacing the DVD reader in it while keeping it's flip top load for aesthetics of seeing the disk spin and somehow have room inside for some kind of SBC and find room to cram a keyboard layout and some sort of mouse or trackpad somewhere. I already have an idea for the keyboard sliding out from the bottom and folding out unless i can be satisfied with a tiny keyboard. Im very bad at following up on my ideas. >>10034 You could possibly find a ball mouse with the ball missing easier and just use a metal ball bearing of right size or even better a glass marble and put LED lights under it that if possible have colour for feedback of mouse movement directionality

This is really interesting and I would love to take on a DIY project like this, but what's the use case? Is the end product functionally distinct from a small laptop? Why wouldn't I just attach a decent, small keyboard to a tablet running software I'm comfortable with? Apart from knowing the internal hardware.

>>10131 just as a hobby, it's extra fun if the device is not x86

>>10004 The Pi Zero 2 W is so underuteilized in the online cyberdeck builds I've looked at so far - The big Pi boards draw so much power! 5V 3A will annihalate those tiny batteries. I don't have the money right now but once I have saved up, I'm gonna build a Pi zero 2 W based board with a efficient chip. Just look at the graphs: https://hackaday.com/2021/11/01/the-pi-zero-2-w-is-the-most-efficient-pi/

>>10165 I'm thinking about making one with the original pi zero. The thing is, I don't have all of the parts. My idea is to make a umpc kind of thing, except extremely portable.

Can you run a modern operating system on a cassette tape or would it not hold enough data or read fast enough? I was thinking if a tape loop was made it might work better but that would greatly reduce tape length.

>>10177 You can if it's small enough and you can wait 15 minutes for it to load

>>10177 I've decided to look into this and found "Digital Audio Tape" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Tape#Computer_data_storage_medium): It is the closest to standard audio cassettes I found that has the storage required. "storing from 1.3 to 80 GB on a 60 to 180 meter tape" - you could fit a full ubuntu install with one or two games on one DAT cassette. A problem would be random reads/writes and general disk activity is wayyy to slow for modern purposes. Maybe put a read-only filesystem on there, run everything from RAM, write only when shutting down. It seems possible.

>>10200 I lol'd.

>>10200 Sure, that can be done, for running everything in RAM Puppy linux may be a good option, if you want sth with even lass RAM usage, I've read good things about Tiny Core Linux. Tho running Tails, which is amnesic by default on a tape would probably be the best, since writing data is of no issue then. There is also DCC (Digital Compact Cassette). However, from what I've gathered, since DAT and DCC store data digitally and you need a good head that has to be adjusted very precisely, even more so than analog cassette (which just sounds somewhat worse if not properly calibrated). I never used them tho, heck, I wasn't even born before cassette tapes died off, but I love the format and use them pretty much daily for music (don't have a smartphone, and never will). My thinking here is, since you're already using digital, MiniDisc is a LOT more flexible and a lot faster, this website https://www.minidisc.org/faq_sec_3.html#r_q1 claims you can store up to 1GB on it, which is quite good for a minimal linux distro. And in my opinion an incredible format, the looks and physics behind it are just incredible, magnets AND lasers. It also seems easier to hack a minidisc player to read data on a cyberdeck. I don't have a minidisc player, but damn do I want one...

I have a bunch of this cassettes, does someone know their data capabilities?

>>10215 This website claims it's about 13GB for DV-quality data. Pretty neat format, never seen it before. I can't find anything about official recoding of anything other than audiovisual data on it, but if you know your way with electronics, it may be possible to hack it to store other stuff. Might have to scour for manuals/datasheets, patents maybe. You could also send an email to Sony or Panasonic. Please post their answer if you do. kek https://www.freevideoworkshop.com/what-is-mini-dv/#How_Many_GB_is_a_Mini_DV_tape

>tape to load OS from you must really enjoy long load times

not sure if what i'm experimenting on quite fits the definition of a cyberdeck but here i go: around a year ago i picked up a used pocophone f1 for cheap because i wanted to try out mobile linux and it was quite well supported by postmarket os. for the last few months the device has been sitting in my drawer because i got bored of it. now i had the idea of trying to turn it into a cyberdeck/tiny laptop type thing. i built a postmarket os image with a full xfce desktop and flashed it to the device. i was really surprised how well it performed. web browsing was totally smooth and i even got minecraft java to run with 30-60fps (without performance mods). so i have the software down, but i'm really lost on the hardware. to use the device with a full desktop environment on the go and actually turn it into a cyberdeck i want to attach a keyboard and some kind of trackpoint/pad to it. i'm not really sure how to go about this. does lain have an idea? keyboard/trackpoint would need to connect via bluetooth since there's currently no otg support.

