You're a freaking genius man, loving your vids! Subscribed. I was a machinist until I was disabled. I thought that was the end of the world until I started researching more the tech side of the world. You have given renewed hope that I can be productive and help myself at the same time! I'm digging both the coding and manufacturing that you do. I'll say it again, genius man.
Love watching these tiny builds. I probably would have gone without the micro USB OTG port on the side and instead, disassembled one of those tiny USB wireless dongles and then wired it directly to the Pi Zero's USB OTG pins to add built-in wireless networking functionality, but I suppose that you could achieve the same thing with a short USB-OTG cable and any wireless dongle that works with Raspbian. Awesome project guys, thanks for sharing!
Hey Ben, what you've made yourself there would actually be considered a fixture. Fixtures locate parts for repeatably where as a jig is what guides your tool during a operation. Otherwise awesome stuff as always!
You guys should make a raspberry pi cluster, I'm looking to make one with 10 pi zeros and a pi 3 to make a jarvis home automation system and also a host for my 3d printer
"we were afraid that no one would be able to get one (pi zero) so that they could build it themselves at home". Yeh, i don't think most of us are worried about whether we can actually get hold of a pi zero. More like, unable to get a lazer cutter, a 3d printer, a vinyl printer, etc. etc. Would be great if you could do more projects using things that dont require large expensive machines to make.
Ben says that's possible, but the ribbon cable is really short, so it would be difficult to make the different parts fit into the compact design. The LCD itself is still pretty thick.
Ah, I see. If he did that he'd probably end up with something similar to a Pocket C.H.I.P., which seems thin, but thanks to its screen, case and overall component layout (esp. the battery) it's actually a bit bulky. And isn't foldable. We need thinner batteries. Thanks for the reply, ninja Karen! Keep on ninja-ing!
Zhao Zhao if he really just connected the composite output then the truth is he doesn't have a working headphone jack because I don't see the circuitry needed to get an audio out from the gpio
Upon rewatching it, I have to say that this is one of the neatest projects you have worked on. Super cool. I'd like to see you add a lip around the top part of the device, so as to close the unit better and completely hide the keyboard (edit: kind of like the nintendo ds lite), and make a thicker hinge in order to hide the ribbon cable making it go around and on the outside but not exposed, and also making it (the hinge) stronger.
I wonder if it would have saved time by using those old T-Mobile SideKicks or 2 way pagers and putting in the raspberry Pi Zero. PS the "getting jiggy with it" line was so funny.
I liked the Yackity Sax reference during the diode wiring. Also, I'd like to suggest that Ben Heck doing acapella be known as "Heck-apella" from now on.
Hi, Got some question about that : - How did you wire the audio jack ? - How did you wire all the key of the keyboard ? How to bind key to letter ( when you type it type the letter, all thoses things other gpio ) - Where did you buy the screen too ? Thanks if you answer, bye
The keyboard used a matrix with a diode on each key to make them individually addressable. The link for the screen is on github in the Parts folder on the BOM. github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
So cool! Discovered your channel after watching your Nintendo PlayStation repair series :) One quick tip as I heard you mention around the 13:15 mark that when prototyping 3d prints you always have an elephant foot on the bottom. The typical way around that is to print with a raft! They're a dirty word in hobbyist circles but commonplace in industry when you need things that are dimensionally accurate with FDM printing. Ok that's all the wisdom I can share, everything else you talk about is above my pay grade 😂 Keep up the great work!
when i build pi or any other small board machine i tend to stay away from the composite video the screen header or hdmi is so much better, don't get me wrong composite works great for game emulation and such, but when you drop out onto the command line the screen can be really hard to see and read. black duct tidies up and strengthens those gold ribbon cables, just cover the front and back of the ribbon.
can you please make a parts list and where to buy everything and the 3d printing stls please because I love your show and im really interested into making one of these little pi laptops
thats a sweet build, I like how you did the keyboard. The idea I have for a Pie Zero is a smart watch type computer. I would try it myself but I can hold the iron steady enough to do those types of builds.
Put a sheet of PEI (Polyetherimide) on a glass plate and your ABS won't warp anymore. What etching plastic do you use? Is it Laserbits plastic laminate?
+The Ben Heck Show sure is easier than getting that pi zero. the famous 5$ computer made from pure unobtainium. either pay 35$+shipping or as in the case of adafruit with 6$ worth of other stuff (case+sd+..) for about 60 bucks. and that is if you can get one at all. wish people would stop using this marketing scam product in project shows since most people can't get this overhyped thing.
