I wouldnt say flagship as the style is pretty dated but it does look really professional. Gives me some retro vibes cause of the clear blue plastic like the clear gameboy colors or some cartridges for the NES. Thinking about it now the gameboy advanced also had some clear plastic game cartridges. If he'd chosen a more boring color with a rubberized coating maybe it'd look like a flagship but honestly the retro aesthetic is better imo. Everything is so colorless these days. All whites, blacks and greys/silver. It's probably the reason why gamers love rgb so much now that I think about it 😅
Now... How can we make all console manufacturers subscribe to and watch this channel? This guy is doing incredible job yet criminally underappreciated in terms of viewers.
I have to say that this is one of the videos that make you feel like anything is possible your console is great watching your video is amazing enjoy it thanks for the video
Cant wait to see what else you put out in the future dude, this was awesome! I do seem to remember a pretty sweet looking wooden guitar hero controller floating around the back of your earlier videos, it'd be sweet if you could do a video on that
This is exciting! I've just binge-watched all of these I can see this channel becoming super popular. With your skill set there will always be a new project to move onto as well.
You can also vibrate the molds to get the bubbles out. For a budget shaker you could probably use a radial or edge sander in a vice. If you're worried about silicone coming out of the mold you can fill it half-way, vibrate it at a slow to moderate speed and fill the rest of the way.
Cheers! Yeah I've picked up a fair bit of extra gear and I'm trying to work on my on-screen presence so hopefully the videos are improving! This latest one seems to be my best performing video yet so I must be doing something right!
For reals! I got one for you, turning an old Valve SteamLink into a full gaming handheld or at the least similar to the PlayStation handheld they just released but make it compatible with all the cloud gaming possible and keep it compatible all of the Steam games too! Some peeps claim they have dome it, but they got to show me! And I bet it will look no where as good as the one you can build! Real talk! ❤️😎✌️👌😜🧐
just binged all of these videos even though I don't have any experience with cncs and all of my endeavors into 3d printed projects have led to migraines and tears. I just have to say great job! Please keep making projects and documenting them in the future (:
Wow, looking great! I had a NUC for trying a similar idea for a handheld, only went as far as running it on battery in a case but you've went a lot further with it. I'm really impressed with the craftsmanship.
I have no idea why youtube recommended me this video... but I'm glad it did! Watched the entire playlist and really enjoying your progress on this project. I'd love to try something like this myself with one of the AMD NIUC-style devices.
13" laptops are also a good source for motherboard / SoC. You can find decently spec'ed boards for less than $100...they already have display connectors and circuitry, often even for touch screen They are almost plug and play past the control / gamepad interface. You can make some pretty intricate case / chassis by using thick and cheap plastic cutting boards and cutting out different layers. All of this can be done without 3d printing or any fancy equipement. Anyone with some ingenuity could put something decent together. Parts of whatever gamepad you tear apart could be used with the chassis as well. The plastic cutting boards are easy to shape with some basic files and / or a dremel.
Yes I looked at plenty of different options when I first started designing this. The problem with laptop mainboards is they aren't always sold everywhere so tracking down a particular board can be painful. I choose the NUC because it's very small and they are readily available pretty much everywhere and the different models only vary slightly so it's easier to adapt the design to suit!
I gotta love that battery meter feature on the right of the unit, dope af, but lets polish it slightly, instead of it going all the way back down to 0% and cycling up to 100%, have it start at the batteries current percentage so you know how much it is actually charged, during charging without having to remove the charger or without exiting the application you are currently in.
Someone else commented almost exactly the same thing today! Its actually just an animation currently, there is no battery to monitor until I finish the power management system. Once that is complete and there's actually something to monitor I'll be making some changes to the battery monitor display.
@@cncdan hahahha Havn't been following the entire build so you can guess why that might've gone straight over my head, can't wait to see the power portion of this, it's an area I'm always interested to see what people are doing. No wonder it felt like it was more for show than anything else
Thankyou! I'm honestly surprised how many people love the track pads. Admittedly I've never used a steamdeck before but they look kind of awkward from the photos!
they are right up to the point that they aren't. you have to get used to them for sure, but once you are, they are great. context menus, scroll wheels, of course, a mouse, they double as a giant button, if you want you can make it a glorified second D pad but it's way more configurable. i'm able to play several games where a controller alone just wouldn't cut it, and the trackpads in conjunction with a mode shift button or two are the gateway to functionally unlimited buttons. though, i do wish they were just a tad less jank to use. they are finicky. but honestly the trackpads are the thing that separates the deck from most other hardware. but your project looks like a blast. i can't wait to see what else you come up with. this is some great work and i look forward to more. sorry for the thesis.@@cncdan
The ABXY orientation / placement triggers me, but this is awesome work, nice one! Would be amazing if Steam would just allow direct sales to Aus, but I guess I'll have to do this instead..
