Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W • Hacker News Board

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#51

Post by rft » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 4:55 PM UTC

password4321 wrote: post #43

IgorPartola wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See I do have a use for this kind of thing, but not exactly. I have a few desktop towers and Raspberry Pi devices that sometimes due to upgrades or random acts of Zeus absolutely fail to boot up. I want some ability to connect a keyboard and a screen to these so I can see the actual boot screen. Normally for me this involves lugging the device to my office and connecting it to my office monitor and keyboard which is…

I too have this use case troubleshooting headless computers around the house. I saw an ad for https://www.aurga.com and bought one for $84. It connects to an app on my Android phone as display, keyboard, and mouse. Minor discussion 7 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38609526 Long ago I bought a mini keyboard + mouse combo for input; the custom wireless USB dongle edition I have (strongly preferred ove…

This looks quite interesting, thanks for the link. It does seem to require a native viewer instead of having a web interface. I would really prefer just a website like the PiKVM. Might still get it.

I have to do an off-topic rant though. The marketing page you linked to does not really state what this device does. It has a nice look into the case and a lot of buzzwords, but nothing like a small section with "HDMI Input" or "USB keyboard emulation". Even the shop page is somewhat light on details, but it at least shows (in GIFs only) that it works as a display and has a USB port. If I wasn't given your comment as context, I would likely not have gotten the use case and closed the tab. Based on the form factor being similar to a Fire TV stick etc. I would have assumed you plug it into a Hotel TV or similar to work on that.

EDIT: Saw your edit now and I think it is kind of funny that the old HN thread is also mentioning the marketing.

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#52

Post by rft » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:02 PM UTC

shepherdjerred wrote: post #50

password4321 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have this use case troubleshooting headless computers around the house. I saw an ad for https://www.aurga.com and bought one for $84. It connects to an app on my Android phone as display, keyboard, and mouse. Minor discussion 7 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38609526 Long ago I bought a mini keyboard + mouse combo for input; the custom wireless USB dongle edition I have (strongly preferred ove…

Logitech has similar devices. This isn't the one I own, but it's close. https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-P...

I have that keyboard and gifted one to my parents. Our use case is the odd chance you need to input text or use a browser on a Smart TV. Works so much faster than the on screen keyboard. With many Smart TVs just being Android under the hood, it just works.

I find for server troubleshooting, I usually have no problem grabbing a random USB keyboard. The bigger problem is finding a screen at a convenient location and connecting that one. It often was easier to carry my server to the screen instead of the other way.

On the topic of niche input methods, I also have an "air mouse" [1] with a full keyboard on the back for my Kodi system or when connecting my desktop to the TV. I essentially never need to use it, but it has come in handy.

[1] https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0B1HKWFQV

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#53

Post by walterbell » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:07 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #39

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #35

Oh great! Another awesome looking cyberdeck that I want to own and will find absolutely no practical use for. I've added myself to the waitlist already.

See I do have a use for this kind of thing, but not exactly. I have a few desktop towers and Raspberry Pi devices that sometimes due to upgrades or random acts of Zeus absolutely fail to boot up. I want some ability to connect a keyboard and a screen to these so I can see the actual boot screen. Normally for me this involves lugging the device to my office and connecting it to my office monitor and keyboard which is…

iPad + HDMI input dongle can be an HDMI monitor. iPad + GetConsole app + Redpark [1] USB-serial cable = serial console. The missing piece is USB keyboard emulation, but serial->arduino [2] might work.

iPad + $40 RISC-V piKVM-alike [3] is another option.

  [1] https://redpark.com/usb-c-serial-cable
  [2] https://www.sjoerdlangkemper.nl/2022/11/16/running-etherkey-on-arduino-leonardo/
  [3] https://sipeed.com/nanokvm

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#54

Post by tetris11 » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:15 PM UTC

Y_Y wrote: post #38

oneplane wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what the PinePhone and Librem 5 are? They don't have an embedded physical keyboard and do have a touchscreen, so the physical features are slightly different, but otherwise they are still a mobile ARM linux computer.

