An iPad/Raspberry Pi Mashup Makes for a Fantastic Cyberdeck

The cyberdeck computers described in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, and the other books in the Sprawl trilogy, aren’t shiny new laptops purchased from the shelves of big box stores. The world in which these novels take place is a dystopia, and the cyberdecks utilized by the “decker” hackers in that world are constructed from whatever computers and components are handy. That aesthetic is usually reflected in the cyberdecks that we see hobbyists build today, but Alta thought that those were still a bit too polished. That’s why their cyberkdeck, which was built with both an iPad Mini 5 and a Raspberry Pi, looks appropriately cobbled-together and doesn’t feature any 3D-printed parts.

The basis for this project was a vintage AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 laptop, which was released nearly 30 years ago. As the name suggests, it had an Intel 386 process and that was running at a blistering 20 MHz. Of course, that doesn’t matter, because Alta immediately gutted the laptop and removed all of the original electronic components. They really only kept the bottom half of the laptop enclosure, which they trimmed down, in order to end up with a nice, clean space for the new components. In place of the original keyboard, Alta used a Let’s Split Rev 3 mechanical keyboard. That was chosen because it’s very small (40% size). Just in front of the keyboard, Alta mounted a drawer slider with a Magic Trackpad 2 attached. That normally covers half the keyboard, but slides out when in use.

Like many other cyberdecks, this one contains a Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board computer. Power comes from a total of nine 18650 LiPo battery cells that have been scattered around wherever there was room for them. There is a small E Ink display right next to the drawer slider, but that mostly acts as an auxiliary screen. The primary screen, which was attached to part of the original hinge bracket with magnets, is actually an Apple iPad Mini 5. The keyboard and trackpad connect to that—not to the Raspberry Pi. This presents a really interesting opportunity. Alta can keep the Raspberry Pi turned off and just use the iPad if they want. But, if they do want to use the Raspberry Pi, they only need to switch it on and then use a remote desktop app to login. Even if the slide-out trackpad wasn’t unique enough for you, the iPad/Raspberry Pi mashup should be.