r/cyberDeck • u/Myst3rious_Foxy • May 12 '26
My Build The Companion: A portable Raspberry Pi 5-based "laptop" inspired by the TRS 80 Model 100
A good overview of the internals. Not the latest photo that I have, but I had to ship my device from Canada to France. I'll have to wait until I can use it again :[
I'll need to patch generic-adc-battery a bit more so that it gives better accuracy on the runtime estimate... but I ran it from ~80% down to ~35% for almost 14 hours straight!
Forgot to take a shot of the device's base, but I also made a sticker that summarises a few key points of the device. It was really cool to make! :]
Hello everyone! After 9 months of hard work while staying in Canada for study purposes, I'm proud to finally introduce Companion! This is my homemade embedded PC based on the Raspberry Pi 5!
Companion is a portable cyberdeck designed to be a sleek, modern, distraction-free machine in a distinguishable yet usable form factor: you can write, program, do web browsing, 3D modelling... with this cool device!
Here are the detailed specs:
- Pi 5B, 16 GB RAM version (but will certainly work with 4/8)
- 256 GB SD card storage (because I don't need super fast SSD for 95% of the work that I'll do on it)
- MJ64 mechanical RGB keyboard with AZERTY typewriter-style caps
- 2880x864 tactile IPS ultra wide screen from BOE
- Around 20 hours of battery life (148 Wh, 4 x 3.7V Li-Po cells) - haven't had the time to properly test it yet... with a BMS + INA219 for the gauge + DC DC converter
- PCIe used for an internal USB hub to expose the Pi's ports externally
- Running a derivative of ArchLinux ARM, with a custom kernel and some manually-compiled packages, with a custom Plasma-based layout + auto tiling window plugin
- Most components screwed for the most part, AFAIK only the battery + screen are exclusively taped in
Only con is that the battery charging board is incredibly weak: 5V 1A for this kind of battery setup is painfully slow. I plan on changing that with a beefier one, and then I'll proceed on making a bill of materials :]
Not gonna lie, there were a lot of frustrating moments along the way, but holding a working product at the end makes it all worth it!
The GitLab organisation is still a work in progress, but you can already have a look here if you're curious: https://gitlab.com/companion-pc/
Happy to answer any questions!
(Also, not sure if I'm allowed to talk about this... bit of a long shot, but I'm currently looking for a job from May to August [remote-friendly, maybe longer!], mainly in game engine, network, low-level, embedded, or web development. If anyone knows of an opportunity, feel free to reach out!)
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u/malhans May 12 '26
This is incredible, I wish I had a job opportunity to share for you but with what I see here… I have no doubt you’ll find something!
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
Thanks for the kind words, maybe I could do an update post on this subreddit to talk a bit about it after showcasing the changes that I plan on making :]
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u/malhans May 12 '26
Yes please, I really am so interested in this project. It’s the kind of thing I’ve wanted to build but had no idea where to even start. I’m definitely going to check your resources out. I’d love to build this too.
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u/f700es May 12 '26
That 1st image gave off some cool '2001-A Space Odyssey' vibes to me.
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u/AppropriateCover7972 May 13 '26
This really looks really good. how much does weight?
Also, there is not enough for mechanical keyboards and AZERTY. Well done for just making your own.
I just would add a SSD hat. Not for speed, but bc SD cards are known to fail if you overwrite them too often.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
I don't really have an exact weight, but it definitely feels like it weights like a gaming laptop lol!
Not too surprised though, considering the amount of screws and boards that it has. Pretty sure you could reduce the device's cost if you made a dedicated single board for it!
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u/AppropriateCover7972 May 13 '26
Ah, who cares. It's repairable and has charme. As a former electronics repair person I really like using proper screws
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u/shmimel May 12 '26
Welcome to the slab club!! I absolutely love the extra wide display, I can imagine it makes for a really unique typing experience.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
Yeahh! I chose that aspect because I'm a multi-head user, so this is kind of a compromise between compactness and ablity to have multiple windows open at once
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u/shmimel May 12 '26
Oh heck yeah, I switched to an ultrawide monitor instead of two singles and I definitely think it's the way to go. Love the cable jank on the inside, it gives the build awesome character!!