So, apparently there are configuration options you can change in the composite video output that can adjust the amount of overscan compensation and the proportions of the screen, so that you can avoid getting that horizontally-stretched look, and also avoid any black bars around the edges of the screen. It looks like you guys have taken care of the overscan, but not the proportions.
Actually i had a idea if you can move that LCD More left you can make room for small speakers and maybe a small amp that can fit adafruit has a small mono amp and speaker.
Nice project. Maybe should have printed the bottom a few mill taller to recess the screw heads on the bottom of the unit. Then glue on some rubber feet.
Would you be able to tell me what screen it is you're using? I had a hell of a time finding a screen that I could transform my Pi into a portable gaming machine, and that thing looks perfect.
Fubukiyo it's one of those screen you use to drive in reverse while in a car, you can easily find them on amazon or ebay, its something like: "car backup display"
The Pi Zero has a composite output - it's not broken out to a connector but it's accessible on a pair of solder points marked "TV". Getting audio out is a little harder - the Pi Zero doesn't provide audio out except via HDMI, so if you want analog audio you either need to get it from HDMI, or recreate the audio circuitry that's present on other Pi models.
Wizard XV Do you mean "good ways"? Basically you just wire up those two pins to an RCA plug or jack, square pad to the center pin, then plug the screen in. (You could, of course, eliminate the connector pair if you needed to save space.) There are tutorials online. Here's a pretty good one: www.modmypi.com/blog/how-to-add-an-rca-tv-connector-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero
Ben, to avoid the bigger first layer you can apply a tiny draft to the base layer. Effectively the first layer will still be slightly bigger than the model, but the draft would negate this effect.
Curently buiding a 16x4 Raspberry Pi Zero thermal imager. Had the sensor sitting on my desk for a few years now. Thought I might as well put it to good use.
So idea I have. What if you did a Raspberry Pi Switch? A handheld raspberry pi running emulation station, that removes the hdmi, usb, and ethernet ports. Then you plug it into a dock, which adds the missing connections, as well as a fan system to safely overclock the pi for higher end emulation.
Please make the overall design and code for the keyboard available i would like to make my own keyboard too so i would like to know how to program my pi to work with it.
CatTheRigger They're still in stock at Pimoroni, where I ordered. Also, you can always check this site to see if and where they're in stock. whereismypizero.com/
Make your own, if you can stick with USB standard power then even better as you can use a power bank. I would have looked for a suitable USB keyboard and glide pad instead of wiring my own. Not sure what low power screen solution there is but I'd look at cheap smart watches?
github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable I think some of the .stl files are missing because Fusion360 stores files on a cloud, so we have to remind Ben to put them on our local server. Let me know if anything is missing and I'll get the github updated.
do anyone know what a mini usb to usb converter is named i got like 3 one of them stopped working the other one i dont wanna use beacuse its all new so i only got one and i relly need the name to buy some more.
Can you please give us a detailed tutorial on how to make the keyboard, connect it to a Pi Zero and provide the script on Github? I would like to build a Raspberry Pi Zero built inside of an imitation Commodore 64 case, and I don't want to buy a USB Hub as that will take up more space for my project. Thank you in advance for at least considering my plea.
Some of the code is on the gihub, but I haven't dug through it yet to see if it's what you need: github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
This is exactly what I have wanted to see since Pi Zero came out. Thank you.
You're a freaking genius man, loving your vids! Subscribed. I was a machinist until I was disabled. I thought that was the end of the world until I started researching more the tech side of the world. You have given renewed hope that I can be productive and help myself at the same time! I'm digging both the coding and manufacturing that you do. I'll say it again, genius man.
That soldering background singing was awesome. That's going to be my new ringtone.
That soldering song, amazing!
Love watching these tiny builds. I probably would have gone without the micro USB OTG port on the side and instead, disassembled one of those tiny USB wireless dongles and then wired it directly to the Pi Zero's USB OTG pins to add built-in wireless networking functionality, but I suppose that you could achieve the same thing with a short USB-OTG cable and any wireless dongle that works with Raspbian. Awesome project guys, thanks for sharing!
"The past, the future, and the present walked into a bar. It was tense." X D I liked your shirt.
18:32 I'm no engineer but I'm pretty sure I don't need to be one to use fabric just like a braided cable to sleeve and hide a ribbon cable.
"$ sudo shit" at 19:10 :D
Hey Ben, what you've made yourself there would actually be considered a fixture. Fixtures locate parts for repeatably where as a jig is what guides your tool during a operation. Otherwise awesome stuff as always!