>>10200 >you could fit a full ubuntu install with one or two games on one DAT cassette. im sure its possible but that kind of linux distro seems quite inappropriate considering the form factor, i think something like freeDOS https://www.freedos.org/ would work better on such a system, something that can almost entirely ran from memory outside of dipping into the tape for data that doesn't have an excess of unnecessary elements. such a device would be pretty capable for programming and some networking but im not sure of gaming would be all that viable. i imagine it would also take a considerbale effort to get freedos optimesed for use on tape but that would be the case for any os

>>10332 i can't answer, however i wanted to add a question is the google pixel 3a XL good for this? i see that postmarket os isn't supported, are there other good options? would vanilla Arch work?

>>10367 postmarket os does not reasonably support the pixel 3a xl as of yet. the device does seem supported by droidian (debian based) and there are also manjaro arm (arch based) builds. https://github.com/junocomp/linux-pixel-3a i'm not sure however how easy it would be to get a desktop environment like xfce to run on those images (in case that is your goal as well). both only come preinstalled with mobile interfaces.

>>10131 >but what's the use case? well personally ive seen them used pretty heavily in the astronomy and satellite hacking scenes https://youtu.be/L8XOqrKBM5w, they're quite good for anything that requires an incredibly durable machine that is specialised for a few tasks.

i think cyberdecks are mostly larp (most of this board too) but the small ones are pretty cool. altoid tin computers and stuff are dope. if you want a ultraportable low power computing setup, i recommend getting a 9" intel atom netbook and putting a very low-demand OS like debian. can realiably get these from shopgoodwill.com for less than $20 total

>>10855 It may be LARP, but it's functional LARP and you get the satisfaction that you made something cool.

>>10165 Mine uses the W2, it's a powerhouse! will need a fan tho for SDR stuff. Other then that it uses a modded dwm so I can double/triple click and scroll trough multiple windows like a webpage.

>>10020 Nearly everything dumb regarding cyberdeck design is a direct result of the fact that a nice, large screen is expensive to the point where you might as well just get a used laptop. They're seen as a cheap hobby project, and blowing most of the cost of everything else on a screen makes it no longer cheap.

>>10900 wow thats really neat! do you have more pictures/info about the build?

>>10131 >>10855 Yeah I suspect most of these devices are for the fuarrrk of it but that doesn’t make it less cool. I’m not sure what non-larp cyberpunk is supposed to be. We’re living in a cyberpunk world but it’s not actually cool so lets at least LARP that it’s cool and we have fuarrrking cyberdecks instead of facebook.

>>10903 Sure seems like harvesting screens from broken laptops wouldn't be too hard to get. But a mobile monitor is only 100 usd.

>>10991 that's the spirit- it's all gone to fuarrrk anyways, might as well make it look cool

>>11004 I got two megs of hot ram im trying to move. Meet me down at Divey Joes if youre interested. Serious buyers only and I’ll take cash, stolen credentials, or speed for payment.

>>10332 How to compile full blown XFCE on post market os? Did you cross compile it from PC and would 64/6gb model suffice? I can get one cheaply, and make bigger battery if I decide to use it as cyber deck

>>11006 there's no need to compile anything on the device. postmarket os has a tool called pmbootstrap which will allow you to configure the phone how you want right from your pc. you can choose all sorts of stuff like desktop environment, preinstalled apps, hostname etc. there are instructions on their wiki. funnily enough i think xfce is actually more lightweight than phosh or kde mobile. one thing worth mentioning though, which i actually didn't know before purchasing mine: to unlock the bootloader you will need to register a xiaomi account, which requires phone number verification. you can "delete" the account afterwards but you will be sending personal data to china.

