Tag Archives: Raspberry Pi

Retro-style handheld computer flaunts QWERTY keyboard and a Raspberry Pi

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It’s pretty amazing how much computing power can be crammed into a small space these days. After all, our smartphones are very capable computers themselves, but we also have handheld gaming PCs and single-board computers or SBCs that are no larger than (very thick) credit cards. The latter, popularized by the super-affordable Raspberry Pi, blasted wide open the doors to creative projects and gadgets, from mirrors that act as your smart home console to fictional cyberdeck computers brought to life. This latest design is one of the latter, offering a handheld computer with modern features and an aesthetic that seems to come from an alternate 80s timeline.

Designer: soulscircuit

Despite its size, the Raspberry Pi is a complete computer, one that can run desktop operating systems, including a trimmed-down version of Windows. With just the right peripherals, it can be used as a normal computer, and some have even turned the SBC into a laptop or even a desktop, complete with liquid cooling. These, however, don’t take full advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s small and portable size, a form that’s perfect for a handheld computer.

The Pilet 5 handheld console adds those essential missing parts to the barebones computer, turning it into a finished product that is usable the moment you turn it on. This form takes the shape of a rather chunky box with a 5-inch screen at the top and a QWERTY keyboard on the bottom half. This isn’t the first BlackBerry-like design powered by a Raspberry Pi and it definitely won’t be the last, but there are a few details that makes this project a bit interesting.

In addition to the keyboard, Pilet 5 has a four-direction D-pad as well as a tiny trackball on the right side of the device, while the opposite side has a joystick and a scroll wheel. These would definitely be more than enough to move the mouse, if the touchscreen still wasn’t enough, and they open up more use cases, like gaming for example. The aesthetic of the design is also less grungy and raw, unlike typical cyberpunk-inspired “cyberdecks.” The beige motif, gray buttons, and minimal colors give it a vibe similar to the consoles and computers from the late 80s and early 90s.

Just like the Pilet 7, formerly known as Consolo, the more compact Pilet 5 still promises a 7-hour battery life thanks to dual 8,000mAh batteries, just in a smaller and more complete form. That said, it does lose out on the appeal of a modular design that can adapt to almost any use case, which is what the Pilet 7 will bring to the table once it’s actually out.

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DIY tiny Windows XP PC is an extreme nostalgia trip

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Although the craze for old “retro” designs has gripped many industries, it has taken a rather odd direction in the computing and gaming worlds. More than just recreating the designs and experiences of the past, many retro computers or consoles also strangely decided to shrink those products down to sometimes unusable sizes. Though manufacturers like Nintendo have jumped on that bandwagon, the biggest push comes from makers and modders who now have a wide arsenal of tools available at their disposal, giving them the freedom to create or recreate almost any design imaginable. This painstaking DIY project, for example, tries to bring back the iconic beige computer boxes of the 90s in a way that’s almost usable, at least if you can manage squinting at a 4-inch screen.

Designer: Salim Benbouziyane

The PCs of the 90s and early 2000s aren’t really the epitome of inspired industrial design, which is why their rival Macs became the choice of designers, creators, and design-conscious users. Nonetheless, these geometric boxes were also the pinnacle of computing technology of that period, earning them their place not only in offices and homes but also in iconography. There are also quite a number of fond memories attached to these machines, which some more skilled craftsmen are now using to turn some of that nostalgia into a working PC, albeit a miniature one.

Patterned after one of the more common designs of Dell PCs, this tiny retro computer revives the spirit if not the function of those 90s computers. It’s pretty much a box-like CRT monitor sitting on top of another horizontal box which was the convention for desktop computers at that time. The attention to detail is pretty impressive, from the carved DELL branding to tiny “Intel Inside” and Windows decals.