The touchscreen is a big difference though. You need to run some kind of graphical environment to handle the touch input and then it's slow and you have a crappy keyboard. I love my pinephone, but even with sxmo I find it unresponsive and hard.to work on. The keyboard shell for the pinephone is good, but changes the form factor then.

Nokia N900 has a pinephone port

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#55

Post by fecal_henge » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:17 PM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #46

This looks like a pretty cool device! However, I was immediately curious about how the "dual battery" feature works. The IP5306 power-management IC seems to be designed only for a single battery, and as far as I can tell from the schematic[1], the two battery connectors are just directly connected to each other in parallel (across VBAT and GND). This seems really sketchy. If you plug in two batteries that are not at…

At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard. - you just described my high spec HP laptop.

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#56

Post by password4321 » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

password4321 wrote: post #43

IgorPartola wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See I do have a use for this kind of thing, but not exactly. I have a few desktop towers and Raspberry Pi devices that sometimes due to upgrades or random acts of Zeus absolutely fail to boot up. I want some ability to connect a keyboard and a screen to these so I can see the actual boot screen. Normally for me this involves lugging the device to my office and connecting it to my office monitor and keyboard which is…

I too have this use case troubleshooting headless computers around the house. I saw an ad for https://www.aurga.com and bought one for $84. It connects to an app on my Android phone as display, keyboard, and mouse. Minor discussion 7 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38609526 Long ago I bought a mini keyboard + mouse combo for input; the custom wireless USB dongle edition I have (strongly preferred ove…

On the other end of the spectrum, searching https://hn.algolia.com/?query=handheld%20comments%3E0&sort=b... I found the $1000 8" GPD Pocket 3 which supports Windows 11 and KVM discussed in 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29110603

https://gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#57

Post by CitrusFruits » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

shepherdjerred wrote: post #50

password4321 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too have this use case troubleshooting headless computers around the house. I saw an ad for https://www.aurga.com and bought one for $84. It connects to an app on my Android phone as display, keyboard, and mouse. Minor discussion 7 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38609526 Long ago I bought a mini keyboard + mouse combo for input; the custom wireless USB dongle edition I have (strongly preferred ove…

Logitech has similar devices. This isn't the one I own, but it's close. https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-P...

I have one of these and it's great for this sort of thing. The whole keyboard runs off one AA battery which lasts forever, and it even has a storage spot for the USB dongle.

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#58

Post by zitterbewegung » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #46

This looks like a pretty cool device! However, I was immediately curious about how the "dual battery" feature works. The IP5306 power-management IC seems to be designed only for a single battery, and as far as I can tell from the schematic[1], the two battery connectors are just directly connected to each other in parallel (across VBAT and GND). This seems really sketchy. If you plug in two batteries that are not at…

If you ran it with one battery would you not have the problem ?

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#59

Post by diggan » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:35 PM UTC

teraflop wrote: post #46

This looks like a pretty cool device! However, I was immediately curious about how the "dual battery" feature works. The IP5306 power-management IC seems to be designed only for a single battery, and as far as I can tell from the schematic[1], the two battery connectors are just directly connected to each other in parallel (across VBAT and GND). This seems really sketchy. If you plug in two batteries that are not at…

I understood it as it'll use only one of the batteries, but you can swap between which is used. So initially, you have two charged batteries, while using only one. Once you run out of power in the first one, you'll switch to the second, and now the first one could be swapped to a fully charged one. Blue/green deployments, but for batteries basically.

Re: Hackberry-Pi_Zero – A handheld Linux terminal using Raspberry Pi Zero 2W

#60

Post by mafuyu » Fri, Aug 02, 2024, 5:37 PM UTC

My pet peeve with RasPi for these types of handheld projects is that they don't support suspend, and don't have a true poweroff state. Even in poweroff, they sit there consuming a bunch of current.

Beepy is a similar project that uses a RasPi Zero, and their approach is to cut power to the RasPi entirely with a management MCU. On my Beepy, I switched to a Radxa Zero instead and ported over any relevant kernel modules and device tree overlays, because it has an Amlogic SoC that actually supports suspend.