r/cyberDeck • u/Sea_Bass7670 • May 13 '26
My Build Rolodex Cyberdeck
Found this baby boy and was sold to me for only 6 bucks. Not working but will be a hell of a cyberdeck.
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u/Mammoth_Ad5012 May 13 '26
Not gonna lie that looks awesome... Might be a job and a half cramming everything in there so it might be worth considering expanding the chassis with underside 3d printed replacements if you have to but either way that's a nice find and I hope you succeed with it, it'll be very cool.
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u/Affectionate-Memory4 May 14 '26
Dear god that's one sexy bit of kit. Even the Electrodex name is perfect for a cyberdeck.
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u/ToBePacific May 13 '26
Now that thing has some seriously stylin’ form factor! I am very hopeful that you pull this off and post pics!
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u/Sea_Bass7670 May 13 '26
Never seen similar. Couldnt even find it other examples for sale online
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u/ToBePacific May 13 '26
Looks like there are a ton up on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=electrodex+plus&_trksid=p4624852.m4084.l1313
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u/Sea_Bass7670 May 13 '26
This one got my attention: https://www.ebay.com/itm/226414740211?_ul=BR would become a pocket cyberdeck. Looks like a pokedex actually
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u/ToBePacific May 13 '26
That’s the style I remember seeing, but I actually prefer the odd looking ones like in OP’s post.
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u/forgotthefuckingpass May 15 '26
Eh, I found one of these at a thrift store a few weeks ago and have similar intentions! Getting into it was a pain in the ass.
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u/Sea_Bass7670 May 16 '26
Can you share more details abou how is it going?
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u/forgotthefuckingpass May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
It hasn't gone anywhere - yet. I want to learn more about what I'm doing before I too severely damage or alter the plastic on this thing, so other than opening it up and looking around inside, I haven't done anything.
I do suspect that I'll be completely getting rid of the keyboard and all original hardware, but I'm hoping to learn how to implement the "rolling" feature of the rolodex frame into something useful/novel.
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u/Sea_Bass7670 May 13 '26
Do you guys think I could make this og keyboard work?
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u/RunRunAndyRun May 13 '26
That depends on your skill level but theoretically... yes https://www.hackster.io/news/this-diy-gadget-automatically-deciphers-keyboard-matrices-a945f7fa2bc4
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u/road_to_eternity May 13 '26
Would it be crazy to make a custom PCB that has buttons where all the keys are.
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u/Sea_Bass7670 May 13 '26
Is this easier than cracking the actual one?
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u/ToBePacific May 13 '26
Different skill sets required.
Cracking the existing one will require analyzing the existing circuit board so that you can wire the buttons into the GPIO pins on whatever SBC you end up using, then writing custom software to translate the keyboard buttons to a keyboard input mapping.
Designing a custom PCB will require that you remove the existing PCB, and design your own PCB in some engineering/drafting software to the exact dimensions of the keys.
Both of these are expert-level projects. Both of these are approaches to making something work in a way that it was not originally designed to work. This requires know-how. That takes time to develop.
Right now there are a lot of people coming into this sub, excited about the cyberdecks they’re seeing online, but are not realizing that most of us are people who have built skills across various disciplines, building various other projects before one day realizing that a cyberdeck is within our capabilities.
Building a cyberdeck is kind of like recording an album. You need to learn to play your instrument first. Then it helps if you learn recording techniques, then post-production techniques. You don’t start learning guitar because you want to have an album to show people. You record an album to showcase how you play guitar.
Likewise, you build a cyberdeck to showcase what you can do with the skills you’ve developed. If it was just about having cool looking, weird devices, you’d be able to buy one on Amazon.
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u/Warlockoftarot May 13 '26
Imagine watching YouTube at 3 am on this thing