It’s a completely functional computer, though not all represented features actually work. The floppy disk drives, for example, are naturally too small for any disk, but they happen to be the right side to let a micro SD card through. There are LED lights to indicate power and mimic the flickering “hard drive spinning” activity. On the software side, it convincingly mimics the Windows XP look and feel, but it’s actually a flavor of Linux designed for the Raspberry Pi that’s running inside. And, of course, it can run DOOM, just like any self-respecting computer.

As impressive as this intricate recreation might be, it is also one that is a true labor of love. It requires a lot of 3D printing, custom soldering, and fiddling with electronics, so it’s not something that just about anyone can do on their own. Fortunately, the instructions and materials for this project are all listed and available for anyone to see, reliving the spirit of openness and exploration that was also alive during that period.

The post DIY tiny Windows XP PC is an extreme nostalgia trip first appeared on Yanko Design.

DIY tiny Windows XP PC is an extreme nostalgia trip

Posted on by

Although the craze for old “retro” designs has gripped many industries, it has taken a rather odd direction in the computing and gaming worlds. More than just recreating the designs and experiences of the past, many retro computers or consoles also strangely decided to shrink those products down to sometimes unusable sizes. Though manufacturers like Nintendo have jumped on that bandwagon, the biggest push comes from makers and modders who now have a wide arsenal of tools available at their disposal, giving them the freedom to create or recreate almost any design imaginable. This painstaking DIY project, for example, tries to bring back the iconic beige computer boxes of the 90s in a way that’s almost usable, at least if you can manage squinting at a 4-inch screen.

Designer: Salim Benbouziyane

The PCs of the 90s and early 2000s aren’t really the epitome of inspired industrial design, which is why their rival Macs became the choice of designers, creators, and design-conscious users. Nonetheless, these geometric boxes were also the pinnacle of computing technology of that period, earning them their place not only in offices and homes but also in iconography. There are also quite a number of fond memories attached to these machines, which some more skilled craftsmen are now using to turn some of that nostalgia into a working PC, albeit a miniature one.

Patterned after one of the more common designs of Dell PCs, this tiny retro computer revives the spirit if not the function of those 90s computers. It’s pretty much a box-like CRT monitor sitting on top of another horizontal box which was the convention for desktop computers at that time. The attention to detail is pretty impressive, from the carved DELL branding to tiny “Intel Inside” and Windows decals.

It’s a completely functional computer, though not all represented features actually work. The floppy disk drives, for example, are naturally too small for any disk, but they happen to be the right side to let a micro SD card through. There are LED lights to indicate power and mimic the flickering “hard drive spinning” activity. On the software side, it convincingly mimics the Windows XP look and feel, but it’s actually a flavor of Linux designed for the Raspberry Pi that’s running inside. And, of course, it can run DOOM, just like any self-respecting computer.

As impressive as this intricate recreation might be, it is also one that is a true labor of love. It requires a lot of 3D printing, custom soldering, and fiddling with electronics, so it’s not something that just about anyone can do on their own. Fortunately, the instructions and materials for this project are all listed and available for anyone to see, reliving the spirit of openness and exploration that was also alive during that period.

The post DIY tiny Windows XP PC is an extreme nostalgia trip first appeared on Yanko Design.

Raspberry Pi Foundation Launches $70 AI Kit for Pi 5

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A rising tide lifts all boats, they say… and it seems like the AI tide is finally coming to help smaller creators harness the power of new technologies. The Raspberry Pi Foundation just unveiled their latest AI Kit that works with the Pi 5, bringing AI capabilities to hundreds of thousands of creators using the tiny computers to build their own hobby projects or even retail products. The versatile single-board computer has seen seismic growth since it was first introduced in 2012, more than a decade ago. As trends go, Raspberry Pi has also ensured its computers stay relevant, introducing features, capabilities, and modules that keep it on the cutting-edge of budget computer-building.

Developed in collaboration with Hailo, a leader in AI acceleration technology, the Raspberry Pi AI Kit is all about empowering users to build intelligent applications directly on their Raspberry Pi. Imagine creating real-time AI vision applications – object detection, facial recognition, pose estimation, and more – without relying on cloud processing.