Much better than this old nuc, that's for sure. I picked this one because it offered a reasonable price/performance ratio and I couldn't justify the spend on a much newer model. It's something I'd like to do in the future though!
Yeah I agree. There's definitely potential here to put a different system in it with minimal changes needed. Considering that there's enough room in here for a Nuc and enough battery to run it for a couple of hours, you could end up with a VERY long runtime with an ARM computer instead. This is something I hope to investigate in the future!
I love it!!! I am also pitching this idea to everybody I can in hopes it becomes reality. I think it would be great if we could repurpose screens from old phones and use those instead of buying new expensive IPS screens. I feel like it would be a great way to recycle devices that are completely outdated and destined for garbage as well as open doors for us who like to tinker, but have no expendable budget. This would also repurpose screens on phones that are completely bricked. Recycling just the screens are one way to go, but what if we could also begin more open source projects to develop custom roms for these phones to not be a rom with less bloatware but a barebones os for these phones to do specific tasks. For example, recal box helps older computers better emulate classic games by removing the bloat of the operating system between the emulator and hardware and puts the emulator closer to the hardware that it uses less resources. What if we did this with phones, but not just games? What if we did this also where we made the only function to be an IP camera. We do this some, but it would be nice to have a custom rom that its only function is to open up a menu to connect to wifi and display the local IP address on screen. Older phones have comparable specs to some raspberry pi's. Maybe we can make a custom rom to make old phones into a headless linux servers for various projects like we would a Pi. Some examples would be to run Pi-Hole, AdGuard, a web server or perhaps even a mine craft server.
Whilst I do love the idea of saving whatever we can from E-waste, phone screens can be a bit tricky. As far as I know, there's many different types of technologies used and they aren't always easy to integrate into our own projects. I'm not an electrical engineer and a lot of that stuff goes way over my head, so I had to work with a technology that I am familiar with. Having said that, this type of display is common in cheap tablets, car headunits and digital photo frames, so you could easily recycle one of them if you had one laying around you wanted to make use of!
I AM NOT WATCHING THIS VIDEO ..... ;) ...yet. I am stopping it before it even starts, subscribing and going to look for part one on your channel, so I can enjoy it from the beginning!!!
Great progress on the project! I actually have a question. Is there any chance that you might be selling something like a kit for this project? Basically all needed parts and non assembled. That would be a huge win for the community. Also if you have no plans for that can anyone take the needed project files and sell kits themselves?
Unfortunately I don't think I really have the spare time to be organising kits and shipping them out. I'm already pushing it with trying to make UA-cam videos! I think a group buy of some of the parts might be a feasible option (there's been some talk of this on the discord group) but if someone wanted to come along and make a kit of the whole thing, I wouldn't be upset as long as I get credited for the design!
@@cncdan Thanks for the answer! I think there will be several Chinese manufacturers interested in this project. The only concern I have is that almost all nucs don't have good performance on lower tdp. I will probably try to use the Ryzen 7735hs as it runs at 35watts. I will also make sure to compile a list of all possible Ryzen chips that fit your design. Again thanks for your outstanding work so far. Open sourcing a windows handheld is phenomenal on so many levels!
Love your name too since it's my name LOL. My name is Dan. Peoduction/mill turn boss. Face mills, no coolant. Just , "brrrrrp be berrrp. Brrrrrrrrp..." Haas vf2ss vertical mill. I miss it but I suck at numbers. And while machining medical instruments and sucking at numbers doesn't work together..lol.
This is incredible, it looks as if it came from a production facility! I’d been wondering for awhile if the Intel NUC could be converted to a handheld. This video blew my expectations away! Keep up the phenomenal work, you sir are talented! 😁
Thanks! Hopefully once I've worked out a way to handle the battery properly, it will become an easier project for people to complete in the future so we may end up with a bunch of different NUC powered handhelds!
This is beautiful. If only Intel themselves took handheld gaming this seriously. Have you considered trying Linux to see if you could get better battery life or performance? There are a few SteamOS clones that could make the software side of things much more streamlined, and Intel drivers are open source too.
Thanks! I did try HoloISO on it a few months ago but I couldn't get it running properly, I'm not sure how good the support is for the older generations of Intel stuff. I'm definitely interested in trying some other linux distro's once I have time, but at the moment all of my spare time is going into finishing the build!
@cncdan there are 2 new contenders now! There's ChimeraOS and Bazzite OS. They both use a more mainstream and updated Linux kernel with arguably more compatibility. Also, there's other distros like PopOS that have great power management options out of the box, you'd just need to set steam to open at startup.
