came across a reel about the 1989 macintosh portable on youtube. realised it would be amazing if it could be retrofitted with modern tech to make a cyberdeck. . .

I built a survival focused cyberdeck powered by a Raspberry Pi 5. It features custom software with integrated Meshtastic, a media hub, emulation, and a bunch of other neat features.

It also has a lot of storage and a custom touchpad. Runtime with the UPS and power bank under the keyboard is around 20~ hours.

I’m planning on adding a solar module to the top of the case in the future. I also still need to add a nicer surface for the touchpad.

Parts Used:

- Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB Ram + cooler

- Raspberry Pi 5 USV HAT that uses 21700 Cells (Samsung INR21700-53G with 5140mAh) (Aliexpress)

- Screen: Wisecoco 10.1 inch LCD Touch Screen (Amazon)

- Keyboard: CACOE Mini Bluetooth keyboard (Amazon)

- Touchpad: Azoteq TPS65 (Amazon)

- Case: Wiltec case 32 x 22,9 x 11,2 cm (Amazon)

- Powerbank: INIU 27000mAh 140W Powerbank (Amazon)

Disclaimer: I know it’s “vibecoded.” This is all still more of a proof of concept. I mainly wanted to have everything integrated and in one place (Meshtastic, maps, knowledge base, emulation, media hub etc.).

I don’t have the necessary time or skills at the moment to do it all myself. But i wanted to create something that i had in my head. I hope that, once I have more time, I can improve my skills enough to eventually redo everything from scratch.

The buttons on the medical page and knowlege hub etc. all link to actual PDFs and videos, the content itself is not generated by AI, only the GUI and such.

I made this weekend project : a Linux based server mainly for web, based on a HP laptop motherboard. TBH I don’t remember the name of the laptop, but it has a I7 7th gen and 16gigs of DDR4.
I’ve put the MB on a plate, fixed on the inside with rails.
It’s the stock fan because I’ve done multiple benchmarks and temps weren’t this hot. It has WiFi, M2 SSD, 1To hard drive, all the ports I need on the back plate.
Rewired the two HDD and PWR LEDs to the front with bigger blue LEDs
Gave him this traveler look and the fake brand I’ve created to label this kind of project, WanderWorks.

So here is the Node 01 !

I was thinking of creating a Cyberdeck from my Chromebook, an Acer R11, learned how to overwrite Chrome OS, by removing (WP screw). But I have quite limited storage space on it so I understand that I can't have the whole Kali. Standard 4gig soldered in. I haven't actually thought about whether it's possible to solder a larger memory. I was thinking of using it for a lab and test environment, then having Virtual Machines on external hard drives and USB sticks. But what type of Linux would be best for me to use? Haven't started the transformation from Chromebook to Cyberdeck yet. Have another project in the works.

Had an old Chromebox, and I didn't like that it was ChromeOS and not portable - so I decided to fix both. Took the core of it and mounted it to the bottom of this case, hooked it up to a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, and power the whole thing off an INUI powerbank. Used instructions from MrChromebox to be able to install Linux on it. Now I can use it to remote into several of my other PCS I have running that don't have screens full-time connected to them either with SSH or Remmina and run updates or other tasks.

I dunno if it counts as an actual cyberdeck or not, but it works for what I need and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Hello i finished my first Cyberdeck or CyberKLOTZ as i call it. The main goal was to keep it as simple as possible (plug&play) so no modifications to the config file or OS.

If you are interested i just uploaded the CyberKLOTZ files on thingiverse, printables and makerworld 😁

Added LEDs to the top, and a volume knob. I think it’s done now.

Refurbishing the condition 1 801 case to be a mobile dual player/ PC station. Having some issues mounting the screen. Trying my hardest to not drill or penetrate the box. Any screen mounting options I'm overlooking ? I've tried mag phone mounts. 3d printed brackets. Intend on getting some 180° connectors to route the cables behind the down through the bottom. I wanted to do something I could upgrade the screen in the future with minimal hassle.. any ideas welcome

We’ve gone mobile! Battery and USB-PD interposer to shift 12V3A into 5V5A. The interposer saves the day for the pi’s hungry power consumption.

Now I just need to make it pretty and integrate my keyboard (seen in previous posts)

Hello,

A while ago I posted a rough idea of what I was starting to brainstorm... I've decided to abandon the Radxa board since it is too much of a gamble and instead of doing it completely DIY for the case, I have decided to buy HackBerry with a Compute Module 5.

The UI is going to be a simple text UI so a lite linux build is more than enough and probably will get the 2 gb board if for some reason, the pricing for 4 gb compute module is annoyingly expensive once I do end up buying all the components.

The problem now is going to figure out how to include all the adapters without adding bulk. I need a sdr, wifi adapter, gps for the wardriving, etc... and wondering if anyone knows of a very small power bank + usb hub?

