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Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

0x0f0f0f.github.io

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Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#71

Post by borgel »

ethanpil wrote: post #70

This is really inspiring I have been dreaming of building my own little portable notebook, powered by PI4 and a hefty USB-C battery. With the beautiful, small HDMI LCD panels available today and a 3D printer, its within reach! 100% inspired by https://habr.com/en/post/437912/ which I first saw here on HN

Depending on your goals, there's the GPD Micro PC [1]. Quite the odd duckling, but it includes an RJ-45 and an honest-to-god DB9 for RS232! Not nearly as fun as building it yourself though!

[1] https://liliputing.com/2019/02/gpd-micropc-handheld-computer...

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#72

Post by badtuple »

5- wrote: post #58

To go on a tangent, even though my personal search for the ultimate handheld computer shall never be concluded, I feel like I found a lot of the things I've been looking for (specifcally in Zaurus and the Psions) in my 7" GPD Pocket 2, which incidentally (paired with a keyboard and screen) is my main machine these days, yet I do carry it in my jacket's inner pocket to do some programming on the go. It runs Linux, is…

I have a GPD Pocket 2 and I want to like it _so much_, but I just can't get used to the keyboard layout. Everything about it is perfect except for that, but since I just program directly from the framebuffer a keyboard that I can't get used to and use intuitively is pretty much a deal breaker :(

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#73

Post by freeduck »

thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #16

It is exciting to see cool handhelds like this! I really want to have a handheld / phone that can handle all of my on-the-go computing and connect to my servers if I need more compute power. As a tangent, if you have an Android phone and need to do some Linux-style computing on the go, consider Termux ( https://termux.com/ ). Termux enables your Android phone to run command-line utilities, text editors (vim and emacs…

Another option is userland if you need a full linux

https://userland.tech/

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#74

Post by bayesian_horse »

A Raspberry Pi 4 based tablet/laptop may be interesting.

Though I don't know if the RPi4 is actually competitive, in terms of battery life, with intel-based netbooks and the like.

If I were to do that, I would probably arrive at a ridiculously thick tablet with a couple of 18650 cells for power and it would need a good fan to try and save the screen from the heat.

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#76

Post by beilabs »

My first system was a ZX-Spectrum 128k; I would love to get one of those keyboards; change out the cassette by to stick in the raspberry pi and use that as a dedicated system hooked up to a monitor. That was a really nice keyboard from memory; granted 30+ years have made the mind fog up a bit.

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#78

Post by 0815test »

jokoon wrote: post #9

I'm less and less convinced that a handheld keyboard can really be justified if you want to do some linux or programming stuff on such a device. Touch screens can be simple enough if you get used to them, they save a lot of space on the device and I think they are cheaper than a keyboard. Touch-swipe features will also make things much, much easier on a touch keyboard, and I'm sure it's totally possible to add linux…

IME, touch screens are simply way too error-prone for any sort of serious work. You can make them work, but only by adding a "swipe to confirm this input" step for any potentially-destructive activity. (AOSP "recovery" environments do have this, for a reason!) Current command-line environments are not well setup for this, but you could make this work in combination with a "web"-like interface (especially if designed around REST principles).

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#79

Post by sympodius »

thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #54
LeoPanthera wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I want more than anything in the world is a Psion-sized portable computer where the brains are provided by the Rasperry Pi compute module: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-3-plus/?... I’m genuinely surprised that this isn’t already a thing, since it would make upgrades trivial.

I had a Series 5mx back in the day and it was glorious. Android has all of the capabilities software-wise, but I have yet to find a device that matches the Psion Series 5mx form factor, specifically the folding clamshell and nicely-sized hardware keyboard. Most external foldable Bluetooth keyboards are too big, rather finicky, and always running out of battery on me.

I'd say the Gemini and the Cosmo are spiritual successors (same industrial designer as the Psion Series 5/5mx I believe): https://www.planetcom.co.uk/

Re: Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

#80

Post by 5- »

badtuple wrote: post #72
5- wrote: post #58

To go on a tangent, even though my personal search for the ultimate handheld computer shall never be concluded, I feel like I found a lot of the things I've been looking for (specifcally in Zaurus and the Psions) in my 7" GPD Pocket 2, which incidentally (paired with a keyboard and screen) is my main machine these days, yet I do carry it in my jacket's inner pocket to do some programming on the go. It runs Linux, is…

I have a GPD Pocket 2 and I want to like it _so much_, but I just can't get used to the keyboard layout. Everything about it is perfect except for that, but since I just program directly from the framebuffer a keyboard that I can't get used to and use intuitively is pretty much a deal breaker :(

By "program directly from the framebuffer" do you mean that you can't use X11 key remapping facilities?

In that case, loadkeys(1) will help (on linux).

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