This Mini Terminal Screams "Hacker"

You probably don’t need a miniature terminal with a tiny keyboard and a faux CRT monitor to get any real work done, but don’t you want one anyway? After seeing Redditor Arran_Gunn’s recent creation, I know I sure do! It is a retro-styled imitation Fanuc CRT monitor with a 56-key keyboard that just screams “hacker.”

To make this little machine, Arran_Gunn started with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W single-board computer. This was paired with a 2-inch Pimoroni Display HAT Mini that serves as the monitor. A sheet of fluorescent green acrylic was positioned in front of the display to give it a cool retro effect. There is also a Pisugar2 portable power supply to keep the computer powered up without any external cabling.

The hardware was installed inside a custom stainless steel case, which went through multiple rounds of polishing. This case was set on top of an M5Stack Cardputer, which acts as the keyboard — the onboard ESP32 chip is seen by the Raspberry Pi as an HID device.

Recreating the electronics of this build would be very straightforward. However, Arran_Gunn is an experienced metal worker, so if you are not, reproducing the case may be out of reach. It might still look pretty nice with a well-designed 3D-printed case, however. If you build one that turns out nice, be sure to let us know!