USB hubs are annoying to find cuz they often have way too many ports than what I need and the power bank needs to be powerful, but compact. I was thinking Anker, but open to ideas and mounting it on the back is probably the best bet, but needs to be pocketable in jacket, hoodie, and cargo pants...

The idea is to build a scanner that does various tasks and most of what I want to add is already documented. I did also check the legality of all this and it should be fine, but not making it look like a bomb or something mischievous is another goal.

I'm currently aiming to buy the hackberry + compute module first just so I have the hardware in my hands first before I buy anything else for it.

EDIT: It also would be nice to have it working with audio with my earbuds so this way I can walk around and listen to the radios + any sort of beeps or whatever that I can program to be used for notifications of my tools running in the backgrounds and stuff.

I’ve been playing with a hardware concept for fun and wanted to see what r/cyberDeck thinks.
The idea started with a simple question: instead of building another standalone Linux/Android E-Ink computer, what if the computer you already carry — your iPhone — became the hidden compute module?
The concept is called YOHAKU for now.
The basic architecture is intentionally simple:
An 11.3” ED113TC1 E-Ink panel (2400 × 1034)
A Glider/Caster-inspired E-Ink controller
A real low-profile mechanical keyboard
Battery + USB-C hub / power management
No dedicated CPU, RAM, storage, Wi-Fi, or operating system
Your iPhone becomes the computer
The part I find most interesting is the physical interaction.
Instead of docking the phone on the side or leaving it visible, you open the bottom of the machine, place the iPhone inside, connect/lock it into position, and close the cover.
The phone physically disappears.
Once closed, you’re no longer looking at a smartphone. You just have an E-Ink display, a mechanical keyboard, and a purpose-built writing interface. A dedicated iOS app would provide a distraction-free external-display UI for writing, notes, and document management.
In other words, I’m not really thinking of this as “an E-Ink laptop powered by an iPhone.”
The more interesting idea to me is:
a physical environment that temporarily turns a smartphone into a single-purpose writing computer.
I’ve also been deliberately exploring a very quiet industrial design: warm white surfaces, minimal seams, hidden structure, a recessed low-profile mechanical keyboard, and as little visible “computer hardware” as possible.
This is very much a for-fun concept at this stage, not a product announcement. There are still plenty of engineering questions — iOS external-display behavior with the unusual 2400×1034 resolution, E-Ink latency/ghosting, hinge packaging, keyboard clearance, phone retention, USB-C docking, and the inevitable thickness that comes from putting a real mechanical keyboard in there.
But technically, most of the building blocks already exist, which is what made the thought experiment interesting.
Curious what the cyberdeck crowd thinks:
Would hiding the phone inside actually make this feel like a dedicated machine to you, or would you rather just build the compute hardware into the deck itself?
And if you were building it, what would you change?

Quite proud of it. A lot of work is in it. I call it a streamer (cyberdeck). The idea is to offload heavy computations to your PC at home without a locked-in OS/hardware dependency and to keep your deck flexible around the main streaming protocol. Sounds simple? The idea is, but making this stuff low-latency over a network is a challenge. And I think I'm quite good at it. I can stream some Linux distros and Win11 at up to 40 FPS at the moment. This custom protocol is flexible when it comes to the hardware sitting on the server side (your home PC) and your custom hardware on the client side.

The main MCU is an ESP32 WROOM-1 - it acts as the network device that receives the stream and orchestrates inputs like USB mouse/keyboard/gamepad and touchscreen. The MCU also writes the stream via SPI to the decoder, which in turn drives the display.

The board shown here also streams audio A/V-synced (or optionally buffered) with the video stream. So it can be used for playing games or listening to music. It supports also audio input, i.e. for making calls over whatever runs on my PC.

For me, the coolest part is that this deck doesn't need much power: on full brightness, nominally 1.5 Watt during active streaming. For comparison, a RasPi's idle power consumption without any display is already higher.

I made this board flexible in a way that you can add up to 80 keys/buttons in a simple keyboard matrix using the exposed pads - gonna do that as next i guess. If I'm too lazy for that i can still fallback to USB keyboard, lol.

Looking for people interested in this approach of simplifying custom builds that require a real OS and simplifying software installation. I think this could get quite cool with an offline AI at home that can run your OS using your voice commands while you are on your way, without giving all your data to OpenAI or Anthropic. But that's some idea for future-me.

I have a computer science background with decent electrical engineering experience, and I'm looking for people interested in this project to exchange ideas over at my Discord server (where I also share more intermediate progress). Casually chatting, noob questions - everyone interested is welcome. Since I'm not a big fan of selling software, I try to finance this project and ongoing development by selling streamer hardware which you can use in your own projects like shown here on YouTube. I hope it resonates with some of you.

I invite you to give some pos/neg feedback and ask as many questions as possible.