@protocetid okay I wasn't sure about that. I know that ChimeraOS used to support everything, and from what I understood, the only thing that didn't work was the overlay of FPS and performance stuff from Mango HUD.
Only half way through the video atm, but curious on why you made the mold using aluminum, instead of 3d printing the buttons and making a mold out of that?
Hopefully you found the answer in the video anyway, but in case you didn't, I choose to make the positives in aluminium because I can polish it and make a nice glossy mold. The silicone picks up heaps of detail from the positive so if I used a print I would've had to spend hours filling and sanding to get even close to the same result. If I had a resin printer though, I would've just printed the buttons on that!
The plan hasn't changed, there's years worth of these things slowly making their way to e-waste. Hopefully we can save a couple and turn them into little gaming devices! There's also plenty of other competition in the mini pc space, so I'm sure we will be able to find other options that fit without too much work!
I've been down this path before with projects in the past and it usually just isn't worth it. All the files for the parts will be available once the project is complete so you could use a service like PCBWay to have the parts made for you. If enough people wanted to, you could organise a group buy on the Discord to make the parts as cheap as possible!
I've tried this before. You can, as long as the hole in the syringe isn't too small. They are also almost single use as removing the last bits of resin from them can be difficult. I find just dripping it in works pretty well!
I actually started building a housing out of wood for one of my previous designs. Its definitely do-able and something I might do in the future on the channel!
@@elasmojones I think you'd be surprised actually, depending on the wood used it could end up being lighter than plastic! Keeping things in place is no problem either, I'd just use the same brass inserts I have on the plastic and glue them in place. Definitely do-able!
I hadn't even heard of a chrome box before. I did a quick google but I reckon it looks like it's a fair bit bigger than a nuc so you might not have much luck. Plenty of quicker nucs out there though!
Im really impressed with the use of familiar x input software, although not ideal, it's good for showing how awesome the system already is now. Do you think you're going to be using a different solution such as firmware to get x input? Can't wait to see the next video. But do you think that metal buttons would be functional or too harsh on the housing overall without different materials involved?
You could definitely do metal buttons. They'd be a tad heavier maybe but I don't think that would cause any issues. As for the controls, it would be cool to be able to emulate x input on the actual hardware but I'm not sure if it's been done before or not. Might be a bit outside of my ability levels to figure out on my own!
@@cncdan well I've seen people do it with fight pads and hitbox controllers in the past. And I've also seen hardware that runs as interpreters with incredibly low latency such as ones from 8-bitdo. But then your integrating a whole other off the shelf component that may become unavailable like the nuc (albeit likely highly more replaceable)
Yes sorry about that, you can expect them to be added soon! I was up very late editing this last night and have had a busy day today so I haven't had time to make the final changes. I'll try and get it done tonight and I'll write back here with a comment when It's done!
The battery charging icon could use some work. I get that you want to show it animated, but the percentage should be accurate to the state of the hardware, not the animation. Also when possible the animation should show the level of charge as well, and just indicate movement (i.e. a flowing gradient, instead of a solid green color; but either way, the percentage should not move).
The battery indicator is nothing more than a repeated animation at the moment. I included it right back in the second episode just to demo the screen. Once I have the battery management stuff in and actually have some information to read out I'll be making changes exactly like what you've described!
Yeah, I would've loved to use hall effect joysticks but I started designing this project almost a year ago and at the time all I could find were xbox/playstation style joysticks with hall effect sensors. The ones I've used have a significantly smaller internal footprint which gave me a lot more room to fit things in.
@@InterstellarLord they also weren't around when I started designing this I'm pretty sure. I'm also not a big fan of the limited travel of the switch style sticks which is why I opted for the ones I did. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that a hall effect version of the sticks I've used will become available as they are a great size and still offer full-sized like travel.
I had a go with HoloISO shortly after I began the project, but the support for this older intel system just wasn't there. Once I have everything functioning correctly I will go back and have a look at all my different software options in a future video!
Yeah, I'd love a resin printer. I'm sure it'll happen one day! I've actually built a handheld in the past with aluminium buttons and they are surprisingly cold and heavy feeling (not to mention rattly). The resin just makes for a much nicer feeling button!
@@cncdan Ive experimented with resin printed buttons and they come up quite nice, not to mention done quite a few dj mixer knobs that after a coat of paint look factory made ;] its a pity that resin printers arent perfect as well, bigger parts are fragile and really hard to print precisely, Ive tried to make my own retropocket with the nice square screen but some parts turned out way harder to print that I thought
Yeah I totally get this. I've tried to keep it as easy as I can, but it's definitely still not a simple project. Hopefully at least a handful of people will still manage to make their own!
