Building the first ZenDeck Prototype!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- In this episode I'll be assembling and testing the first prototype of the ZenDeck! Theres still a bit of work to do but the project is progressing nicely! Let me know if there's any games you'd like to see me test in a future episode!
Customize your designs with Cheap & quick PCB/3D printing/CNC machining at PCBWay: www.pcbway.com/
Join the discord! / discord
Follow me on Twitter! / cncdan
Help support the channel!
www.buymeacoffee.com/cncdan - Наука та технологія
No way! A person without a pro team of engineers made a handheld PC better than most of the handhelds on the market.
Thanks!
Kind of true, it's almost like his design is driven by someone who understands the market and knows what he wants instead of a board manager who doesn't play any games telling a design team what to do 😂
@@cncdan He's damn right!
Being paid to do the job vs being passionate to do the job
Its a crime that youtube hasnt shown this channel to more viewers. Amazing build too!
Thanks! The channel is slowly growing at least. Hopefully the videos will start to take off soon!
Mate you're killing it with these videos, they just keep getting better and better.
Thanks! Hopefully the views pick up again soon! I'm still trying to improve something with every video!
Dude, this looks amazing. The amount of progress you've made on this project is astounding. I can't wait to see the next revision.
Thanks!
Looking even better than before. I can't wait to see the final version of the ZenDeck
Thankyou!
Impressive, how you've advanced, it looks better than many consoles on the market. Great job.
Thanks!
Amazing video, can’t wait to see the revisions
I've already fixed the issues for the PCBs so I should be able to get them underway early next week!
@@cncdan awesome I can’t wait to see your next video, you’ve really helped when it comes to building my own handheld and you’ve answered a lot of questions I didn’t know I had.
This is turning out awesome. I love that you’ve gone with those hall joysticks, they are really good
Yeah they are great! So cheap too!
Amazing work you’re doing. Love the designs.
Thanks!
Great content!
Seeing these videos inspires me to also make some projects of my own.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it!
Good work man I'm proud of the amount of craftsmanship that you've poured into this I can't wait to get one of my own
Glad you're enjoying it!
That's why I have been waiting for more than 1 month, keep it up buddy.👏❤️✨
Thanks for waiting! It's a big project, but hopefully things will speed up a bit now!
Amazing work, brother!
Thankyou!
absolutely awesome work!
Thanks!
Very nice work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Mad. Awesome work!
Thanks a lot!
Gets 100X more awesome with every device/ generation of a device you make dude!!!
Thankyou! I'm very happy with this one so far!
Been waiting for a ZenDeck update the last few weeks! Continue the great work
Will do! The next revision of the PCB's will be shipping in the next day or two so I should have another update soon!
@@cncdan looking forward to it!
looking so good! keep it up!
Will do!
This looks so good !
Thanks!
This is amazing! I wanna make it already!
Thankyou! I'm going as fast as I can, should have more updates soon!
damn dude that looks so clean
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it so far! 😁
this is so cool!
Dude, you got mad skills.
Thankyou!
another episode of epic adventure :) Awesome job
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it!
Incredible!
Thanks!
Amazing! Keep up the good work! I know it is probably not in the plans but if you happened to make a kit that included everything, minus the PC itself, I am sure it would be a hot seller of a product. I know I would buy one.
It's something I'm considering. The aim this time around was to simplify the design to try and make it easier/cheaper to produce and to use as many off the shelf parts as I could. I've also completely separated the power management system from the controller PCBs so it can function on its own so at the very least I may be able to sell a couple of those as that's the hardest part to figure out!
@@cncdan I'm not aware of the pricing of making these parts by PCBway, will buying in bulk make it considerably cheaper? Or are those people with a 3D printer much better off printing themselves? How about the PCB's, does every1 need to order their own PCB's seperately?
so cool!
It looks pretty sick! If you also have an FDM printer, it might be convenient to make a jig for your ZenDeck to securely lie face down in.
