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| author | Bradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org> | 2024-06-06 08:05:12 -0400 |
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| committer | Bradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org> | 2024-06-06 08:05:12 -0400 |
| commit | 6b742c459266b18e2b375b35205ce8a6c02f0452 (patch) | |
| tree | b16fbb9a045e33dd6c97eb5ab72e6ff4d9237ea3 /build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html | |
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diff --git a/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html b/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d49827 --- /dev/null +++ b/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,175 @@ +<!doctype html> +<html lang="en" id="top"> +<head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <link rel="icon" href="data:,"> + <title>Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal</title> + <link href="https://bt.ht/atom.xml" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Atom feed for blog posts" /> + <style>*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{font-family:sans-serif;margin:0 auto;max-width:650px;padding:1rem;}img{max-width:100%;}pre{overflow:auto;}table{text-align:left;width:100%;}</style> +</head> + +<nav> + <a href="#menu">Menu ↓</a> +</nav> + +<main> +<h1>Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal</h1> +<p>2020-09-16</p> +<p><em>I recently came across <a href="https://n-o-d-e.net/zeroterminal3.html">the incredibly cool design</a> for an "ultimate Raspberry Pi computer"</em> by NODE and was inspired to create my own "portable" Pi device. Although, with my concept, I decided to set a few restrictions on the build:</p> +<ul> +<li>I wanted to keep the total cost as low as possible +<ul> +<li>including the Pi Zero <em>and</em> extra hardware</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>I wanted to avoid any custom casings or need for 3D printed materials</li> +<li>I wanted to make the full design extremely portable / lightweight</li> +<li>I wanted to keep the build as user-friendly as possible (no soldering, odd hacks etc.)</li> +</ul> +<p>With these constraints put in place, I built my very own Raspberry Pi Zero "hacker" terminal. You can see the finished product below:</p> +<p><img src="/public/images/portable-pi-1.webp" alt="Portable Pi front" /></p> +<p><img src="/public/images/portable-pi-2.webp" alt="Portable Pi back" /></p> +<p>I'm pretty happy with the final outcome and best of all - you can easily recreate this yourself with little-to-no effort!</p> +<p>So enough chit-chat - let's build this bad-boy!</p> +<blockquote><p><strong>Note:</strong> Most items in the hardware section are Amazon affiliate links</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>Table of Contents</h2> +<ol> +<li><a href="#expectations">Setting Expectations</a></li> +<li><a href="#hardware">The Hardware</a></li> +<li><a href="#software">The Software</a></li> +<li><a href="#setup">Getting Setup</a></li> +<li><a href="#summary">Final Summary</a></li> +</ol> +<p><h2 id="expectations">Setting Expectations</h2></p> +<p><strong>This hardware will not</strong> replace your laptop or any other "high-powered" portable device. Honestly, you're mobile phone would (most likely) work better in terms of a compact-sized computer. The concept behind this "portable pi" project was to make something <em>for fun</em>.</p> +<p>Please reserve any sassy comments about how buying a cheap $50 laptop off eBay would be more efficient than building out something like I have done here. You're missing the point entirely.</p> +<p>Moving on for those still interested... </p> +<p><h2 id="hardware">The Hardware</h2></p> +<p>I live in Canada, so some of the options are based on available hardware near my location. You're likely to find similar hardware close to your own country for better pricing / shipping costs.</p> +<blockquote><p><strong>Note</strong>: I've decided to use a wireless, USB dongle-based keyboard. You can opt to use a bluetooth-based keyboard, but I just find them more trouble than they are worth (keeping a charge, losing connections, interference from other devices)</p> +</blockquote> +<ul> +<li>SBC: <a href="https://amzn.to/3jCVXHG">Raspberry Pi Zero WH</a></li> +<li>Storage / OS: <a href="https://amzn.to/2GHm01R">64GB Micro SD Card</a> (Always have an SD backup!)