I googled it quickly and it looks like something that should run. I've already got a bunch of games I need to test in the next video but if I get a chance I'll take a look
@@cncdan yeah but the tech savvy guys have an itch that you are obligated to scratch if you gonna post tech videos 😞 This is also going to help us pick similar system to yours and have similar results.
I appreciate an effort you put into this project, it's really remarkable, and the build itself is great, but why not just use a resin printer for this buttons?
You're right, you absolutely could. They may not end up quite as glossy and smooth as these ones but if I had a resin printer that's exactly what I would've done!
Yep, you're right. I have them group with all the PCB components since I bought mine from DigiKey at the same time as the other parts. I'll get them added when the BOM for the controller PCBs goes up which will be soon hopefully!
As much as I'd like a track pad, there isn't much spare room. The design is open source though so if you want to build one yourself you can add whatever you want!
I had to look that one up because I'd never heard of it before. Looks like it was released about 6 months after I started working on this, so that should answer that question hopefully! I am considering a version 2 so there's a possibility of something like that in the future!
It was released late 2011, I was 21, i was just finishing University, I'd just got my first fulltime job and I was busy dating the women I eventually married. Guess I just had a busy couple of years afterwards and never realised it was a massive hit until semi-recently and now I'm older my list of games to try out is probably already longer than the amount of spare time I'll ever get 😭
i don't want to sound hater, but with the open source idea on mind is not better, faster and cheaper using already existing buttons? i mean for that diy project, you can make a perfect prototype using current hardware... and is more repeatable for ppl around the world... that aside DANG WHAT A NICE AMOUNT OF WORK! it turns out beautiful...
Yeah, that's an option I considered. It may not look like it but the front edges of the controller sections taper down a bit so finding buttons to match that was proving to be a bit difficult. If you didn't care too much about how they stuck out though you could easily modify it to use buttons from something else!
(Little disclaimer that's the first video I saw here on the channel so sorry if he maybe done things already that I list here up.) Oh I have so many Ideas how I would try to pimp it. But that would be a bit too much. 😅 Especially because I need the knowledge first and second problem would be the battery/batteries. Because I thought about putting an Nvidia RTX Laptop GPU into it with a thicker cooling fan then normal laptops have today, a mouse switch so I can use my sticks as a mouse and last but not least keyboard. So at the end I have the strength of a gaming Laptop in a smaller device. I mean no mouse and a small display and keyboard. It would be a bit more compact in the overall size then a gaming laptop but still would have a good amount of power.
Love the enthusiasm! The graphics card thing is probably a bit of a stretch given current battery technology, but maybe one day we will see it! As for the mouse switch, I've already included that on this device and its working well! You will also be able to map all the buttons to keyboard buttons when in mouse mode so while you won't have a full keyboard, you will have the buttons that are most important to you!
With a little bit of work, you could add a bunch of keyboard combos in the controller menu system for the lesser used commands that you still need access to. I've found it very useful to include shortcuts in there for stuff like "Alt + F4" to force close a program/game without needing to go and get a keyboard. The pi pico has LOADS of memory spare, so you could probably store hundreds if not thousands of combos in there although you'd want a better way of organising/displaying them at that point.
I haven't had a close look at the controller display since the second or third video in the series. I've added a lot since then. I'll be taking a closer look at it in the next video!
Yeah I've seen that video getting around. It's a cool idea but In my opinion the framework mainboard is a little too wide for a project like this. Maybe with an 8" screen it would be better!
Cool project I only have one question: WHY?! Maybe I shouldn't start with Episode 6 but this showed up on my home feed so here I am.Why use resin after you already milled freaking metal buttons? how cool would metal buttons be? Why go through all this struggle of making a DIY Handheld and put windows on it instead of a custom UI? With this amount of work collaborating with a programming UA-camr shouldn't be out of the question should it? Or at least throw SteamOS on there, something meant for Hardware like that. okay the windows part is just a general pet peeve of mine: I see so many Windows Steamdeck knockoffs and the bottom line is always "yeah the OS outside of games feels ever so slightly off," I wonder why? Among a bunch of other issues that vary between device but can usually answered by "Yeah Optimized software is almost always better than just a .exe UI on top of a needlessly power hungry all rounder OS." Also who would go through this hellish long high effort process for a DIY project? Are there really people doing such ridiculously high effort DIY projects like this (at least that's how this seems to me) just for the end product/project and not for a UA-cam Video? Hope this didn't come off super negative, the project as well as you and your work have my utmost respect. Just wanted to leave an honest comment, and my honest reaction was "WHY?!"