I'm definitely a fan of solving problems with a 3D printer, but I already have a solution to the problem that is working very well. I can't think of any benefits a 3D printed jig would provide to me right now but I'll keep it in mind regardless!
INCREDIBLE
Very impressive work. You just got a new fan. Definitely following you along with your builds. Can I please copy your homework 😆
Thanks! That's why I post on UA-cam, so people can "copy my homework" and build their own! I'm not yet sure what I'm doing with this device, I'm considering making it a kit so I'm hanging onto the design for now, at least until its complete. My previous handheld is complete and fully open source though! github.com/dmcke5/NucDeck
Mate.. you are a legend. The videos are great and your presentation is Top notch. Can we buy one???
Not yet! I'm toying with the idea of making this a kit, but I'd need a substantial amount of interest and support to be able to produce the molds needed for a good quality injection molded housing!
@@cncdan Thanks mate.
beautiful work, would love to build one too, with linux
I'm planning to do a video testing out some Linux distro's on it very soon!
@@cncdan SteamOS?
@@tdhoedo1342 yeah I believe there's a couple of different "steamos" style distro's so I'll try a couple of the most popular ones and see if they are any good on this device!
Be interested in some comments on how ergonomic and heavy that this is - it does look nice, but I suspect it isn't really light or comfortable enough for a prolonged gaming session. (Not that many of the commerical offerings are going to be perfect there either - I bulked my steam deck up a fair bit as my hands are larger than it really suited)
Still I really like the concept, it is nice to see a trackpad included, something almost nobody but Valve is doing in this form factor that is way to handy to want to go without. I would however say you should put a second trackpad in if you can - these handhelds will occasionally want a keyboard and the Steamcontroller style two trackpads keyboard is really nice to use compared to anything else but a real keyboard.
The Steamdeck has some speciality software to allow those features to work on the trackpads, it's not really something I can easily pull of which is why I stuck with just a single trackpad. As for weight, yes it's going to be far from light. In its current state it weighs about 800g but I haven't added any batteries yet. With the smaller battery option it will be about 980g complete with a 1-3 hour runtime. With the bigger battery option it will be 1100g with a 2-6 hour runtime. Compared to the legion go (because it has an 8" screen like I do here) with the smaller battery (which is around the same capacity as the legion go anyway) mine is only 100g heavier than it which is mostly down to the need for a seperate display driver board and the fact that most mini PC's have a much beefier heatsink than the portables do. I could swap out the heatsink/fan for something smaller and lighter but my aim here is to keep this thing as modular as possible and minimise modifications needed to get it running to make it a less intimidating build for everyone. As for ergonomics, this will vary for everyone due to the size of their hands etc. This console is a fair bit bigger than a Steamdeck and I find the ergonomics are great at least for me. I put a fair bit of work into perfecting the shape and position of the buttons and sticks but I'm sure the layout and position of stuff won't suit everyone.
@@cncdan That is pretty impressive weight wise, I was expecting more like 1300-1500 range, I know how quickly the weight can build up when you are using off the shelf bits, and it is a larger screen.
However as it shouldn't be too bad to create a similar on screen keyboard to the Steamdeck method, nor I suspect will actually be that hard to just use the Steam version either. As much of the hardware interface layers of the Steam Controller seem to be available, but I've not looked into it deeply (yet anyway) just seen the documentation for steam input stuff seems rather huge, which means its probably in there somewhere... Whichever way you'd approach it IMO it would be well worth it though, unless you are going to build in one of those mini keyboards as some handhelds have done. I think I'd rather write just a patch to an open-source onscreen keyboard to take the two input devices in the same style. Which is a project I've had in mind to try for a while anyway - be nice to have such a slick 'onscreen' keyboard without needing Steam running and having all the keys I'd want - from time to time I've needed special characters for terminal stuff.
really nice. Imagine what you can do with a device like the minisforum em680/em780 ; 80mmx80mm outside casing and much faster.
