Nowadays, the cell computing area has been fairly properly standardized — you possibly can have any cell system you need, so long as it’s a smartphone, pill, or a laptop computer. However within the earlier days of computing when the know-how was simply beginning to come of age, significantly by way of the late Nineties and early 2000s, the cell computing panorama was far more fascinating (and typically bizarre). There have been the PDAs just like the PalmPilot and Apple Newton, and there have been the ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) just like the HP Jornada 720 and the Psion 5Mx, every designed to fulfill the varied wants of their customers.
It’s onerous to disclaim that right now’s trio of cell choices are far superior technologically to the alternatives that had been out there previously, however we now have misplaced the imaginative kind components and consumer interfaces that stored us excited when new merchandise had been launched. Software program engineer and Hackaday.io consumer Icepat needed to revive that pleasure with a {custom} UMPC that blends the weird with trendy know-how. The outcome was the Pocket Z, a pint-sized Linux laptop with a bodily keyboard which you can shove in your pocket prefer it’s 1999.
The HP Jornada 720 served as an inspiration for this mission (📷: Icepat)
Pocket Z is powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, so it has fairly respectable efficiency for some informal hacking, nevertheless it is not going to method even most smartphones when it comes to uncooked energy. A keyboard was constructed right into a custom-designed PCB to be used with a silicone membrane and keycaps. An ATmega32U4 microcontroller was included to deal with processing inputs from the keyboard and to feed them into the Raspberry Pi by way of the USB-OTG port. There is no such thing as a touchpad on the current system, however it might be added in a future revision.
A seven-inch 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen show was additionally included within the Pocket Z. To cut back power consumption and prices (the objective is to remain underneath $99), the show was immediately wired into the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins. Whereas this works properly, it does burn up all the out there pins, leaving nothing for added equipment or hacking with. Energy is equipped by way of a Li-Po battery.
Raspberry Pi inside (📷: Icepat)
For the OS, the Pocket Z makes use of a Raspberry Pi OS Lite set up that has been personalized with XFCE and Conky. That is nothing earth-shattering, nevertheless it will get the job performed and is environment friendly, which is important for the comparatively resource-constrained Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. Naturally, one might use almost any appropriate OS that they select, nevertheless, for the reason that laptop is powered by a inventory Raspberry Pi with an off-the-shelf show and what’s seen as a USB HID keyboard.
The Pocket Z could also be a private mission at this level, however Icepat sees it as doubtlessly greater than that sooner or later. The pc remains to be underneath growth, however Icepat is on the lookout for suggestions on this preliminary prototype. After accumulating suggestions from the group, the plan is to construct one other model of the system, doubtless additionally with a five-inch show possibility (which might occur to go away some GPIO pins open, as an added bonus). After that, if there’s sufficient curiosity, Icepat hopes to mass produce the Pocket Z. Try the mission write-up and get your suggestions in for those who would possibly like a contemporary UMPC tailor-made to your specs.