</li> +<li>Battery HAT: <a href="https://amzn.to/3jGq8xp">Li-ion Battery HAT</a></li> +<li>Battery: <em>This depends on your location. I was able to order <a href="https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Brand-New-4-Pcs-2500mAh-TR14500-3-7V-Rechargeable-Li-ion-Battery-for-Flashlight-Torch/PRD3Z73LMZZ3VK9">online through Walmart</a>, but if you live in the USA there are plenty of battery-specific vendors available. Find whatever works best for your needs!</em></li> +<li>Display: <a href="https://www.buyapi.ca/product/3-5-inch-raspberry-pi-tft-display/">KeDei 3.5-inch TFT Display</a></li> +<li>Keyboard: <a href="https://amzn.to/2Gqkwt6">Mini USB Wireless Keyboard</a></li> +<li>Adapter: <a href="https://amzn.to/36I6T3c">Micro USB OTG Cable</a></li> +</ul> +<h4>Raspberry Pi Zero WH</h4> +<p>You will need a Raspberry Pi Zero W with GPIO header pins already soldered on to the board. (You could also do this yourself manually if you have the tools and skill to do so)</p> +<h4>Li-Ion Battery HAT</h4> +<p>This HAT holds a single li-ion battery and for our purposes will connect with our Pi Zero via the GPIO header pins. You could also look into double-set battery HATs if that is something you would prefer - for my needs a single rechargeable battery works fine.</p> +<p>Since our main "OS" is purely terminal based, I find you don't really need a li-ion battery with a massive amount of power storage. 2500mAh will easily last a handful of hours mucking about with emails, files and web browsing. Plus, you can always carry a few extras for swapping out on-the-go.</p> +<h4>3.5-inch TFT Display</h4> +<p>A simple and fairly cheap touchscreen display. We won't require our display to render videos or pretty graphics (since we will be entirely terminal-based) so this works just fine for our needs. I am using version 6.3 for this build.</p> +<h4>Micro USB OTG Adapter</h4> +<p>As mentioned above, this item is optional if you feel more comfortable with using a pure bluetooth keyboard. I just personally prefer this method.</p> +<h4>Wireless Keyboard</h4> +<p>In my product demo image at the beginning of the article, I'm actually using an old Logitech wireless keyboard since this one still hasn't arrived. I plan to swap them out once I have it - the Logitech is far to large to be deemed "portable".</p> +<p><h2 id="software">The Software</h2></p> +<ul> +<li>Operating System: <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspberry-pi-os/">Raspberry Pi OS Lite</a></li> +<li>Display Driver: <a href="http://kedei.net/raspberry/raspberry.html">KeDei 3.5 Driver</a></li> +<li>Email: <a href="https://github.com/LukeSmithxyz/mutt-wizard">Neomutt</a> (via Mutt Wizard)</li> +<li>Web Browser: <a href="https://lynx.browser.org/">Lynx</a></li> +<li>Text Editor: <a href="https://www.nano-editor.org/">Nano</a></li> +<li>Code Editor: <a href="https://www.vim.org/">Vim</a></li> +</ul> +<p><h2 id="setup">Getting Setup</h2></p> +<p>I will be setting up this "portable pi" via <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/headless.md">headless installation</a> with my main <a href="https://uglyduck.ca/my-pi-desktop/">Raspberry Pi 4 desktop</a>. Included below are some quick instructions on how to setup the Raspberry Pi Zero for <code>ssh</code> access.</p> +<h4>Preparing the microSD card</h4> +<ul> +<li>Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write the Raspberry Pi Lite OS to your microSD card +<ul> +<li>Once complete, remove the microSD storage device and then re-connect it</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Navigate to the <code>boot</code> folder of the microSD device - we will be adding 2 files here +<ul> +<li>First add a completely empty file and name it <code>ssh</code> (no file extension)</li> +<li>Next add an empty file named <code>wpa_supplicant.conf</code></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Open the <code>wpa_supplicant.conf</code> file in a code / text editor and paste the following (be sure to change <code>country</code> to your proper country code, as well as properly setting your network name / password):</li> +</ul> +<pre><code>ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev +update_config=1 +country=US + +network={ + ssid="Your network name/SSID" + psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key" + key_mgmt=WPA-PSK +} +</code></pre> +<ul> +<li>Unmount the microSD device, then place the microSD card in your RPi Zero</li> +<li>Assemble the Raspberry Pi Zero with the Battery HAT (li-ion battery attached) connected via GPIO pins, and the 3.5 display connected on-top of the battery HAT's pins</li> +<li>Turn on the battery HAT switch to power the RPi Zero. Give the device roughly 90 seconds to perform the initial boot</li> +</ul> +<blockquote><p><strong>Note</strong>: the display will turn on but only show a white screen - this is normal</p> +</blockquote> +<h4>Connecting to your Zero via SSH</h4> +<p>Open the terminal on your Raspberry Pi desktop and enter the following command:</p> +<pre><code>ssh pi@raspberrypi.local +</code></pre> +<p>You will then be asked if you wish to trust this device (say yes), then prompted for the <code>pi</code> user's password - which is <code>raspberry</code>. After a moment you will be directly connected to your Raspberry Pi Zero. Hooray!</p> +<p>We just want to make a couple small configuration changes before going forward (mostly for security):</p> +<ol> +<li>Run the command <code>sudo raspi-config</code></li> +<li>Select "Change User Password" from the menu and change the password</li> +</ol> +<p> <img src="/public/images/raspi-config.webp" alt="Raspberry config" /></p> + +<ol start="3"> +<li>After that, select "Network Options" and change your device name</li> +</ol> +<p> - This will avoid any conflicts of connecting to newer RPi devices down the line</p> +<p>That's it!</p> +<h4>Installing display driver</h4> +<p>Next we will need to download and run the drivers needed for our 3.5-inch display to play nicely with our Pi Zero (just a blank white screen doesn't help us much). While connected to our RPi Zero via SSH, run the following commands:</p> +<pre><code>wget http://kedei.net/raspberry/v6_1/LCD_show_v6_1_3.tar.gz +</code></pre> +<p>If you have snail-paced rural internet like I do, now is a good time to go and grab a coffee while this download completes.</p> +<p>Once the download has finished, extract the contents and navigate to the new directory and install the driver:</p> +<pre><code>sudo tar xzf LCD_show_v6_1_3.tar.gz +cd LCD_show_v6_1_3 +sudo ./LCD35_v +</code></pre> +<p>Once completed, the RPi Zero will reboot and everything should work as expected!</p> +<h4>Installing software</h4> +<p>I'm not going to jump into heavy details about installing terminal-based software for this setup. The links I've attached in the software section should provide you with more than enough information to get started. For reference, I'm using a very basic set of applications:</p> +<ul> +<li>Neomutt (emails)</li> +<li>Lynx (quick and simple web browsing)</li> +<li>Nano (writing notes / blog posts in a hurry)</li> +<li>Vim (making any config edits or project work)</li> +</ul> +<p><h2 id="summary">Final Summary</h2></p> +<p>There you have it - a terminal-based, portable Raspberry Pi Zero "hacker" device. </p> +<p>Is it practical? Not really. Can it replace any other <em>portable</em> device you might own? Probably not. Is it fun to make and experiment on? You bet! And in the end - isn't that what matters most with pet Pi projects?</p> +<footer role="contentinfo"> + <h2>Menu Navigation</h2> + <ul id="menu"> + <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> + <li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li> + <li><a href="/uses">Uses</a></li> + <li><a href="/wiki">Wiki</a></li> + <li><a href="/resume">Resume</a></li> + <li><a href="/colophon">Colophon</a></li> + <li><a href="/now">Now</a></li> + <li><a href="/donate">Donate</a></li> + <li><a href="/atom.xml">RSS</a></li> + <li><a href="#top">↑ Top of the page</a></li> + </ul> + <small> + Built with <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/barf">barf</a>. <br> + Maintained with ♥ for the web. <br> + Proud supporter of <a href="https://usefathom.com/ref/DKHJVX">Fathom</a> & <a href="https://nextdns.io/?from=74d3p3h8">NextDNS</a>. <br> + The content for this site is <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC-BY-SA</a>.<br> The <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht">code for this site</a> is <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~bt/bt.ht/tree/master/item/LICENSE">MIT</a>. + </small> +</footer>
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