I have recently gotten hooked into cyberdecks too, but so far I realized that no one seems to sell video-goggles anymore. This came as quite a surprise to me. I remember in the late 90s, going into a local hardware/electronics store with my mum and trying a Sony something.something goggles on that would pretend to have a screen in front of your eyes. It was completely opaque, so none of that VR/AR nonsense, it was literally just a screen in front of your eyes. In expected this kind of product to have gone down a little bit in the quarter century, but I did not expect it to flat out dissapear. There are literally 1-3 companies that I could find right now that sell something similar to that. Just a pair of goggles to replace a screen. WTF happened

Ive been using a Dual-booted Atari VCS as my daily driver for over a year now, and am looking into cyberdecking it. Its technically just an x86 sbc, so fitting it into a case shouldnt be too hard. I already custom fabricated a copper heatsink for mine, too. I plan on mounting it into a mechanical keyboard case, amiga style. I already use an egpu with mine at hime too, so I have plenty of interesting options.if I want to readd wifi id have to use a usb dongle, which is less than ideal, but workable. The true test of patience will be figuring out the power delivery.

>>11023 I see, today I unlocked bootloader on mine and install Postmarket OS with XFCE4 as you did, but it seems that touch is not working on it out of box?

>>11117 Also touch screen does not seem to work on any DE I choose

Here's my 'cyberdeck' The cabling on the inside isnt the best it could be yet, im sure it would be better if I had a modular PSU but i kinda just used what I had about

>>11126 This is probably the most pure cyberdeck here if you mostly just used things you already had and hacked them together

I nade this last year. Its a raspi 4b+ in a box with a naked lcd pannel I want to build a better one in a more sturdy case. https://yarh.io/thebrick.html but were having printer problems right now.

>>11126 This kicks ass, Anon. >>11143 >raspi >kali Do you actually use this for anything? Judgement aside, where do I get that crime spree sticker?

>>11144 I use it for general fuarrrkery and digital door knob jiggling. I like doing wifi shenanigans. I also have a pwnagotchi

>>11144 its a custom acrylic sticker given to me as a gift.

>>11144 https://www.etsy.com/listing/1408271279/weird-cat-stickers-vinyl-greedy-cat

>>11117 >>11118 sorry, i visit quite infrequently. the pocophone has 2 panel variants. you need to select the driver for the correct one. it's explained on the wiki. https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Xiaomi_POCO_F1_(xiaomi-beryllium)

>>11034 I have a vague memory of trying one of those decades ago and it kinda sucked, the resolution was tiny and there was a ton of black space surrounding it. But aren't there new ones? What about the Xreal Air 2?

>>11126 DX7 Sighted, dectected, and seen

https://old.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/uqejkx/framedeck_custom_portable_with_integrated/ https://github.com/brickbots/framedeck Second one really should use a custom operating system since those round displays just display a normal screen aspect ratio. https://github.com/penk/MainboardTerminal I have been wondering what is the cheapest possible but still realistically achievable way to make a cyberdeck, laptop or mini PC without it being soykaf or very dated ? Aside from getting lucky dumpster diving or police auctions or yard sales... couldnt you just copy the mainboard of something already existing and order some PCBs to be printed and solder everything yourself? How hard would it be to modify a mainboard to have less common ports for example MIDI ports? Or swap out USB A to USB C? This is likely far beyond my abilities right now but worth a shot asking to get a gauge on how far away. I was hoping RISCV chips would get better then I could use something like that for the CPU at least since if anyone is going through the effort might as well go all out on avoiding anything closed proprietary.

>>11780 the cheapest is by far simply giving a small laptop a new casing with additional stuff. It already does the hard parts of including a screen, battery, and main board. Second easiest is using an sbc designed for low power. >MIDI integrate a usb-to-midi board into the casing >usba-to-c just buy the socket and solder/rewire it Now for my question, anyone who has made one of these, where do you source the batteries? Did you buy an entire rechargeable battery set or did you get the regulator board and batteries separately?