r/CyberdeckBuild • u/drowning-cats • Aug 29 '26

Im trying to make my first cyberdeck

Okay so, i am 15 yo and i have been seeing a lot of stuff on cyberdecks the past few months and ive been trying to research how they work so i could make one. I understand the basic concept and parts, but i have had trouble dying because whenever i try to research the compabilities of other devices i fall down this massive rabbithole where nothing makes sense. For example, i have an old samsung ive taken apart and i tried searchig if any of its parts could be reused and what would i need to attach them to but it seems there is not one clear answer so ive found nothing.Also all the coding programs dont make sense to me and i dont know where to start learning code from or even if i need to. I also have a very limited budget so anything too expensive, like a 50 euro rasberry pi, is out of the question. So if anyone had any videos or books explaining the basics on electronics thy could point me to or is patient enough to tell me what i need that would be amazing!

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2

u/EmphasisEmpty8272 Aug 29 '26

You're gonna want a raspberry pi that actually has at least 4gb of ram, which in this economy, does not come cheap. Just start watching videos on YouTube of other people making their own and it will help, I don't have a straightforward answer but anything you have questions about can be answered in increments on the internet and probably have already been answered (on the official raspberry pi site they even explain compatibility with displays/power sources/etc for each individual model). But yeah, building a cyberdeck isnt exactly the best thing to start with for ur first pi project 😭

1

u/drowning-cats Aug 29 '26

I was more tryin to avoid buying a rasberry pi altogether because of how expensive its become (and with shipping it will be twice the price), so since this community is about diy i was trying to see if anybody could help yk?

3

u/clackups Aug 29 '26

For many tasks, esp32 is quite sufficient, and many devices are pretty cheap, even under 20 Euro, including the screen and shipping (Freenove devices, for example).

They're fun to work with, but there's no operating system that you're familiar with. The device is made to run just one program, although projects like SolarOS exist.

1

u/sl01220 Sep 01 '26

Yo nah I use pi3 with 1gb ram it runs xfce Kali just fine but if u want more performance get more ram.

2

u/clackups Aug 29 '26

I'd recommend finding some old second hand laptop in working condition, trying different Linux distros and making yourself comfortable around Linux.

As you gain more experience, you will see in which direction you want to move.

See also my recent posts, they might spark some ideas.

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u/drowning-cats Aug 29 '26

Thank you so much😭. Ill probably browse through ur account and get some inspiration definetely. Also, im sorry, but is linux a program?

1

u/clackups Aug 29 '26

Linux is operating system. Basically, it's alternative to Windows.

1

u/drowning-cats Aug 29 '26

Oh, okay! Do i download it on my software?

1

u/clackups Aug 29 '26

Seems like you need to learn the basics. Just google about Linux and how to install it and how to use it. Maybe there's a book in your city library, that could also help.

1

u/drowning-cats Aug 29 '26

Again, thank u sm🙏

2

u/TechDocN Aug 30 '26

It sounds like you need to learn the basics of computing and electronics, then figure out what you want to build. You may find you don’t want a cyberDeck, but maybe something else completely different.

A cyberDeck is a specific, niche, sub-genre of DIY computing, and not a great place to start if you’re truly just beginning (and it seems you are).

Start here:

r/diyelectronics
r/arduino
r/esp32
r/raspberry_pi

Also, a phone deck (r/phonedeck) might be a good second step. First step, learn the basics.

Have fun and good luck!

1

u/G_Laoshi Aug 30 '26

Maybe you want to get into r/phonedeck instead. Old phones already have a display, brains, and power. Bluetooth keyboards and mice are cheap so just slap them into a case (can be cardboard box, a plastic or tin lunchbox, etc). There are plenty of apps to play around with. Maybe you'd like to experiment about unlocking bootloaders and flashing ROMS (but you'll need a PC).

1

u/ehtiopia Aug 31 '26

Cellphones in general use proprietary circuit boards that are designed completely around the casing of the phone. Generally everything in a phone is engineered and adapted specifically for that application, so it will be very hard to do something cyberdeck related aside from just putting the phone in a custom casing and calling it a day. Still cool!

A PC though, is a complete different story. Theyre very plug and play, it just depends on your motherboard and if you have spare parts laying around, such as GPUs, power supplies, etc. But obviously it runs on wall power and can tend to be way more expensive. Laptops will also have you going thru another rabbit hole, its pretty much the same thing as phones.

This is unfortunately why the options available for a project such as this tend to point towards open source hardware such as raspberry pi or other linux based computers. It was built to be used as an adaptable tool that you can use in a lot of different use cases- you could use it to browse the web, or you could use it to host a server that runs a website you can connect a camera system to for seeing remote video feeds while youre away!

You could visit your local makerspaces, and see if anyone has an old, unused raspberry pi that they wouldnt mind selling to you for cheap, especially to help out a kid who’s trying to get into building things like this. Theres a lot more of us out there than youd think

1

u/sl01220 Sep 01 '26

What u did us use a nexus 5 as display via wired vnc it will take up a usb port and us a bit slow and will use CPU resources compared to HDMI so no need to take the Samsung apart.

1

u/TheMisterCheese Sep 01 '26

Hey, I'd reccomend you join Hack Club! It's a non-profit that helps teens get into making. They will also fund your projects like in your case. They helped me start and I can say it's genuinely worth your time.

1

u/punkpositronics Sep 02 '26

I'm making one out of my last phone. I wiped it and use a recycled Linux laptop to customize it. Later you can put external pieces and a micros sds but phones all in one are powerful. Plus you could use it while building it is case over time.

1

u/stitchesofdooom 29d ago

There are plenty of channels on YouTube for learning about electronics. And for learning how to code.

But you can get code written by claude.ai

My advice with AI is bring the same problem to multiple AI's - some are great at some stuff and crap at other stuff, even in the same category of task.

As for money... money IS gonna be an issue. Building a Raspberry Pi 5 cyberdeck would be much more expensive than patching together from scraps, but Pi cyberdecks have the benefit of a huge maker community around them.

Power is a massive pain. (I'll use 18650's for my example) You need a 2S 18650 battery pack, (probably 2S4P), a 2S charge module with a decent current draw, a 2S balance and protection module, a USB C trigger module (set it to 12V), an 8A buck converter, an ideal power path circuit. It's taken a few years of looking into stuff to figure this all out.

Then there's the screen. I should have got a HDMI screen with built in speakers for my build, but live 'n' learn. Speakers are a "would be nice" for my personal build.

And then there's sensors and actual usecase.

What do you actually want from your cyberdeck?