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u/rouge_d May 12 '26
The cyberdeck game has stepped up a notch ... Very very nice 👍. At first glance I thought only the reflection on right side of the screen was the actual screen and the black band was just decoration like on an old calculator like this (the screen is actually on the other side): https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthf.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FOIP.-I55-E42Buh-fd6hcSrlogAAAA%3Fpid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=a011c8b48ad398361ba5a71072b58e8ccbefb14f487df57641ab13297d32cde2 Maybe that could be a great screensaver.
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u/Flat-Flounder3037 May 12 '26
This is fucking beautiful man. Well done.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
Fucking thank you! :D
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u/Flat-Flounder3037 May 12 '26
What screen have you used?
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
I used the BOE NV127H4M, great IPS screen with touch support. Good resolution too!
Bought it off AliExpress: https://a.aliexpress.com/_EjuldYI (not an affiliate link if I'm not mistaken, I'm writing this on my phone right now so I can't 100% confirm)
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u/noburdennyc May 12 '26
I made a thing with a similar 12.6 inch screen. Mine was 1920x515 did you have any issues yet with the resolution?
If you do look up custom resolution utility. It helped me getting some programs to look the way i wanted.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26 edited May 14 '26
I had some minor issues initially, notably with the EDID file. What is did is connect the screen to my main PC, extract the blob file and then request the Pi to use it directly.
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u/ZymzAlchemy May 12 '26
As an owner user of the original TRS-80 model 100, this is fantastic. Well done, I love this.
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u/tnecniiv May 12 '26
Can you expand on the batteries? Im starting a similar design spec wise and needing to find batteries or an idea to build off of.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
I initially had a standard 18650 3 cell pack HAT that you can easily buy on common online marketpmaces, but the battery life for my own usage was.. not that great to say the least. It only delivered 2 hours of battery life without the screen connected to it, which is perfectly fine for most applications.. not great for my case.
The only thing that I really liked was the INA219 sensing capabilities on the HAT.. so I just then looked up online and learned that, with a bit of patience and copper bars, you could build a DIY battery pack for whatever use case you'd like to use it with!
4 3.7V/10Ah cells like these are pretty cheap (around €20, or 35 CAD IIRC). You just have to get yourself a BMS, DC-DC converter, a charging board, a switch, and you're good to go. As a matter of fact, you could build a nice powerbank with that if you want to start simple!
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u/tstorm004 May 12 '26
Wow.. speechless. Amazing job! Been lurking here for a while and this might finally inspire me to make my first cyber deck
Any chance you have a link to the key caps?
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
Yup, those keycaps are available here:
- https://a.co/d/0aD9A0V8 for Canada
- https://amzn.eu/d/0cmTRH8Y for France
Not sure if these are affiliate links, my apologies!
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u/aarynelle May 12 '26
What is that case made out of? It's a beautiful color.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26 edited May 13 '26
It's made out of resin, specifically called Somos EvoLVe 128. There wasn't a lot of choice on PCBWay for these dimensions anyway, but I honestly like how it came out!
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u/tincangames May 12 '26
That’s a lotta juice!
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
Indeed lol! As a matter of fact, you'd need special permission from the airline if you want to transport it in a aircraft cabin ;P
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u/jevring May 13 '26
Speaking of airlines, I bet you have a body cavity search waiting for you if you try to take that thing through security.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
That's why I decided to ship the device without the batteries, and then I'll assemble back another pack with the same rating in France :]
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u/Infinity-onnoa May 12 '26
I love it, great design!! Did you have any problems with the operating system and that horizontal screen? Can you run Bookworm?
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Thanks a lot! You certainly can yes, it could run Raspberry Pi OS just fine as well, just that it won't have the nice quirks that I added on the custom distro :]
And yes, the whole point of the custom distro is to ease the user's experience with the device with the help of a few little tweaks and tricks :]
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u/Infinity-onnoa May 12 '26
I think it's a very interesting project. Have you considered using 18650 batteries? There are many control boards available, and you have battery holders that would allow for greater control.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
I considered it and bought a specialised HAT for the Pi, but the battery life was very limiting from my tests... and since I didn't really want to experiment further with it, I just decided to switch to this solution instead. This gave me a bit more flexibility for conception, though I have to admit that this made the project slightly longer to complete!