Designer: Raspberry Pi Foundation

At the heart of the AI Kit lies the Hailo-8L AI accelerator module. This tiny powerhouse boasts a whopping 13 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of inferencing performance. That translates to real-time processing of complex AI tasks, with minimal power consumption – perfect for battery-powered projects or those seeking eco-friendly solutions.

One of the biggest challenges in AI development can be the complex software integration between cameras and AI frameworks. The Raspberry Pi team has addressed this head-on by simplifying the process. Their rpicam-apps suite now features a post-processing template specifically designed for integrating AI inferencing within the camera pipeline. With the pre-installed Hailo Tappas libraries, crafting advanced AI applications becomes achievable with just a few hundred lines of C++ code.

The Raspberry Pi AI Kit isn’t limited to rpicam-apps. The kit also includes an API that integrates with the GStreamer framework, allowing you to run inference on pre-recorded videos or build custom Python or C/C++ applications. This opens doors for a wider range of AI projects beyond camera-based solutions.

Installing the AI Kit software is a breeze. With just a few package installations through apt and a reboot, you’ll be ready to explore the exciting world of on-device AI within minutes. Their comprehensive getting started guide walks you through the entire process. The Raspberry Pi AI Kit is priced at $70, allowing all creators to tinker with artificial intelligence, building new products and helping grow the small creator community in lock-step with global innovation.

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Cute tiny desktop PC is a gaming-inspired case for the Raspberry Pi 5

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The Raspberry Pi, lovingly called RPi by fans, did for electronics what 3D printing did for design. It allowed almost anyone to come up with interesting, innovative, and sometimes just amusing projects that need a very small and cheap computer to function. The size of a credit card and less than $100 (going as low as $35 even!), the Raspberry Pi is a barebones and naked single-board computer (SBC) that you can insert almost anywhere and add to any design. That said, there are some use cases for the RPi that require a proper enclosure and those are a dime a dozen these days. This one case, in particular, goes over the top and puts the small pocket-sized computer inside a box that, for all intents and purposes, looks like a miniaturized gaming desktop, complete with multiple fans and RGB lighting.

Designer: Sunfounder

Truth be told, this Raspberry Pi 5 case really goes overboard considering the limitations of the computer in terms of performance. You’ll only ever be able to play very light computer games on it, so associating it with a gaming desktop seems out of character, but it definitely gives it some style. Then again, we did see an even more exaggerated liquid cooling system for the Raspberry Pi that makes this case actually look reasonable.

The Pironman 5, as the case is called, is also unlike the majority of Raspberry Pi cases in that it’s actually made of aluminum instead of plastic, just like a typical desktop tower. And like many gaming PCs these days, one side and a part of its back it made of transparent acrylic that lets you take a peek into the computer’s innards, not that there’s that much to see anyway. The RPi, after all, is just a single board that has everything soldered into it, but the case does have a few interesting bits that will make it worth looking into.

There are three fans, which is again overkill, and two of them have RGB lighting. Equally interesting is how the case exposes all the RPi’s ports on the case’s back, just like what you’d expect from a desktop computer, despite the board having those ports on different sides. There’s even a way to access the GPIO pins without opening up the case, making expansion and modification super easy. You can add an NVMe SSD or control the computer with an IR remote control, all of which are not available in the base Raspberry Pi.

The Pironman 5 is cute and eccentric, and few will probably be using the case aside from a few niche situations. It makes the single-board computer look more interesting and more usable as a desktop computer, but you pay the price in terms of space, power consumption, and the literal $80 cost. Then again, that’s the beauty of the culture that the RPi started, allowing anyone and everyone to come up with interesting designs, even if they turn out to be impractical in the end.

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Build your own NAS Cloud Drive using a Raspberry Pi 4 and a 3D Printer

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Why pay for iCloud when you’ve got your own personal iCloud at home?!

