from Hacker News

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

by felixr on 8/2/24, 1:34 PM with 158 comments

• by teraflop on 8/2/24, 4:47 PM

  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 the same state-of-charge, then you're going to get a very large current flowing from the higher-voltage battery to the lower-voltage one, probably significantly exceeding the batteries' rated current limits. At best this wastes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, and at worst it could be a fire hazard.

  [1]: https://github.com/ZitaoTech/Hackberry-Pi_Zero/blob/main/Sch...

• by ndsipa_pomu on 8/2/24, 3:50 PM

  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.

• by mafuyu on 8/2/24, 5:37 PM

  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.

• by heavyset_go on 8/2/24, 9:54 PM

  Back in the day, the Nokia N770/N810/N900 line fit the bill for this perfectly. Its form factor was perfect for the "Linux terminal in your pocket" use case.

  Might be something to look into for design inspiration.

• by notpeter on 8/2/24, 2:10 PM

  Very similar to the Beepberry. Exciting to see someone else building into that form factor. Also love to fun to see the Nokia BL-5C battery (originally introduced in the Nokia 3650 in 2003) still alive and kicking 20years later.

  https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/

• by GardenLetter27 on 8/2/24, 4:36 PM

  It looks cool, but I've found the Steam Deck is the only portable computer that's versatile enough for me to actually use for all sorts of different stuff.

• by anotherjesse on 8/2/24, 2:38 PM

  Has anyone built something like this in the hiptop/sidekick format?

  If not, this might be a good second option for hacking together a chat device for LLMs with notes

  I had been thinking about using https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck as a base - but prefer using Linux to microcontrollers

• by jeden on 8/3/24, 8:56 AM

  Such computers are cool, but fat and inconvenient. I don't understand why decent companies like ibm, samsung or others won't make a Linux handheld seriously. With a good processor that will be power efficient and run for a long time on a single charge.

  Terminal and ssh will suffice in many cases. People a lot of time used only terminal and live.

• by neon_me on 8/2/24, 3:22 PM

  Would love to see "real phone" version w gsm/lte module and at least a day lasting battery (optimization)

• by jll29 on 8/2/24, 5:40 PM

  I want my Blackberry back badly, and this project is giving me hope.

  The case it a bit too big, there are still battery issues, and of course a 5G card + microphone + loudspeaker need to be added.

  But perhaps the day will come that I can roll that wheel to view my emails again, use that excellent small keyboard to reply without having to touch glass.

• by afandian on 8/2/24, 2:51 PM

  I bought the Bluetooth keyboard from this maker, ZitaoTech. The fit and finish was excellent. Highly recommended.

• by johnklos on 8/2/24, 5:55 PM

  I'd love one of these!

  I just built a portable enclosure with a charge controller, USB hub, ethernet and four 18650 batteries. While The Hackberry Pi Zero would've been a lot easier (assuming I'd've just bought one instead of making it myself), the only downside is the battery life. My application is for having a server that travels with me and is on 100% of the time, sometimes running on battery for hours at a time.

  This, though, is so much smaller... It's definitely something to consider when they're shipping.

  Edit: just read, "Main Processor: Only compaticable with Raspberry pi zero 2w." I wonder why it's not compatible with the original Zero. Is it just that the drivers and preinstalled OS are 64 bit? Even though the 2W is more performant per watt, it still takes more absolute power. Hmmm.

• by atrus on 8/2/24, 1:59 PM

  This is one of the very few Cyberdeck kinda things that looks like it could be actually useful. I love it!

• by wifipunk on 8/2/24, 3:33 PM

  I've been wanting to build my own handheld ever since I picked up a 3d printer so the last few months I've been checking these builds out. The blackberry keyboard is my favorite part of the build, definitely going to do the same for mine. Looks great with the casing.

• by squarefoot on 8/2/24, 8:06 PM

  FYI, there was a board named Hackberry over 10 years ago not related to the Raspberries. It employed the Allwinner A10 CPU and had WiFi on board, which was not common back in the day. It however lacked any exposed GPIO which made it unsuitable for hardware hacking, but had good audio (much much better than the RPis available back then) and decent overall performance. I still have one somewhere and recall using it both as webradio receiver for music and with SDR dongles using rtl_tcp. Later, smaller and better boards such as the NanoPi M1 turned out more useful for remote SDR applications.

  https://linux-sunxi.org/Miniand_Hackberry

• by zitterbewegung on 8/2/24, 2:37 PM

  Wow this is amazing it’s the best cyber deck I have ever seen or would consider using. I wonder if you could get rid of one battery and shove in a 4g LTE modem connected to a usb port.

• by petschge on 8/2/24, 7:32 PM

  If that thing had VGA-in on top of the keyboard and mouse out via USB, it would be a great tool to carry in a data center when you have to physically interact with a machine.

• by KennyBlanken on 8/2/24, 7:58 PM

  > There is a red switch on the left side to decide if the keyboard controller communicates with the HackberryPi or with other device through the USBC-Port underneath.

  OK, having it be able to function as an emergency USB keyboard is pretty cool, though I think I'd prefer emulation of a USB device so I could run a sequence of commands, inject usernames and passwords for logins, etc.