We need a n100/n97 handheld for retro gaming :'D
great job man
I've been eyeing off the Lattepanda MU which is a little compute module with an N100 processor on it. Could probably make a cool little handheld using one of them!
Omg this is soooo epic!!!🤩🤩🤩🤩
Thankyou!
Killer 🎉
I been waiting for this one 🎉
Absolutely awesome handheld console, amazing. Are you selling any by chance? ... My English isn't very good, so I didn't understand everything in your video. Greetings.
I'm liking and commenting on every vid until u have the subscriber count you deserve.
Thankyou!
I would like to see how it holds up to rendering VR. could connect a headset to it while away from home (people have done such with the steam deck)
Would be interesting! Sadly I don't have a VR setup to try it with!
How much will you sell this for if you were to sell it? I want to check something. amazing work btw
I have no idea. I am designing this with the idea of it being a kit in mind, but until I have a finalised design and I've had quotes on getting the PCB's assembled etc, I can't work out a final price. Safe to say it will be much more than something like a Steamdeck. It's really the sort of project you'd undertake for the enjoyment of building it, not to save money.
lossless scaling and frame cap at level u can always maintain?
Wow this is very impressive ! I love your work ! Since more than a month I have also been making a portable console but with a raspberry pi zero 😅 And i want to know if you can provide the reference of the components for the controller pls ? Because I want to create a pcb for my console and i want to make an internal usb hub but i don't know how to make it. ( And sorry for my english 😅 )
Jump on the discord and introduce yourself. I'm happy to share the name of the USB hub when I'm next back in front of my computer. But I will probably forget to come back to this comment so if you're on the discord you can easily remind me! 😁
@@cncdan Okey no problem ! 👍🏾
you are the man but still you to go an a different direction i do want you to use or design the telescopic controllers.
great work
Thanks! Yeah the removable grips just isn't feasible without making the device much bigger/heavier. The batteries extend right out into the controller sections so there would be no room for them if the grips were removable.
@@cncdan something like the Linx Vision controllers not to be part of the device just an attachment
Where can I buy the pcb’s and all the other parts?or isn’t it available yet ?
I'm considering selling some kits if there's enough interest but I need to get the design complete first!
@@cncdan thanks Dan I will be waiting for it, I had already subscribe 💪🏾
could you try dual booting steam os or installing steam os on a seperate ssd to see how it performs? love these projects btw, cant wait fpr them to be fully complete so i can build one myself!!
Check the latest video! 😁
Simply
incredible. What was the final cost?
I will let you know once it's finished!
Looks really good, especially trackpad, I still don’t understand why there are so few handhelds with it on the market, it’s very comfortable thing, overall, a little more work and it will be an excellent handheld pc. But I'm really wondering where the battery will be, since there is very little space left inside.
The batteries will fit below the controller PCB's. Two 21700 lithium cells on each side for a total of up to 91wh of capacity! And yes, I'm definitely enjoying the trackpad, its a useful addition that I feel should be on all of these bigger handheld devices!
I would like to build a console, so how much did everything in it cost you? if you can tell me
dang bro this is cool i wish i could learn how to do this😭
The entire previous handheld project is up on github along with some instructions. You'll still need to have a reasonable idea of electronics to be able to assemble the PCB's etc but you can definitely learn how to do it!
I have a question regarding your button membranes, it seems you didnt go for an enig finish for them, which is recommended afaik, because it avoids oxidisation which can lead to your buttons not working down the line, did you find a cheaper alternative to combat this? If so, please let the world know, cause enig tends to be really expensive.
Wish I could say I'd found a better solution but unfortunately not! This finish is working well enough for now but the pads have to be very clean. I will likely get ENIG on the next revision because it's still considerably cheaper than having carbon ink applied to the contacts. All the controller PCBs are simple double sided boards so besides needing ENIG on the bottom two, there are no other fancy features required.
@@cncdan Well thats good to know then, shouldnt be tooooo expensive, wish you all the luck with your next revision and other future projects!