Subscriptions will be the death of our civilization. Imagine not being able to ‘own’ something because a company only allows you to rent it. You don’t own the movies you pay for on Netflix, you don’t own the music you pay for on Spotify, and you can’t own storage on the cloud because even though you’re buying 500GB worth of space, you’re merely renting the space on a cloud server somewhere. This strange arrangement has led to the rise of personal NAS (Network-Attached Storage) devices, with people choosing to simply BUILD their own cloud storage devices instead of paying Apple, Google, or Microsoft for them. The advantages of a NAS are many – you don’t need to pay monthly fees, your cloud-drive is private to you so you don’t have to worry about Google or Apple getting hacked and your data getting leaked, but most importantly, you can store and access files on your NAS from anywhere. Use it to take phone or laptop backups, to store/watch videos, or even build your own music/movie streaming library as the ultimate cord-cutting move!

Designer: Frank Bernhardt

If you’re looking to buy a NAS, there are quite a few out there, but if you want to try building your own, DIY-maker Frank Bernhardt managed to put together one using a Raspberry Pi 4 module, a few extra components, and a 3D-printed enclosure. His entire process is up on Instructables for anyone to see and make, although you’ll definitely require some technical knowledge to get the software up and running.

Bernhardt’s NAS runs on a Pi4 module, connected to an SSD. The entire enclosure’s printed out of plastic, with metal inserts to screw the NAS together. Instead of simple status LEDs, Bernhardt even put a functional screen on the front that displays messages and the time of day when sitting idle.

One of the primary considerations in this project is the design of the enclosure. The enclosure needed to meet several specifications: it should allow access to the power and network connectors from the rear while keeping the USB connectors inside for a clean aesthetic. The use of melt-in brass threaded inserts ensured durability, and the compact size made it printable on a standard 200 x 200 mm 3D printer bed. The design avoids the common 90-degree offset for connectors typical in Raspberry Pi cases, streamlining cable management. Moreover, the enclosure does not require active cooling, reducing noise and making it suitable for SSDs.

Here are the materials and components used in the entire build:
Devices for computing and storage

  • Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with power supply, 2GB RAM is sufficient
  • 32 GB micro SD card, SanDisk Extreme PRO recommended
  • One or two 2.5″ SATA hard disk drives, SSD recommended
  • One or two USB 3.0 to SATA adapter(s), Sabrent adapter(s) recommended

Software

  • Raspberry Pi Operating System Image (Pi OS Lite, 64-bit no desktop)
  • NAS Software for Raspberry Pi OS, openmediavault recommended

Component parts

  • 10 x M3 brass threaded inserts
  • 10 x M3x5 screws (4 more for the second hard disk drive)
  • 4 x M2.5 brass threaded inserts
  • 4 x M2,5×6 screws
  • 4 x M3x6 countersunk head screws
  • 1 x Keystone module RJ45 Cat 6
  • 1 x RJ45 Cat 6 patch cable (length or color doesn’t matter)
  • 1 x USB type C male connector plug to solder
  • 1 x USB type C female connector jack 2 pin with wire
  • 1 x SH1106 1.3″ OLED module I2C 128X64 4 pin
  • 1 x 4-pin cable with Dupont female connectors, either self-made or ready-made
  • Some PLA filament for your printer with the colors you prefer.

Printing the enclosure involved creating four main parts: the tray, device rack, side lid, and an optional stand. The tray required support structures for the connector openings and display window, which can be generated using slicing software. The rack holds the Raspberry Pi and hard drives, ensuring that the components are securely mounted. The assembly of the rack with the Raspberry Pi and hard drives necessitated precision, particularly when melting the brass threaded inserts using a soldering iron.