Wow, that's quite the comment! Let me see if I can answer all of these questions. I've done one of these in the past with metal buttons and whilst they are very cool looking, they are a bit heavy so the springiness of the buttons doesn't feel quite as nice. If I had a resin printer I would just print them and they'd be fine, but I'm just working with what I've got. As for the windows thing, most games I'm intending to run are native to windows. I agree it isn't a great OS in terms of handheld use but with this older intel CPU, you wouldn't see comperable performance from some of the modern linux based solutions like SteamOS. For what it's worth, I did try holoiso early on in the project but the driver support just wasn't there so I wasn't able to get it running properly. I believe there's a few more options around now which I will have a go of once I've finished building it and I may even upgrade it to a newer AMD based PC so I can use SteamOS. As for people doing DIY projects like this, yes, there definitely are. I did a few before I even started UA-cam and there are several forums dedicated to people building similar devices. I just noticed there was a bit of a lack of well documented, professional looking builds on UA-cam and decided it would be a good way to start my UA-cam channel!
Yeah I did try that a while ago but I found I still got some bubbles in the corners of the molds. It was a pretty big syringe so perhaps a smaller one would be more controllable.
I did a quick google search on the Series S and it looks like it can consume up to about 75W, meaning you would need a much larger battery. Its definitely something someone could do, but it would end up being a much larger system.
This is why its open source! There's not a lot of spare room at the moment so you may have to make the device a little bigger to fit a track pad but if that's a trade-off you're willing to make then go for it!
this doesn’t look like a diy project it looks like a flagship product from a real company trying to compete. Nice
Thankyou! This is definitely what I was aiming for!
Lenovo Legion Go?
Absolutely! Great video!
@@dillanclark864 Thanks!
I wouldnt say flagship as the style is pretty dated but it does look really professional. Gives me some retro vibes cause of the clear blue plastic like the clear gameboy colors or some cartridges for the NES. Thinking about it now the gameboy advanced also had some clear plastic game cartridges. If he'd chosen a more boring color with a rubberized coating maybe it'd look like a flagship but honestly the retro aesthetic is better imo. Everything is so colorless these days. All whites, blacks and greys/silver. It's probably the reason why gamers love rgb so much now that I think about it 😅
Now... How can we make all console manufacturers subscribe to and watch this channel? This guy is doing incredible job yet criminally underappreciated in terms of viewers.
Thankyou!
Amazing just one man can do by himself these days. Unbelievable amount of skill and knowledge involved. Hats off to you man!
Cheers!
Maaaan I always look forward for these videos to come out. Keep up the great work. This is gonna be awesome for the maker community.
Thanks, I hope so! I really hope at least a couple of people have a go of building one when I'm done!
People like you are why I love UA-cam and the Internet, this is so damn cool.
Thanks! Glad everyone is enjoying the build!
I have to say that this is one of the videos that make you feel like anything is possible your console is great watching your video is amazing enjoy it thanks for the video
Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it!
Cant wait to see what else you put out in the future dude, this was awesome! I do seem to remember a pretty sweet looking wooden guitar hero controller floating around the back of your earlier videos, it'd be sweet if you could do a video on that
Cheers! And I was beginning to think no one would notice that 😉
This is exciting! I've just binge-watched all of these I can see this channel becoming super popular. With your skill set there will always be a new project to move onto as well.
Thankyou! I've got loads of stuff planned so keep an eye out for the next project soon!
2111 subscribers. Bravo sir and kudos. - the future is opensource, modular, repairable, customisable, re-usable and recyclable.
Thankyou!
You can also vibrate the molds to get the bubbles out. For a budget shaker you could probably use a radial or edge sander in a vice. If you're worried about silicone coming out of the mold you can fill it half-way, vibrate it at a slow to moderate speed and fill the rest of the way.
Good to know! I've got a random orbital sander so I could probably make an attachment for that. Will give it a go at some stage in the future!
If you sold this id buy it. Looks very professional.
Thankyou!
You are a legend, one day you will have at least 5 million subscribers.😁
Thankyou, I hope so!
You can really tell how much he's evolved since his first video coolest handheld I've seen
Cheers! Yeah I've picked up a fair bit of extra gear and I'm trying to work on my on-screen presence so hopefully the videos are improving! This latest one seems to be my best performing video yet so I must be doing something right!
You're making me want a CNC Dan...
It's definitely a fun toy!
🧐
Everyone needs a CNC!
The Tormoc... It calls to you
For reals! I got one for you, turning an old Valve SteamLink into a full gaming handheld or at the least similar to the PlayStation handheld they just released but make it compatible with all the cloud gaming possible and keep it compatible all of the Steam games too! Some peeps claim they have dome it, but they got to show me! And I bet it will look no where as good as the one you can build! Real talk! ❤️😎✌️👌😜🧐
Hiya Dan! Massive job you've done on the NucDeck, keep up the good work! Cheers mate!
Thanks, will do!
Best build ever seen !