Awesome dude, do you think you'll be able to upgrade it easily so that it can play on high settings? :)
The idea is to be able to swap it out for a more powerful mini PC in the future! Honestly though, its a small screen so high settings isn't always noticable. I'm the sort of person that will always pick low settings just to get the most battery life I can!
@cncdan awesome! Love your channel and love this series you've created! Great job and may it surpass your expectations :)
What is the mainboard running it?
when he started it up that was a beelink logo, so its more than likely a Beelink micro pc
Its the mainboard from a Beelink SER5 with a Ryzen 7 5700U!
What type of CPU kit you use to power this?
I'm using a Beelink SER5 mini pc with a Ryzen 7 5700U APU and 16gb of ram!
Wow, this is amazing! What would the total cost be roughly if building one?
Difficult to gauge this early on. At a guess, you're probably looking at around $150-200 for a pile of PCBs and components, more if you need to have a housing printed/made for you. I'm aiming to keep the custom parts as cheap as possible with the goal of possibly making this a kit when the design is complete. I have no idea how much it costs to have PCBs assembled though so that may put a stop to the entire plan because I certainly have no interest in assembling potentially hundreds of PCBs myself 🤣
Looks good, how much was the price?
I may do this instead of buying another handheld.
Hard to calculate until it's finished unfortunately! Safe to say it will cost more than something like a steamdeck once its complete but maybe less than some of the other more expensive options.
What apu are you using?
I've used a beelink ser5 with a ryzen 7 5700u. The idea is though that you should be able to use many different models/brands of mini PC without requiring huge changes to make it work.
How many mAh's is the battery going to be
Up to 6000mah with 4 cells in series for a total of about 91w/h. You could also put smaller 3000mah cells in if you wanted a lighter build but you'd be down to around 1-3 hours run-time.
We need a shop so buy the pcbs or cases, or links to pcbway to get it in the shopping cart pls.
This is something I'm considering doing for this one. I've got to get the design fully complete first though so I can work out costs/prices etc
Staring at my 5700u mini pc and having dremel-y thoughts
I’m honestly curious about whether this costs less to make than a steam deck. If it is, I might have to make it myself.
I can confidently say that it won't. As far as I'm aware, the Steamdeck is subsidised by steam because they know they will make sales on games/software through their store because of the device. Its honestly an amazing device for the money so if you are just looking for the cheapest option, that's probably the way to go!
ye gud content
this is interesting...
how come you not cutting prototype pcb's on the cnc ? ;]
I promise, it's something you'll see me do on this channel eventually! I've done it before in the past, but there's a partical limit to how small you can easily go with machined PCBs and most of these PCBs are way past it. I could probably do the joystick PCBs myself but there is little to no point when I have to get the other PCBs from PCBWay anyway. Plus these simple 2 layer boards are $5 for 5 of them (minimum order quantity) so I'd be buying them even if I wasn't sponsored!
@@cncdan Ive done some experiments in the past for gamepad stuff as well, but I had a diy cnc, now I bought a chinese 3040 need to try again as this is way more rigid and precise then my diy was ;] also I wonder if its possible to cut a flex pcb
@@Moonrakerd I don't think milling flex PCBs is a possibility just because I've never seen the material available anywhere. There's one other big downside to milled PCBs too, vias aren't an easy thing to achieve. I've done it in the past but it basically ends up being a hole drilled through the board with a bit of wire through it to join both sides. It's definitely handy on projects with larger components and when I'm in a hurry, but for the small surface mount stuff I'm leaving it to the pro's from now on! Just one less headache I have to deal with 🤣
Who have you worked for before?
What a fantastic complement, thankyou! I haven't ever worked in the industry but I do design work on large machinery for a living!
The lazy, practical person in me says: "Why not get a Steam Deck?" but the engineer and Kerbal Controller builder in me is very, very much understanding that it is just that much better to do something yourself. Both of those traits are in complete awe of the device. (The Linux person in me is saying that he'll take 10 if you can get it running various distros well.)