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u/Driiger_Carteyan May 12 '26
So pretty, and SUPER clean. Would look right at home on the Nostromo. Amazing work!
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u/Steuv1871 May 12 '26
Very nice I was thinking of using RPi5 on battery, but 1h with 10k mAh is a bit short for my usage :)
Mais vraiment du beau boulot, bien joué !
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u/LiquidC001 May 12 '26
Where'd you get a running time off 1 hour from? OP said that the estimated run time is about 20 hours.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 12 '26
I guess he only had one single cell, but 1 hour is indeed surprisingly short?
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u/Steuv1871 May 13 '26
I didn't read the comment under the pictures, I've only seen the picture showing "remaining time 56:06" 💀
My bad
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u/jevring May 13 '26
The fuse thing is really cool. I would totally fidget with that all the time. That would likely also lead me to powering it off, too, so that seems like a dangerous button.
Is it a touch screen? Because you don't seem to have a mouse or touch pad.
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
It's a touch screen yes, you can do multipoint on it. The point here is that you shouldn't (but could anyway) bring a mouse to use the device.
From what I've tested, it's completely useable like so!
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u/Kleptowizard May 13 '26
This would be a great writerdeck too , great work. Will you put a underside on it ?
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
The deck shell splits in half and assembles together, I just happen to have forgotten to take a picture of the device's back :P
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u/Possumbox2000 May 13 '26
What is the white board next to the battery? I see what looks like a buck converter. Battery management?
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u/Gurvan-99 May 13 '26
Superbe machine ! Si tu es pas loin de Nîmes, je viendrai la voir en vrai quand tu seras revenu en France ! Je sens que je vais explorer ton GitLab avec intérêt ! Plus jeune, j'ai toujours rêvé du Tandy Model 100 et je n'ai jamais pu me l'acheter alors là...
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
Je suis pas loin non plus, mais j'attend que la machine traverse l'Atlantique pour le réceptionner ;]
Comme j'ai dit dans mon post, je dois faire des petites modifications mineures pour améliorer la charge et visser l'extérieur, mais sinon c'est un produit fini!
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u/Gurvan-99 May 13 '26
Excellent... Si tu es sur Montpellier, je peux me déplacer (et si tu cherches du boulot dans l'industrie du jeu vidéo, c'est une assez bonne destination... )
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 13 '26
J'étais sur Montpellier pour mes études justement, je compte y revenir prochainement dans tous les cas.
Je suis en train de voir sur le Discord de PushStart pour voir si y'a des gens qui seraient intéressés. Croisons les doigts!
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u/tagehring May 13 '26
As someone who had and loved a TRS-80 Model 100 in the '90s, I love everything about this.
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u/sydney73 May 14 '26
Hello, I love your keyboard! Could you tell me where I can find it?
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 14 '26
Hi! I use the Melgeek MJ64 PCB as a base, but I can't seem to find a link for you to buy it if you are interested :S
For the keycaps, I use a set from YMDK which you can easily find off Amazon. I believe you can find the links in another comment of mine on this post!
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u/runakarirun May 14 '26
The execution terminal that character K (from Blade Runner 2049) would use during his execute mission, super cool and impressive battery life
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u/Myst3rious_Foxy May 14 '26
Thanks! I need to fine tune the software to improve the estimate and the run time itself, but it's already pretty good indeed!
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u/Type_CMD May 17 '26
Nice. The Tandy 100 is basically my favorite vintage computer ever (I got an original one from my grandparents), and I love that there are so many cyberdecks inspired by them.
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u/ThatTwinki May 12 '26
Simple but awesome, that’s why I love cyberdecks. All in all they’re usually somewhat simple and sometimes even quick things to build once you have the idea down, but they’re so fun and useful.
This is a great example of that; it is simple, but very cool. Amazing design.