You guys should make a raspberry pi cluster, I'm looking to make one with 10 pi zeros and a pi 3 to make a jarvis home automation system and also a host for my 3d printer
Jonathan Luna sounds cool, if youre not lying
You got my attention
"we were afraid that no one would be able to get one (pi zero) so that they could build it themselves at home". Yeh, i don't think most of us are worried about whether we can actually get hold of a pi zero. More like, unable to get a lazer cutter, a 3d printer, a vinyl printer, etc. etc.
Would be great if you could do more projects using things that dont require large expensive machines to make.
What pins did you connect the keyboard rows and cols to? I was trying to follow the code, but it look like you connected some to the power pins.
1:14 - Which Adafruit LCD were you talking about? Couldn't it be disassembled to save space? (assuming it's one connected to a Pi hat board.)
Ben says that's possible, but the ribbon cable is really short, so it would be difficult to make the different parts fit into the compact design. The LCD itself is still pretty thick.
Ah, I see. If he did that he'd probably end up with something similar to a Pocket C.H.I.P., which seems thin, but thanks to its screen, case and overall component layout (esp. the battery) it's actually a bit bulky. And isn't foldable.
We need thinner batteries.
Thanks for the reply, ninja Karen! Keep on ninja-ing!
+The Ben Heck Show that warping on the 3d part, Try buildtac printing surface
Best fast build ever. How did you get the headphone jack to to work from a Pi Zero?
My question too. I know there are ways, it's just odd it wasn't mentioned at all.
yep, mine too. UPVOTE THIS!
The Pi Zero routes the audio through the HDMI to the screen driver board, where there's a headphone jack.
*****
No there isn't. he said the LCD uses composite input, which disables the HDMI on the zero.
Zhao Zhao if he really just connected the composite output then the truth is he doesn't have a working headphone jack because I don't see the circuitry needed to get an audio out from the gpio
Best Non Copyright music On youtube I ever heard
Upon rewatching it, I have to say that this is one of the neatest projects you have worked on. Super cool.
I'd like to see you add a lip around the top part of the device, so as to close the unit better and completely hide the keyboard (edit: kind of like the nintendo ds lite), and make a thicker hinge in order to hide the ribbon cable making it go around and on the outside but not exposed, and also making it (the hinge) stronger.
Those are great ideas!
theHeckwithKaren Hey, Karen, thanks!
I read that in your voice, by the way. haha.
But yeah, the NDS has a great design to -copy- get inspiration from.
Firsty McFirstFace
no one cares :)
what lcd is that
Kudos for the t-shirts, Halo Reach aka the best Halo in my opinion.
I wonder if it would have saved time by using those old T-Mobile SideKicks or 2 way pagers and putting in the raspberry Pi Zero. PS the "getting jiggy with it" line was so funny.
+Lostmuppet Yep
Amazing project! Would love to replicate this.
Please make an Electronic skateboard using a Raspberry Pi next!!
I liked the Yackity Sax reference during the diode wiring. Also, I'd like to suggest that Ben Heck doing acapella be known as "Heck-apella" from now on.
"Like a Gameboy SP"
No, like a fcking Laptop
Didn't you have to write a keyboard driver for your homebrew keyboard? Source code?
Love this project. Why didn't you use ribbon cable for the keyboard? Seems cleaner
Hi,
Got some question about that :
- How did you wire the audio jack ?
- How did you wire all the key of the keyboard ? How to bind key to letter ( when you type it type the letter, all thoses things other gpio )
- Where did you buy the screen too ?
Thanks if you answer,
bye
The keyboard used a matrix with a diode on each key to make them individually addressable.
The link for the screen is on github in the Parts folder on the BOM. github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
how about a pip boy?
+MineBlock :D I think it's a good idea dweeb
MineBlock :D Notice how you commented the same thing 4 times
So cool! Discovered your channel after watching your Nintendo PlayStation repair series :)
One quick tip as I heard you mention around the 13:15 mark that when prototyping 3d prints you always have an elephant foot on the bottom. The typical way around that is to print with a raft! They're a dirty word in hobbyist circles but commonplace in industry when you need things that are dimensionally accurate with FDM printing. Ok that's all the wisdom I can share, everything else you talk about is above my pay grade 😂
Keep up the great work!
when i build pi or any other small board machine i tend to stay away from the composite video the screen header or hdmi is so much better, don't get me wrong composite works great for game emulation and such, but when you drop out onto the command line the screen can be really hard to see and read.
black duct tidies up and strengthens those gold ribbon cables, just cover the front and back of the ribbon.
can you please make a parts list and where to buy everything and the 3d printing stls please because I love your show and im really interested into making one of these little pi laptops
Can you further explain how you connected the diodes to the buttons and how the button internally connects?
thats a sweet build, I like how you did the keyboard.