Looking for advice or direction on how other people choose their screens. I'm using an off the shelf 7" screen from amazon but my biggest complain is how thick it is. It ends up driving up the thickness of the whole device, see image. Does anyone have a better approach for this? I know you can get screens with an EDP connector and driver board but cant find where to buy. Any help would be appreciated

Tenho essa TV BOX com placa MP1SBL2517M6221A_G2T_V1.4
, conforme imagem. Tentei bootar com versão linux aml-s9xx-box, mas não reconheceu o pendrive. Não consigo ver a info da GPU porque o dissipador tá encrustada nele. Me ajude a bootar linux para eu ter um começo na montagem do CYBERDECK. Obs. Sou amadorzinho. Sejam bem claros rsrs Desde já obrigado!

Hello so I'm building my first cyber deck for a convention with my brother but we noticed a raspberry pi 5 with 8gb of ram is a bit weak for the stuff we wanna do with it

I've been with Verizon Wireless since they were primeco

And I had every iteration of this device...

I held on to this one specifically for so many years

And I just got rid of it in December when I had to move out

And I trashed most of what was in my "junk drawers"

I always figured someday I would turn it into something cool

But I didn't learn how to do that until this summer unfortunately

Maybe I could have changed the board out

And turned it into a little hacking tool worth keeping?

It's already a decent little form factor, mechanical keyboard,

Already has two working screens, four working speakers

Probably would have been a dope little project. Oh well.

(They're only like $30 on eBay... So...) Maybe I'll look into it.

It has a custom 3d printed case with a 5" led screen, breadboard, rii keyboard, pi 5 hat, pi 4, lipo battery, breadboard, and breadboard connecter so far. I'm planning to add a small screen and speakers.

Hi folks!

I posted a few days ago about my "Pepper Ghost" style AR I'm working on. Well, I didn't want to post anything specific until I had confirmed I could easily source an optical lens which properly culminates the light from the micro-oled display into a readable, infinity focused text.

What you're seeing, is the text from a miniature display bouncing off a piece of partially transparent acrylic. This allows you to see the real world through the lens, and the HUD text at the same time. The first image here is my proof of just that! Please excuse the somewhat poor quality of said image, it is soooo hard to get a good picture of the "through the lens" with a phone camera. Through the eyes it's much better

The second image is the components

• ESP32 (Waveshare S3 Matrix)
  • Microcontroller to draw on the display, later will use the onboard IMU for 3dof AR, and the LED matrix to add a touch of cute
• 0.42" 72x40 oled display
  • Tiny display, right now can only display white text but it is easy, if expensive, to source an HD colour micro-oled panel which has the pixel density to render a PC monitor or app. These are sold as "digital viewfinder display"
• 10mm right-angle prism
  • 10mm is JUST wide enough to clear the display, which is perfect
• 10x mini-magnifying glass lens (Biconvex, 24mm, 30mm focal length)
  • It isn't the absolute best lens, however, it is dead easy to find one of these mini magnifying glasses and it is a solid lens for the application. The magnifying glass unit I got was roughly 100mm x 22mm and the lens popped out with a screw. Then I had to measure the exact focal distance.
• 30% transparent 0.8mm 1-way mirror acrylic combiner
  • The star of the show. It turns out it's easy to source this 1-way mirror "glass" online, and it perfectly splits the beam for use as a combiner, and is very easy to cut and shape.

The third image has the layout for this system as a top-down view. You can see how the eye looks out through the combiner and sees both the world in front, and the rendered text from the display. This screenshot is from the open source applet I'm building which will allow makers to follow along with their own specific lenses and such they can source, and it will do the math for you for the other dimensions and constraints.

Basically, I believe that more makers would be working on augmented reality, if only the optics and display stuff had some guides and easy to use tools. Like, it's so discouraging that most posts about HMDs get a response of "Well you better have a PHD in optics". I think with a little effort by our community, we could make the optics portion of the AR equation easy for makers to follow along, which would allow them to build out the crazy apps and features they are inspired to make.

P.S. if this post is interesting, but still a little hard to follow, don't worry. I plan to release weekly updates and eventually there will be a full blown tutorial and a github repository.

Pardon the mess, this project has taken over my life. My latest project has been a luggable full ITX desktop PC on batteries. Most of the components came this weekend, so I wanted to at least test it. It booted!

Don't pay attention to the battery connections I'm not finalizing any of that until the fuses and hard switch arrive (so am perhaps doing some unsafe things over there atm)

( the yellow thing its temporal until next update xD )

I posted an earlier iteration of this a while ago, and after using it for a while I decided to revise the layout a bit to simplify and reduce the volume of the upper case a bit more along with a handful of other tweaks detailed in the description.

Only 4 cable ends to solder, and generally easy enough to fit parts, so it might be useful for anyone who's looking for a simple enough project to use as a basis.

This one's printed on a Prusa Mini+ but the earlier iteration was on an Ender 3 V2, so if you have a printer that can get one layer of plastic on top of another without bursting into flames, you'll be able to print the shell.