From dcfb172704f3afb68a30425029ec834be2883274 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: bt Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2024 13:22:19 -0400 Subject: More content porting, on-going markdown changes for lowdown support --- build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html | 195 +++++++++++++++++++++++-------------- 1 file changed, 122 insertions(+), 73 deletions(-) (limited to 'build/cheap-portable-pi') diff --git a/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html b/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html index 8d49827..5da494c 100644 --- a/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html +++ b/build/cheap-portable-pi/index.html @@ -1,40 +1,53 @@ - + Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal - - + + +
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Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal

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Portable Pi: Cheap Raspberry Pi Zero Hacker Terminal

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2020-09-16

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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 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 avoid any custom casings or need for 3D printed materials
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  • I wanted to make the full design extremely portable / lightweight
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  • 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:

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    With these constraints put in place, I built my very own Raspberry Pi Zero “hacker” terminal. You can see the finished product below:

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    Portable Pi front

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    Portable Pi back

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    I'm pretty happy with the final outcome and best of all - you can easily recreate this yourself with little-to-no effort!

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    So enough chit-chat - let's build this bad-boy!

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    Note: Most items in the hardware section are Amazon affiliate links

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    I’m pretty happy with the final outcome and best of all - you can easily recreate this yourself with little-to-no effort!

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    So enough chit-chat - let’s build this bad-boy!

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    Note: Most items in the hardware section are Amazon affiliate links

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    Table of Contents

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    Table of Contents

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    1. Setting Expectations
    2. The Hardware
      3. @@ -42,35 +55,51 @@
    3. Getting Setup
    4. Final Summary
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    Setting Expectations

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    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.

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    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.

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    Moving on for those still interested...

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    The Hardware

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    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.

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    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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    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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    Raspberry Pi Zero WH

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    Raspberry Pi Zero WH

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    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)

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    Li-Ion Battery HAT

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    Li-Ion Battery HAT

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    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.

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    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.

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    3.5-inch TFT Display

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    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.

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    Micro USB OTG Adapter

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    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.

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    3.5-inch TFT Display

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    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.

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    Micro USB OTG Adapter

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    As mentioned above, this item is optional if you feel more comfortable with using a pure bluetooth keyboard. I just personally prefer this method.

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    Wireless Keyboard

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    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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    The Software

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    Wireless Keyboard

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    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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    Getting Setup

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    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.

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    Preparing the microSD card

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    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.

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    Preparing the microSD card

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    • Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write the Raspberry Pi Lite OS to your microSD card +

    • Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write the Raspberry Pi Lite OS to your microSD card +

      • Once complete, remove the microSD storage device and then re-connect it
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    • Navigate to the boot folder of the microSD device - we will be adding 2 files here +

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  • Navigate to the boot folder of the microSD device - we will be adding 2 files here +

    • First add a completely empty file and name it ssh (no file extension)
    • Next add an empty file named wpa_supplicant.conf
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  • Open the wpa_supplicant.conf file in a code / text editor and paste the following (be sure to change country to your proper country code, as well as properly setting your network name / password):
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    ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
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  • Open the wpa_supplicant.conf file in a code / text editor and paste the following (be sure to change country to your proper country code, as well as properly setting your network name / password):
    
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    ctrlinterface=DIR=/var/run/wpasupplicant GROUP=netdev
 update_config=1
-country=US
+country=US
    
 
-network={
-    ssid="Your network name/SSID"
-    psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key"
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    network={
+    ssid="Your network name/SSID”
+    psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key”
     key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
-}
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    • -
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    • Unmount the microSD device, then place the microSD card in your RPi Zero
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    • 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
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    • Turn on the battery HAT switch to power the RPi Zero. Give the device roughly 90 seconds to perform the initial boot
      • +}

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    • Unmount the microSD device, then place the microSD card in your RPi Zero

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    • 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

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    • Turn on the battery HAT switch to power the RPi Zero. Give the device roughly 90 seconds to perform the initial boot

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    Note: the display will turn on but only show a white screen - this is normal

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    Note: the display will turn on but only show a white screen - this is normal

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    Connecting to your Zero via SSH

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    Connecting to your Zero via SSH

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    Open the terminal on your Raspberry Pi desktop and enter the following command:

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    ssh pi@raspberrypi.local
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    You will then be asked if you wish to trust this device (say yes), then prompted for the pi user's password - which is raspberry. After a moment you will be directly connected to your Raspberry Pi Zero. Hooray!

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    You will then be asked if you wish to trust this device (say yes), then prompted for the pi user’s password - which is raspberry. After a moment you will be directly connected to your Raspberry Pi Zero. Hooray!

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    We just want to make a couple small configuration changes before going forward (mostly for security):

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    1. Run the command sudo raspi-config
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    2. Select "Change User Password" from the menu and change the password
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    Raspberry config

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  • Select “Change User Password” from the menu and change the password +Raspberry config
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  • After that, select “Network Options” and change your device name -
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    1. After that, select "Network Options" and change your device name
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      • This will avoid any conflicts of connecting to newer RPi devices down the line
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    - This will avoid any conflicts of connecting to newer RPi devices down the line

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    That's it!

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    Installing display driver

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    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:

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    wget http://kedei.net/raspberry/v6_1/LCD_show_v6_1_3.tar.gz
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    That’s it!
    
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    Installing display driver
    
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    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:
    
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    wget http://kedei.net/raspberry/v6_1/LCD_show_v6_1_3.tar.gz
 
    
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    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.
    
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    Once the download has finished, extract the contents and navigate to the new directory and install the driver:
    
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    sudo tar xzf LCD_show_v6_1_3.tar.gz
 cd LCD_show_v6_1_3
-sudo ./LCD35_v
+sudo ./LCD35_v
 
    
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    Once completed, the RPi Zero will reboot and everything should work as expected!
    
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    Installing software
    
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    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:
    
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    Installing software
    
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    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:
    
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    • Neomutt (emails)
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    • Lynx (quick and simple web browsing)
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    • Nano (writing notes / blog posts in a hurry)
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    • Nano (writing notes / blog posts in a hurry)
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    • Vim (making any config edits or project work)
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    Final Summary
    
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    There you have it - a terminal-based, portable Raspberry Pi Zero "hacker" device. 
    
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    Is it practical? Not really. Can it replace any other portable 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?
    
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    There you have it - a terminal-based, portable Raspberry Pi Zero “hacker” device. 
    
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    Is it practical? Not really. Can it replace any other portable 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?