Thankyou!
just binged all of these videos even though I don't have any experience with cncs and all of my endeavors into 3d printed projects have led to migraines and tears. I just have to say great job! Please keep making projects and documenting them in the future (:
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the series so far. I've got heaps more projects planned so stay tuned!
Wow, looking great! I had a NUC for trying a similar idea for a handheld, only went as far as running it on battery in a case but you've went a lot further with it. I'm really impressed with the craftsmanship.
Cheers!
Yeah me too, using a chinese nuc ryzen 3 2200u running off with 18650 cells.
MAN YOU ARE BEAST you are using NINTENDO BUTTON LAYOUT!
I have no idea why youtube recommended me this video... but I'm glad it did! Watched the entire playlist and really enjoying your progress on this project.
I'd love to try something like this myself with one of the AMD NIUC-style devices.
Well, sounds like the algorithm knows you better than you do!
I'll definitely be looking at upgrading to a newer NUC once the project is complete!
I was waiting for this! Great video, thanks 😊👍🏼
holly shit.... that detail on build this all is epic.
Thanks!
Awesome work on the project and breakdowns!
Inspired me to finally get started on my own design.
13" laptops are also a good source for motherboard / SoC. You can find decently spec'ed boards for less than $100...they already have display connectors and circuitry, often even for touch screen They are almost plug and play past the control / gamepad interface. You can make some pretty intricate case / chassis by using thick and cheap plastic cutting boards and cutting out different layers. All of this can be done without 3d printing or any fancy equipement. Anyone with some ingenuity could put something decent together. Parts of whatever gamepad you tear apart could be used with the chassis as well. The plastic cutting boards are easy to shape with some basic files and / or a dremel.
Yes I looked at plenty of different options when I first started designing this. The problem with laptop mainboards is they aren't always sold everywhere so tracking down a particular board can be painful. I choose the NUC because it's very small and they are readily available pretty much everywhere and the different models only vary slightly so it's easier to adapt the design to suit!
Software side, you can take any generic controller, and if you launch the game with Steam, you can emulate an Xbox controller if you want.
Yes, but that still doesn't seem to work for the "games for windows" titles that require an xinput device unfortunately!
awesome design. but i would consider giving the d-pad a sphere pivot on the bottom. that would make it feel 10 times better useing it.
Yep, that's exactly what it's got already. Definitely the best way to make a dpad!
Nucdeck hero of the south
I gotta love that battery meter feature on the right of the unit, dope af, but lets polish it slightly, instead of it going all the way back down to 0% and cycling up to 100%, have it start at the batteries current percentage so you know how much it is actually charged, during charging without having to remove the charger or without exiting the application you are currently in.
Someone else commented almost exactly the same thing today! Its actually just an animation currently, there is no battery to monitor until I finish the power management system. Once that is complete and there's actually something to monitor I'll be making some changes to the battery monitor display.
@@cncdan hahahha Havn't been following the entire build so you can guess why that might've gone straight over my head, can't wait to see the power portion of this, it's an area I'm always interested to see what people are doing. No wonder it felt like it was more for show than anything else
the lack of the touchpads on either side is a dealbreaker but otherwise fantastic job.
Thankyou! I'm honestly surprised how many people love the track pads. Admittedly I've never used a steamdeck before but they look kind of awkward from the photos!
they are right up to the point that they aren't. you have to get used to them for sure, but once you are, they are great. context menus, scroll wheels, of course, a mouse, they double as a giant button, if you want you can make it a glorified second D pad but it's way more configurable. i'm able to play several games where a controller alone just wouldn't cut it, and the trackpads in conjunction with a mode shift button or two are the gateway to functionally unlimited buttons. though, i do wish they were just a tad less jank to use. they are finicky. but honestly the trackpads are the thing that separates the deck from most other hardware. but your project looks like a blast. i can't wait to see what else you come up with. this is some great work and i look forward to more. sorry for the thesis.@@cncdan
The ABXY orientation / placement triggers me, but this is awesome work, nice one!
Would be amazing if Steam would just allow direct sales to Aus, but I guess I'll have to do this instead..
Thanks! Wouldn't be difficult to swap the layout around if you were going to build one yourself!
Thanks for doing this dan, this is sick!
No worries! Glad you're enjoying it!
This device is incredible and looks great. I wonder how newer intel nuc models would perform
Much better than this old nuc, that's for sure. I picked this one because it offered a reasonable price/performance ratio and I couldn't justify the spend on a much newer model. It's something I'd like to do in the future though!
What other dyes would be available for color of the clear shell 👀
I used Tamiya translucent polycarbonate paint on this one. I think they offer a red, green and black as well at least.
@@cncdan was hoping atomic purp is possible
Hell yeah! Thank you!
Love and blessings!
Thanks!
The only thing missing is a better microphone and then you have a million subscribers channel in no time man, great video
Working on that better microphone, Thanks for the feedback!