• by starik36 on 8/2/24, 3:42 PM

  There is also the Tindie Null 2 kit - it's built around Rapsberry Pi Zero 2W. I picked one up several years ago and built a gameboy replacement of sorts. It was a lot of fun. Lots of soldering.

  https://www.tindie.com/products/ampersand/null-2-kit/

• by dchuk on 8/2/24, 2:07 PM

  This form factor is so tempting. I’ve gotten close to pulling the trigger on the minimal phone like 5 times but just don’t know if I can actually reasonably switch from my iPhone and not end up annoyed with the change (https://www.minimalcompany.com/).

  But a calm, keyboard oriented device just seems great.

• by RecycledEle on 8/3/24, 2:30 PM

  I wish someone would make a 5" to 7" clamshell "laptop" that runs a Linux command line and lasts forever on an internal lithium (or replaceable AA) battery.

  I want the retro feel of mini laptops back when GUIs were only on $20k UNIX workstations.

• by ntw1103 on 8/2/24, 2:35 PM

  Looks super awesome. I've been slowly working towards building pretty much the same thing, but haven't had enough time to finish. I added myself to the wait list. Intend to purchase 3 if I'm able to. Getting everything into such a nice packet is very cool.

• by keheliya on 8/2/24, 2:48 PM

  Amazing! How hard will it be to replace the screen to an eInk one similar to the beepberry/beepy? I love everything except the screen, and I assume eInk will be the perfect match considering the terminal and power consumption.

• by ianpenney on 8/2/24, 7:18 PM

  See also: Lilygo Tdeck

  https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck

  Runs meshtastic:

  https://meshtastic.org/

  The new UI is being developed right now…

  https://youtu.be/mtFwETD7nY4?feature=shared

• by rbanffy on 8/2/24, 2:04 PM

  If it used the Blackberry Passport format (and screen) I'd love it even more.

• by bee_rider on 8/2/24, 2:38 PM

  It looks neat.

  It is a shame, though, to use an RPi and not exploit the GPIO pins a little more. Maybe add a slot on the side to fit some probes or something?

  I guess the Pi is all digital anyway so maybe the pins are not as interesting…

• by pipeline_peak on 8/3/24, 1:00 AM

  I wonder why the two switch system was necessary. Would an auto switch when an external keyboard is plugged in require something that would drain resources like a hardware listener?

• by rogerpeters on 8/2/24, 4:48 PM

  Are there any compact 4G/5G boards which can be plugged into this for outside connectivity? Last I looked, these breakout boards were far too cumbersome.

• by forinti on 8/2/24, 4:50 PM

  It's nice, but I would use something with a bit more memory. An Orange Pi Zero 2W with 4GB maybe.

  512MB nowadays is only practical if you don't use a GUI.

• by more_corn on 8/2/24, 1:59 PM

  This is super neat! Well done. Very well done. I love the dual battery, hard power switch, good keyboard.

  I know how hard it is to do these right and I’m impressed.

• by znpy on 8/3/24, 1:04 PM

  I wonder if selling this as a kit with parts to solder and assemble would make it easier to sell more of these.

• by joemazerino on 8/2/24, 3:17 PM

  Awesome work.

  Know any surplus stores that carry BB keyboards?

• by marcodiego on 8/2/24, 2:08 PM

  I wonder if simply adding one of these ESP with GSM builtin would turn this into a practical linux phone.

• by amelius on 8/2/24, 2:47 PM

  Is there a page where they describe where they sourced the components, e.g. screen and keyboard?

• by swores on 8/2/24, 2:02 PM

  I wasn't expecting to see buy now links, so I wasn't too disappointed when I did see them but found they both say out of stock - was completely ready to impulse buy the BB Q20 keyboard version (or either, really!) and hope that having registered to hear it more being sold I'll be able to get one.

  I'd almost be tempted to try to put one together myself, but it's not something I'd find particularly easy and there's other stuff I'd rather spend time on. But might be tempted...

• by anonzzzies on 8/2/24, 2:05 PM

  Shame it's not available for purchase at the moment. Would like one.

• by 83457 on 8/2/24, 3:04 PM

  Looks like it could be a great pocket device for pico-8 development.

• by tempodox on 8/2/24, 9:18 PM

  The name alone is ingenious. I'm completely enamored.

• by Havoc on 8/2/24, 8:12 PM

  Is the keyboard original? The one on the q20 bb was great

• by szundi on 8/3/24, 7:57 AM

  I love these gadgets

• by idiotsecant on 8/2/24, 4:01 PM

  I want this so bad.

• by jejeyyy77 on 8/2/24, 5:47 PM

  nice!

• by helpfulContrib on 8/2/24, 3:29 PM

  I'm quite enamoured by the uConsole [0] .. I've had it for a few weeks and find myself reaching for it more and more, having set it up with the close family/friends Discord channels .. its nice having a machine just for the task, kind of thing. It would be so nice for a few more of my friends/family to have such little things, and leave the world of third-party-based social communication well and truly behind ..

  Surely, somewhere out there, someone has a small fleet of these cyberdecks, connected with tunnels, doing nicely secure communication ..

  [0] - https://www.clockworkpi.com

• by swayvil on 8/2/24, 8:47 PM

  The keyboard is the weak link.

  We need a better voice to text. One that tunes into its user's voice perfectly without getting distracted. And that you can subvocalize at.

  An optimized spoken language for talking to phones too. Something harsh, insectile and dystopian.