Rubfer's 3D-Printed Cyberboy 1.0 Puts a Raspberry Pi 5 in the Palm of Your Hand
Compact yet chunky portable features three 18650 cells for power and a physical keyboard beneath a compact DSI panel.
Pseudonymous maker "Rubfer" has been working on a compact handheld cyberdeck, featuring a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB single-board computer with a 4.3" 800×480 display above a physical keyboard in a 3D-printed chassis: the Cyberboy 1.0.
"Today I've finally finished my new deck, the Cyberboy v1.0, after being inspired by projects like Pilet," Rubfer explains, referring to a currently-crowdfunding project to build a similar 5" and keyboard-free modular 7" portable driven by the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer. "But I wanted mine to have a more weathered, rugged look. There are a few things that I'd change but [I'm using] the smallest keyboard I could find that comes with all the functions keys I need (plus it's backlit.)"
The compact yet chunky Cyberboy 1.0 features an off-the-shelf Bluetooth keyboard taking up the lower half of its face, below an 800×480 color screen connected over MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI). These are used to interact with the Raspberry Pi 5 8GB single-board computer hiding inside the 3D-printed chassis, with the official Raspberry Pi Active Cooler to keep it from throttling under heavy sustained load, with a Waveshare 3S UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) delivering power from three 18650 batteries.
The design includes some nods to ruggedization: there are rubber bumpers at each corner, to prevent shocks if dropped, and the external ports are protected by a magnetic cover. It's not exactly designed for all-weather use, though: to keep the Raspberry Pi 5 inside cooled, there's a vent at the rear for the Active Cooler to draw outside air into the case.
"The system consumes around 4-5W (screen and [Raspberry Pi 5]) while in use," Rubfer says of the gadget's battery life, "so […] if we do the math for 3× 18650 [cells] it comes to around six hours, but realistically I'd expect maybe 4-5 hours. Powering off the screen should reduce the power consumption quite a bit, but it's still about 3W just for the [Raspberry Pi 5]."
Rubfer has promised to release 3D-printable STL files for the project along with a small guide, with more information available on the maker's Reddit post.