The next phase involved setting up the Raspberry Pi OS and configuring the network. Using the Raspberry Pi Imager, Bernhardt installed Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) onto a micro SD card. Essential settings such as hostname, username, password, and SSH enablement were configured during this process. Assigning a static IP address to the NAS ensured consistent network access, either through the Raspberry Pi OS, openmediavault, or a DHCP server, with a provision for regular patches and security updates

After the software setup, attention shifted back to hardware. The USB-C power connection and OLED display installation were critical steps. The USB-C socket was soldered inside the enclosure due to space constraints. The OLED display, used for status updates, was delicate and had to be installed without bending. Properly connecting the display to the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi was essential, ensuring to match the pin configurations correctly.

For the network connection, a keystone module simplified connectivity and future upgrades. By attaching a patch cable and keystone module inside the enclosure, the LAN port became easily accessible, accommodating both Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 models. This modular approach facilitates easy maintenance and upgrades, ensuring the longevity of the NAS setup.

Once the hardware assembly was complete, the OLED display software was installed. A Python script displays various system metrics on the OLED screen. The script runs at startup, continuously updating the display. Finally, the NAS software, openmediavault, was installed. This software provides a user-friendly web interface for managing the NAS, making it accessible and easy to configure. The installation was straightforward, and upon completion, the NAS was ready for use, with a commendable 500GB of storage.

Bernhardt’s Raspberry Pi NAS required a fair bit of technical expertise, but the process worked out MUCH cheaper than spending hundreds on a readymade NAS. If you’re looking for a nice summer project for yourself, you can build your own Raspberry Pi NAS too by following Bernhardt’s instructions here.

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Raspberry Pi Water Cooling Kit is weird, cute, and probably overkill

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While 3D printing blasted open the doors for creatives to bring their designs to life, the Raspberry Pi can be credited for empowering not just makers and modders but also a younger generation of budding engineers and scientists by giving them access to a cheap, small yet powerful computer. The single-board computer or SBC has become the basis for many electronics projects and DIY solutions, ranging from smart home security systems to out-of-this-world “cyberdeck” computers. The Raspberry Pi 5, the latest and so far most powerful model available, does have certain performance limits, but you can overclock its processor to really squeeze out all that you can, at the expense of overheating the board, of course. The tiny computer will then need some cooling system, but this particular kit tries to take lessons learned from desktop PCs and apply them in an effective but honestly comical manner.

Designer: seeed studio

Water cooling is a well-known solution used in desktop computers to prevent the system from overheating while keeping the processor operating at maximum efficiency. Of course, water doesn’t actually touch the sensitive electronics but draws heat away instead. Cool water travels toward the hotter areas while the heated water travels away from the hot spots and gets cooled by something like a fan. Given the space required to safely and effectively implement it, it’s no surprise that this system is usually only found on large desktop towers.

Compared to those gargantuan computers, the Raspberry Pi only has a fraction of the power but it can still be pushed to the limit by overclocking its CPU. The most common solutions in the market are small heat sinks and tiny fans that provide passive and active cooling, respectively, but some might feel that those just aren’t enough. For really power-hungry setups, this water cooling kit made especially for the Raspberry Pi 5 will probably suffice, if not actually excessive.

The Water Cooling Kit is easily more than five times the size of the small board computer, composed of a water tank and a large fan that cools down the hot water. This contraption is connected to a Raspberry Pi via two silicone hoses, one for hot water and another for cool water, with a radiator sitting on top of the Raspberry Pi’s processor. This kit supposedly halves the temperature of an overclocked Raspberry Pi 5 down to a toasty 37C, depending on the load.

But, yes, you will have to sacrifice a lot to have such a water-cooled Raspberry Pi, starting with the $120 price tag. While the kit can work with multiple Raspberry Pi boards to maximize the cooling efficiency, you’ll have to buy the extra hoses and radiators to make that work. You also definitely lose the Raspberry Pi’s biggest benefit, its small form factor that allows it to be used in almost any project imaginable. Then again, some of those projects do require pushing the small computer to its limit, at which point you might need something over-the-top like this.