Thanks! Honestly I spend more time designing/building these things than I do playing them, so just buying one wouldn't make much sense for me 🤣 I'm planning to try out some of the "Steam OS" Linux distro's in an upcoming video to see if they work well on it!
I mostly agree, though even the KSP builder in you aught to be considering a Steamdeck or similar as a starting point - it is much easier to make something you will like that suits your needs if you have a good comparison and some experince with similar stuff to really know what you want to improve.
@@foldionepapyrus3441 I pre-ordered the Steam Deck. I've had it for years at this point. I actually wore out the battery and replaced it lol
Mate can you change the mini PC With an ryzen 8845hs please
That Will oncourage me to make the zen deck
Tanks !
Budget limitations are why I picked the PC I did. You're welcome to donate one to me though and I'll happily upgrade it 🤣
still based on Ryzen 7 5700U?
Did you know that this is a rebranded older 4000 series that is based on old Zen 2 cores and an old Vega iGPU?
Maybe it's worth changing it to Ryzen 7 6800U (Zen 3+) with 680M (12 CU; RDNA 2.0) or Ryzen 7 7840U (Zen 4) with 780M (12 CU; RDNA "3.0" - same as 680M)?
I'd love to upgrade it at some point, but this was the best I could get easily at a reasonable cost point in Australia. It does everything I need it to at this stage but a bit more power in the future wouldn't be a bad thing!
Next video:
I've built my own Linux gaming distro from Scratch! 😂
You predicted part of it right at least!
@@cncdan 🎉🎉🎉 I must be psychic 😂
Helldivers 2 testing?
That one might be pushing it. I also don't own a copy sadly!
You'll think I'm mad but i think you should put a 4060 in it and underclock it to 25W and see what happens. Then if you plug it in, run it at the max speed it'll go. The 4060 runs at 10W at idle so it should be fine doing 25W. And a 5700u will not bottleneck it at all.
There's no PCI-E slot to connect a GPU sadly. Not to mention the extra weight and battery life penalty. Your best bet for a DIY handheld with a dedicated GPU would be to start with a gaming laptop mainboard
@@cncdan sure there is! there's an m.2 slot. you don't need an ssd for mobile gaming, usb storage is plenty fast enough if you use a good ssd. you can even use your existing nvme ssd with a usb chassis. gaming laptop mainboards use crappy gpus that have very bad price*performance/tdp ratio, desktop gpus can easily beat that stuff imo. the 4060 idles at 10W and could probably be less, i'm sure you'd be surprised at how well it works in a handheld. i can easily see it reaching 1-2 hours with a large battery with noticeable quality upgrade over the APU, plus enabling its whole power when hooked up to the wall would just be a whole nother thing
but its not portable, right?
Not yet, this is only the prototype. Power management is the next step!
the vent reminds me of alienware
Or the WAN show logo. But, I'm an Alienware fan so I see it too
Hadn't even thought of the WAN show, but you're right! I was definitely aiming for Alienware vibes though!
@@cncdan word!
@@cncdan so whats the logo for the zendeck?
Cool work! I was actually thinking of slimmer form factors, N100 or RK3588 seems to be nice performers at lower wattages.
Yeah absolutely! I've been eyeing off the n100 board that lattepanda makes. Might be cool for a future project!
@@cncdan can't wait to see it. A pity than many ARM SBCs can't be found as standalone boards.
It is also hard to modify phones too
ill pay 5 dollars make you hollar for that thing
ok 5.05
can u try dark souls remastered please?
Its minimum requirements are well within this machines capabilites, so it should run fine! Unfortunately, this isn't a game I own!
Let him cook🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥
First?
You sure were!
Bro install window 10 little bit better performance
Possibly, but its going to loose support late next year. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with the performance I'm getting anyway and most of the games I'm interested in playing aren't super recent so I don't really need more performance than what I've got currently!