The idea I have for a Pie Zero is a smart watch type computer. I would try it myself but I can hold the iron steady enough to do those types of builds.
Put a sheet of PEI (Polyetherimide) on a glass plate and your ABS won't warp anymore. What etching plastic do you use? Is it Laserbits plastic laminate?
Yes, it's the faux brushed aluminum engraving plastic (1/16") from laserbits.
That is some talent. But I wish it was longer; like how did you make the hinge and what are the keys made from? This is like adam savages channel.
That keyboard is insanely interesting, it would be great to make a write up on how that's done!
would it be possible to squeeze in a trackpoint for this? I think it would be useful.
did you get the audio jack working too?
could u do this with a intel compute stick
The Intel Edison? Potentially, you need to find a way to output graphics though. ;)
I think he's talking about this: www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
+The Ben Heck Show
sure is easier than getting that pi zero. the famous 5$ computer made from pure unobtainium. either pay 35$+shipping or as in the case of adafruit with 6$ worth of other stuff (case+sd+..) for about 60 bucks. and that is if you can get one at all. wish people would stop using this marketing scam product in project shows since most people can't get this overhyped thing.
+The Ben Heck Show You should do a project on the Motorola z force with it's snap on.
Pretty cool device to make into portable windows 10 pc :D
So I have a digital photo frame lcd screen with a 50 pin ribbon connector. Where can i get a cheap driver like the one in the video?
do they have small project keyboards similar to ones on messaging cellphones, i think those would be smaller and look and feel better
I wish I had a good enough understanding of electronics to do stuff like this.
That's why I'm watching and learning. I understand enough to get me entrenched in more learning. Interesting stuff.
ikr
So, apparently there are configuration options you can change in the composite video output that can adjust the amount of overscan compensation and the proportions of the screen, so that you can avoid getting that horizontally-stretched look, and also avoid any black bars around the edges of the screen. It looks like you guys have taken care of the overscan, but not the proportions.
Is this computer orderable ? I think I'll not be able to make a mini-laptop like this but I'm very interested by this product.
Actually i had a idea if you can move that LCD More left you can make room for small speakers and maybe a small amp that can fit adafruit has a small mono amp and speaker.
Nice project. Maybe should have printed the bottom a few mill taller to recess the screw heads on the bottom of the unit. Then glue on some rubber feet.
Would you be able to tell me what screen it is you're using? I had a hell of a time finding a screen that I could transform my Pi into a portable gaming machine, and that thing looks perfect.
Fubukiyo it's one of those screen you use to drive in reverse while in a car, you can easily find them on amazon or ebay, its something like: "car backup display"
How exactly did u get an analog audio jack out of the raspi zero? did i miss that part?
Was the PowerBoost 500 Basic enough for this build?
great work !! how do you configure so the pi boot directly on the screen ? thank
reminds me of those good ol HP tiny PCs (like the HP 200LX) except this one can actually do things. I miss good engineering
Where did you learn how to make all this stuff?
How did you get that screen to work on the zero.... Where from.... and would it work with retropie... Thanks
The Pi Zero has a composite output - it's not broken out to a connector but it's accessible on a pair of solder points marked "TV".
Getting audio out is a little harder - the Pi Zero doesn't provide audio out except via HDMI, so if you want analog audio you either need to get it from HDMI, or recreate the audio circuitry that's present on other Pi models.
Tetsujin Know of any good guys for connecting a screen in that way?
Wizard XV Do you mean "good ways"?
Basically you just wire up those two pins to an RCA plug or jack, square pad to the center pin, then plug the screen in. (You could, of course, eliminate the connector pair if you needed to save space.)
There are tutorials online. Here's a pretty good one:
www.modmypi.com/blog/how-to-add-an-rca-tv-connector-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero
how is the the audio out and the video out actually made? I mean in terms of the PiZero output.
kinda wish we could order preprinted parts to make this ourselves like what others did with the pi boy
that'd be pretty cool haha
hi everyone i have a question, how many raspberry zero can i put in a case, without the need of a cooling fan?
Why do you use diodes when you have tristate scan lines?
Ben, to avoid the bigger first layer you can apply a tiny draft to the base layer. Effectively the first layer will still be slightly bigger than the model, but the draft would negate this effect.
any LCD screens I found need at least about 7v (they say 12v) how did you find one that runs on 5
That was completely incredible and awe inspiring:O
Thanks for sharing all the amazing technology that has my heart and mind soaring! Just wow!
Hi Ben. What driver do you use for GPIO keyboard? I would like to wire Laptop keyboard to Pi.
