This 3D-Printed Luggable Raspberry Pi Cyberdeck Features a Throwback Trackball, Rugged Carry Handles
Powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, this portable is designed to go where modern laptops fear to tread.
Pseudonymous maker "rawkout1337" has abandoned traditional laptops in favor of a 3D-printed luggable designed to be a little more robust — and featuring a screen-mounted trackball with rear-facing buttons for its primary pointer control.
"I wanted a small, portable computer that I could use to debug code in Arduino/Raspberry Pi projects that are installed in places that would be a bit precarious to bring a normal laptop," rawkout1337 explains. "I'm aware how cheap I can buy a laptop. That is not the point of this project. I also just really wanted to make a cyberdeck. I designed the whole assembly in Solidworks around off the shelf electronics (with some minor modifications)."
The housing, 3D-printed in nylon with PLA accents and a laser-cut styrene upper panel, is designed in a clamshell form factor, but one that's something of a throwback to the days before laptops came with integrated pointing devices. The lower half houses a mechanical keyboard, with the upper half playing host to a small screen and stereo speakers — but rather than extend the casing below the keyboard for a trackpad, as with a modern laptop, there's a trackball to the right of the display with buttons located around the rear, for the user's fingers to push while their thumb rolls the trackball. If that feels a little too cumbersome, the display is a fully-functional touchscreen too.
Inside the housing is a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer with external Wi-Fi antenna, a power button and status LED linked to the general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header, a microSD Card extension for easy access without dismantling the case, and a USB Type-C power input plus two USB 3.0 ports for accessories. One thing missing, though: a battery, which the maker says is the "first priority" for upgrades. When closed, a pair of metal handles make it easy to carry on-the-move — with the lower bar doubling as a wrist-rest for more comfortable typing.
The project is documented on Imgur; at the time of writing, rawkout1337 had not released design or 3D print files for the housing.