I'd love to see more on the rock chip design I'd love to design a handheld around that chip an orange pi 5b would be great for this project
Yeah I agree. There's definitely potential here to put a different system in it with minimal changes needed. Considering that there's enough room in here for a Nuc and enough battery to run it for a couple of hours, you could end up with a VERY long runtime with an ARM computer instead. This is something I hope to investigate in the future!
I love it!!! I am also pitching this idea to everybody I can in hopes it becomes reality. I think it would be great if we could repurpose screens from old phones and use those instead of buying new expensive IPS screens. I feel like it would be a great way to recycle devices that are completely outdated and destined for garbage as well as open doors for us who like to tinker, but have no expendable budget. This would also repurpose screens on phones that are completely bricked.
Recycling just the screens are one way to go, but what if we could also begin more open source projects to develop custom roms for these phones to not be a rom with less bloatware but a barebones os for these phones to do specific tasks.
For example, recal box helps older computers better emulate classic games by removing the bloat of the operating system between the emulator and hardware and puts the emulator closer to the hardware that it uses less resources. What if we did this with phones, but not just games? What if we did this also where we made the only function to be an IP camera. We do this some, but it would be nice to have a custom rom that its only function is to open up a menu to connect to wifi and display the local IP address on screen.
Older phones have comparable specs to some raspberry pi's. Maybe we can make a custom rom to make old phones into a headless linux servers for various projects like we would a Pi. Some examples would be to run Pi-Hole, AdGuard, a web server or perhaps even a mine craft server.
Whilst I do love the idea of saving whatever we can from E-waste, phone screens can be a bit tricky. As far as I know, there's many different types of technologies used and they aren't always easy to integrate into our own projects. I'm not an electrical engineer and a lot of that stuff goes way over my head, so I had to work with a technology that I am familiar with. Having said that, this type of display is common in cheap tablets, car headunits and digital photo frames, so you could easily recycle one of them if you had one laying around you wanted to make use of!
Very cool project! Keep up the good work
Thanks, will do!
It would be cool to see the power output of the battery underneath the charge on small display, if you haven't thought of that already
Yeah, that should be a pretty easy feature to add once I've got the power management part sorted!
thanks for the review man, i just ordered one from ebay cant wait
Review of what? I'm thoroughly confused haha
I AM NOT WATCHING THIS VIDEO ..... ;)
...yet. I am stopping it before it even starts, subscribing and going to look for part one on your channel, so I can enjoy it from the beginning!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! The first video was pretty awful, hopefully I've improved a bit since then!
Would love to see a simple program to light the LED aroundthe joystick in the direction your pointed
Wouldn't be a difficult thing to do in the controller code. If I get time to program in some more light patterns this will be one of them!
You have inspired me to make my own gaming handheld on my channel
Go for it! Glad I inspired you!
Great progress on the project! I actually have a question. Is there any chance that you might be selling something like a kit for this project? Basically all needed parts and non assembled. That would be a huge win for the community. Also if you have no plans for that can anyone take the needed project files and sell kits themselves?
Unfortunately I don't think I really have the spare time to be organising kits and shipping them out. I'm already pushing it with trying to make UA-cam videos! I think a group buy of some of the parts might be a feasible option (there's been some talk of this on the discord group) but if someone wanted to come along and make a kit of the whole thing, I wouldn't be upset as long as I get credited for the design!
@@cncdan Thanks for the answer! I think there will be several Chinese manufacturers interested in this project. The only concern I have is that almost all nucs don't have good performance on lower tdp. I will probably try to use the Ryzen 7735hs as it runs at 35watts. I will also make sure to compile a list of all possible Ryzen chips that fit your design. Again thanks for your outstanding work so far. Open sourcing a windows handheld is phenomenal on so many levels!
I wish I had a tenth the talent you have. No bs. Cheers
Thankyou!
Love your name too since it's my name LOL.
My name is Dan. Peoduction/mill turn boss. Face mills, no coolant. Just , "brrrrrp be berrrp. Brrrrrrrrp..." Haas vf2ss vertical mill. I miss it but I suck at numbers. And while machining medical instruments and sucking at numbers doesn't work together..lol.
Amazing work from just only one person 👍👍
Thankyou!
This is incredible, it looks as if it came from a production facility! I’d been wondering for awhile if the Intel NUC could be converted to a handheld. This video blew my expectations away! Keep up the phenomenal work, you sir are talented! 😁
Thanks! Hopefully once I've worked out a way to handle the battery properly, it will become an easier project for people to complete in the future so we may end up with a bunch of different NUC powered handhelds!
You are a genius, i love your work.
Thanks for the kind words!
