Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal
+2020-09-16
+I recently came across the incredibly cool design for an “ultimate Raspberry Pi computer” 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:
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- I wanted to keep the total cost as low as possible
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- including the Pi Zero and extra hardware +
+ - I wanted to avoid any custom casings or need for 3D printed materials +
- I wanted to make the full design extremely portable / lightweight +
- I wanted to keep the build as user-friendly as possible (no soldering, odd hacks etc.) +
With these constraints put in place, I built my very own Raspberry Pi Zero “hacker” terminal. You can see the finished product below:
+ + +I’m pretty happy with the final outcome and best of all - you can easily recreate this yourself with little-to-no effort!
+So enough chit-chat - let’s build this bad-boy!
+++Note: Most items in the hardware section are Amazon affiliate links
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Table of Contents
+ +This hardware will not 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 for fun.
+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.
+Moving on for those still interested…
+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.
+++Note: 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)
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- SBC: Raspberry Pi Zero WH +
- Storage / OS: 64GB Micro SD Card (Always have an SD backup!) +
- Battery HAT: Li-ion Battery HAT +
- Battery: This depends on your location. I was able to order online through Walmart, but if you live in the USA there are plenty of battery-specific vendors available. Find whatever works best for your needs! +
- Display: KeDei 3.5-inch TFT Display +
- Keyboard: Mini USB Wireless Keyboard +
- Adapter: Micro USB OTG Cable +
Raspberry Pi Zero WH
+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)
+Li-Ion Battery HAT
+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.
+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.
+3.5-inch TFT Display
+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.
+Micro USB OTG Adapter
+As mentioned above, this item is optional if you feel more comfortable with using a pure bluetooth keyboard. I just personally prefer this method.
+Wireless Keyboard
+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”.
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- Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS Lite +
- Display Driver: KeDei 3.5 Driver +
- Email: Neomutt (via Mutt Wizard) +
- Web Browser: Lynx +
- Text Editor: Nano +
- Code Editor: Vim +
I will be setting up this “portable pi” via headless installation with my main Raspberry Pi 4 desktop. Included below are some quick instructions on how to setup the Raspberry Pi Zero for ssh
access.
Preparing the microSD card
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Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write the Raspberry Pi Lite OS to your microSD card +
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- Once complete, remove the microSD storage device and then re-connect it +