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Analog digital hybrid clock presses the snooze button for you

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One of the biggest struggles I have every morning is the constant battle between me and my smartphone’s alarm clock. I set alarms every 30 minutes for a period of 2-3 hours but more often than not, I still hit the snooze button so all my alarms run into each other. I’ve tried putting my phone away from me so I am forced to get up if I want to snooze it but that only results in me being in a horrible mood. But if i want a more convenient way to snooze (and lose), then this new kind of alarm clock may be what I need.

Designer: Nico Tangara for BHH Innovation Lab

The Self-Snoozing Alarm Clock may become your best friend or your worst enemy, depending on how you actually look at the snooze button. Instead of having to snooze the device yourself, it actually comes with a hand to snooze itself. It’s a device that uses a fusion of analog and digital and is powered by the Raspberry Pi compact computer module to help you beat the snooze button or actually fall victim to it.

The alarm clock looks like your typical analog clock with its rectangular box but with a digital clock showing on the screen. It is connected to a servo or an actuator that is able to push parts of the device with precision. The mechanism enables this tiny hand to extend from the clock and manually press the snooze button which will then activate the system to keep snoozing until you actually stop it.

If you have an appointment that you need to get to, then this may not be the best alarm clock to have beside you as it will keep you snoozing indefinitely. But it does help you in a sense that you don’t have to be the one to push the snooze button on your phone, although that may not be the best thing if you really think about it.

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This funky retro-futuristic computer is actually a laptop in disguise

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You can actually use this rather fancy computer that looks like a TV prop, but whether it’s usable is a different question entirely.

We’ve seen a lot of makers, tinkerers, engineers, and even designers take a stab at making their own personal computers, with an emphasis on “personal.” Thanks to the availability of off-the-shelf parts for computers and the ubiquity of 3D printing, it has become easier but still not trivial to bring some of those dream designs and visions to life. Many of the DIY computer projects we’ve seen, while admirable, often fall short of looking ready for use or having enough power to actually be useful. That is what sets this “Mainboard Terminal” apart from the crowd for not only looking quite striking but also for having the literal guts of a modern laptop.

Designer: Penk Chen

The majority of projects we see that involve crafting your own computer often involve the Raspberry Pi or one of its cousins. These are small, low-power single-board computers or SBCs that are very easy on the pocket, making them a crowd favorite. The catch is that they don’t exactly have enough muscle to run most computing tasks, let alone something as heavy as Windows, not unless you’re an experienced Linux user that can get by with very minimal computing resources.

The RPi, as it is lovingly nicknamed, isn’t the only game in town, of course, and there are other SBCs out there that take things up a notch in terms of performance and software support, but the newest addition to that roster really changes the game. Although it’s primarily meant to repair or upgrade the world’s most modular and most repairable laptop, the Framework Mainboard can also be used as a standalone computer if you have the right parts to make it work. The catch? Prices start at $399 versus a Raspberry Pi’s humble $35.

Needless to say, hacker and modder extraordinaire Penk Chen took advantage of that openness to craft another out of this world computer. The same engineer introduced the world to his Penkesu pocket computer, ala a cyberdeck, and is now taking inspiration from a different genre. The off-white colorway, the chunky keycaps, and the curved silhouette will make it look at home on a retropunk TV set.

It’s not all looks, of course, because it has the beating heart of a typical laptop. It can run any operating system in theory, though its creator went with the free (as in speech) and open source Ubuntu Linux distribution for simplicity. As with his other projects, Chen provides the list of parts used as well as the files for 3D printing that oddly-shaped chassis. Most of these parts can be bought from online retailers, but, as usual, you’ll need access to a 3D printer one way or another.

The biggest strike against this otherwise usable computer is the 5-inch 1080×1080 round LCD screen. In addition to being smaller than your smartphone’s display, the square aspect ratio doesn’t work well with content and software that were designed with a rectangular screen in mind. Plus, the circular display means that parts of the screen will be cut off all the time. It’s a case of form over function, but since it’s a “normal” computer, it’s probably possible to design an external port that will connect to a second, more “normal” monitor as well.

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