Felix says: The Wiwring library. (I think that's how it's spelled.)
Where is connected the jack ? He did not make pwm audio and there is no audio output except hdmi on the pi zero...
I wonder if there's a way to add a small mouse nub like on a Thinkpad.
How did you connect the video feed from the RPi Zero to the display controller board?
Can you give us the code and schematic for the keyboard matrix?
Curently buiding a 16x4 Raspberry Pi Zero thermal imager. Had the sensor sitting on my desk for a few years now. Thought I might as well put it to good use.
How is there no parts list for this?
Does Allison still work there?
Hey Ben, you should get an SLA printer like the Form 1 or Form 2.
You could've covered ribbon cable with vinyl sleeve. And keyboard: little membranes and vinyl sticker over 'em.
Could you create full-size laptop using many raspberry pis (zero) connected into cluster?
What is the headphone jack connected to on the zero?
can you try putting a 7" HD screen and a pi zero into a Wii u gamepad?
Where did you get that outlook water bottle?
what a wonderful project! What is the cost of all?
what interface was used to connect the lcd to the pi? was it hdmi?
How did you program the keyboard
Please make a video on Raspberry Pi Zero W screen mirror or casting like Chromecast.
How did he do the audio with the raspberry pi zero?
i allways wanted to make somthing like this only id use a raspberry pi 3 and a touchscreen for mouse :3 could i make this but with that instead?
Momentary tac switches?
"u" and "i" keys are wrong placed. intentional?
How the hell did you get an audio jack?
hi, how did you get audio out of the Pi zero?
Hmm, how about just hotgluing some Vinyl swatches in both sides of the case around the ribbon cable? Plenty of Vinyl is just that color.
So idea I have. What if you did a Raspberry Pi Switch? A handheld raspberry pi running emulation station, that removes the hdmi, usb, and ethernet ports. Then you plug it into a dock, which adds the missing connections, as well as a fan system to safely overclock the pi for higher end emulation.
Can you put Felix's keyboard code somewhere? Or even better, make a video about reading and writing the IO in C and/or Python?
It's on teh githubz
The Ben Heck Show Thx
Is it possible to rip the keyboards out of old Blackberry phones and reuse them? Or, rather, would it be more difficult than just making your own?
possible may allready have a driver for it
Please make the overall design and code for the keyboard available i would like to make my own keyboard too so i would like to know how to program my pi to work with it.
Build files are available here, github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
can you bend it back as far as a ds or does it only go back so far?
where did you get your screen from??
Doesn't the pi zero come with a charging jack anyway?
Well, I haven't built anything with a Pi Zero, but thanks to this episode, I decided to check if it was in stock again somewhere and ordered.
Wow lucky
CatTheRigger
They're still in stock at Pimoroni, where I ordered.
Also, you can always check this site to see if and where they're in stock.
whereismypizero.com/
+TheRexDark Thanks :D
this thing is absolutely awesome. do you have a total cost for this?
also how come you didn't use an xbox chatpad as you had before? would it have made the device larger?
Anyone else think that Ben and Great Scott! should collaborate or something. Two of my favorite channels
Make your own, if you can stick with USB standard power then even better as you can use a power bank.
I would have looked for a suitable USB keyboard and glide pad instead of wiring my own.
Not sure what low power screen solution there is but I'd look at cheap smart watches?
Any chance you could list out the components for us? Perhaps share the 3d print... *cough*.... please...?
github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
I think some of the .stl files are missing because Fusion360 stores files on a cloud, so we have to remind Ben to put them on our local server.
Let me know if anything is missing and I'll get the github updated.
+theHeckwithKaren Ayyy thanks
can you please add the laser cutting stls and update the parts list
"You could type sudo into windows if you wanted, it just wouldn't do anything." Lol hahaha
how long will it last with that battery?
do anyone know what a mini usb to usb converter is named i got like 3 one of them stopped working the other one i dont wanna use beacuse its all new so i only got one and i relly need the name to buy some more.
Can you please give us a detailed tutorial on how to make the keyboard, connect it to a Pi Zero and provide the script on Github? I would like to build a Raspberry Pi Zero built inside of an imitation Commodore 64 case, and I don't want to buy a USB Hub as that will take up more space for my project. Thank you in advance for at least considering my plea.
Some of the code is on the gihub, but I haven't dug through it yet to see if it's what you need: github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
What gauge wire are you using?
Why did you cover up one of the USB ports? I would've kept both available.
And I doubt it'll make a good MAME machine with tact switches for the keyboard. After a while they'll kill your fingers.