I love how the author found consumer components and put them together to build the handheld. Looks really good! There are a lot of inspiring projects over the web, but very often they require tools that aren't available to everybody or they're not cheap for one-off projects (laser cutter, 3D printers, etc).
> There are a lot of inspiring projects over the web, but very often they require tools that aren't available to everybody or they're not cheap for one-off projects (laser cutter, 3D printers, etc).
I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?
true. that's why the way to go with portable is to put a beagle bone or a Chinese arm soc in a mechanical keyboard. add some small screen (though you will always use the bb video out or a makeshift gglass) and you got yourself a cyber punk deck, minus the neural interface :-(
One way to use an ARM board inside a mechanical keyboard without a screen would be to use text-to--speech output through an earpiece, e.g. with the Speakup screen reader for Linux. But probably the only people who would want to use that are blind hackers. For that setup, a Raspberry Pi would probably be better than a BeagleBone Black, since the Pi has built-in analog audio output (though it's kind of crappy). I guess some of the Allwinner-based boards would work too.
I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?
true. that's why the way to go with portable is to put a beagle bone or a Chinese arm soc in a mechanical keyboard. add some small screen (though you will always use the bb video out or a makeshift gglass) and you got yourself a cyber punk deck, minus the neural interface :-(
You can also make your own EEG and train a classifier of your choice (heavily biasing the "do nothing" command) with sklearn or something. I've used off the shelf EEG's (emotiv epoc with the emokit library, there may be better options) to bind thought actions to moving a mouse, clicking, opening a web browser, but it was a bit noisy. I had to bind the act of clicking to the thought of a flavor, because it turned out I was thinking about "clicking" far before the mouse ever got to my intended destination. I didn't use it long enough to start thinking about the flavor before my mouse got there, but I'm curious if it would have turned into an arms race against my own mind eventually.
Very cool project! Would it be possible to upgrade the screen to a little larger?
From the conclusion: > If I was to make this again, I would do a few things differently. First I’d probably add a slightly larger screen like this one from Tindie [ https://www.tindie.com/products/hwlevel/40-ips-screen-for-ra... ]
Yes, i saw that one as well - but the 17FPS update-rate was very small. I'm looking for more like 5-6" panel with faster updates.
I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?
How about a chording keyboard? Having one strapped to your thigh would be the wearables pioneer approach. The Twiddler3 is a modern one-handed keyboard product. There are also projected laser keyboards with a traditional layout; the projected keyboard takes up a fair amount of space and really needs a flat stable surface (not good for use on public transportation or while queueing) but the hardware is quite small.
I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?
Frogpad used to make a nice (i never used it) one handed keyboard.
If you don't want to build your own, you can buy one: http://openpandora.org/ Its not just a terminal, though .. ;)
Everything related to Pandora has seemed sketchy as hell from day one. For instance, right now, both of the resellers on that site that service the USA don't appear to actually sell the damned thing. I also recall stores of pre-orders not being served for upwards of a year with little to no contact by the seller.
If you don't want to build your own, you can buy one: http://openpandora.org/ Its not just a terminal, though .. ;)
Yeah I was going to say the same thing. Even comes with X-Windows. I've toyed with getting one to use as a portable terminal, but it's too pricy. I think right now they're working on the next rev and they aren't for sale.
(plus I've heard horror stories on long waits while the units were being produced)
Very cool and inspiring. I'm doing something similar [1] by replacing the guts of a Toshiba Libretto 50C (a tiny laptop from 1996) with a Raspberry Pi and upgrading its screen to a 7" widescreen. It's slightly larger than your terminal, but in my opinion, will be much more usable as a PC with the larger keyboard. But, to each his own :) What kind of battery life do you get with your machine? [1]: http://restoringmyli…
Estimated 8.6h with idle CPU, based on my calculations. Raspberry Pi A+ 0.52W usage at 100ma 5.2V on CPU idle ( http://raspi.tv/2014/raspberry-pi-a-how-much-power-does-it-n... ) Adafruit PiTFT - 2.8" Raspberry Pi Touchscreen with full-on backlight the current draw is ~100mA. ( http://www.adafruit.com/product/1601 ) 0.1 5=0.5W Powerconsumption of Rpi and TFT should be 1.02W at idle. PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeab…
You should let it run idle and see how long until the battery is depleted. I underestimated the losses due to efficiency with my Libretto project (boost converters run at different efficiencies depending on the power draw).
I was able to get about 4 hours on a 6600mAh battery pack powering a Pi and a 7" touchscreen with wifi and bluetooth enabled (the project draws about 8W when the screen is turned on, about 5W with it turned off).
I think the key point to efficient mobile linuxing is neither the hardware nor the basic software but the language input. I feel touchpads and mobile keyboards are both not handy to communicate with bash/vim in the subway. We need a better mobile keyboard for that. Does anybody know who's working on something in that direction?
Frogpad used to make a nice (i never used it) one handed keyboard. There have been some chording devices - "The Twiddler" is one. https://youtube.com/watch?v=QG3SPSzWUv4 Sadly there are a bunch of patents that hamper innovation and experimentation.
I'm typing this on a Frogpad now. Due to an injury I've used it as my main keyboard for years. Unfortunately the company is all but defunct and the layout is propriety. For years I've been meaning to write script to set the keyboard layout of a full size keyboard to it. That way I can stop paying hundreds whenever an old Frogpad appears on ebay.