This is beautiful. If only Intel themselves took handheld gaming this seriously. Have you considered trying Linux to see if you could get better battery life or performance? There are a few SteamOS clones that could make the software side of things much more streamlined, and Intel drivers are open source too.
Thanks! I did try HoloISO on it a few months ago but I couldn't get it running properly, I'm not sure how good the support is for the older generations of Intel stuff. I'm definitely interested in trying some other linux distro's once I have time, but at the moment all of my spare time is going into finishing the build!
@cncdan there are 2 new contenders now! There's ChimeraOS and Bazzite OS. They both use a more mainstream and updated Linux kernel with arguably more compatibility. Also, there's other distros like PopOS that have great power management options out of the box, you'd just need to set steam to open at startup.
@@rastamouse7861 cool, I'll definitely look into them!
@@rastamouse7861ChimeraOS only supports Radeon GPUs, it would have to be Bazzite
@protocetid okay I wasn't sure about that. I know that ChimeraOS used to support everything, and from what I understood, the only thing that didn't work was the overlay of FPS and performance stuff from Mango HUD.
Fantastic device mister! I really enjoyed seeing this video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Only half way through the video atm, but curious on why you made the mold using aluminum, instead of 3d printing the buttons and making a mold out of that?
Hopefully you found the answer in the video anyway, but in case you didn't, I choose to make the positives in aluminium because I can polish it and make a nice glossy mold. The silicone picks up heaps of detail from the positive so if I used a print I would've had to spend hours filling and sanding to get even close to the same result. If I had a resin printer though, I would've just printed the buttons on that!
so dan now that intel has killed there nuc divison whats the plan for new internals?
The plan hasn't changed, there's years worth of these things slowly making their way to e-waste. Hopefully we can save a couple and turn them into little gaming devices! There's also plenty of other competition in the mini pc space, so I'm sure we will be able to find other options that fit without too much work!
Would you ever considering selling the parts for this project for those of us without the equipment to make them ourselves? or complete builds even
I've been down this path before with projects in the past and it usually just isn't worth it. All the files for the parts will be available once the project is complete so you could use a service like PCBWay to have the parts made for you. If enough people wanted to, you could organise a group buy on the Discord to make the parts as cheap as possible!
could you use a syringe to put the resin into the small molds?
I've tried this before. You can, as long as the hole in the syringe isn't too small. They are also almost single use as removing the last bits of resin from them can be difficult. I find just dripping it in works pretty well!
Man...maybe my dream of a wooden handheld is getting closer...
I actually started building a housing out of wood for one of my previous designs. Its definitely do-able and something I might do in the future on the channel!
It'd be really heavy, and getting the screen to stay on could be a problem...but with a little paint, it seems possible
@@elasmojones I think you'd be surprised actually, depending on the wood used it could end up being lighter than plastic! Keeping things in place is no problem either, I'd just use the same brass inserts I have on the plastic and glue them in place. Definitely do-able!
70s edition handheld PC
Can I replace the NUC part with a Chromebox motherboard? There are sometimes i7 ones going for a decent price. Also I have some Chromeboxes XD
I hadn't even heard of a chrome box before. I did a quick google but I reckon it looks like it's a fair bit bigger than a nuc so you might not have much luck. Plenty of quicker nucs out there though!
Im really impressed with the use of familiar x input software, although not ideal, it's good for showing how awesome the system already is now. Do you think you're going to be using a different solution such as firmware to get x input? Can't wait to see the next video. But do you think that metal buttons would be functional or too harsh on the housing overall without different materials involved?
You could definitely do metal buttons. They'd be a tad heavier maybe but I don't think that would cause any issues. As for the controls, it would be cool to be able to emulate x input on the actual hardware but I'm not sure if it's been done before or not. Might be a bit outside of my ability levels to figure out on my own!
@@cncdan well I've seen people do it with fight pads and hitbox controllers in the past. And I've also seen hardware that runs as interpreters with incredibly low latency such as ones from 8-bitdo. But then your integrating a whole other off the shelf component that may become unavailable like the nuc (albeit likely highly more replaceable)
amazing job man. i really want one exactly like this. this looks sick!!!!!
Thanks!
Dam fine job mate have a good one
Thanks!
Hi i subscribe and wait the next video. Keep up the great work pal
Thankyou!
Hello, I downloaded the file but I see that it does not have the triggers
Yes sorry about that, you can expect them to be added soon! I was up very late editing this last night and have had a busy day today so I haven't had time to make the final changes. I'll try and get it done tonight and I'll write back here with a comment when It's done!
@@cncdan Thank you, don't worry, take your time, I can wait
Trigger buttons are in the files now!
The battery charging icon could use some work. I get that you want to show it animated, but the percentage should be accurate to the state of the hardware, not the animation. Also when possible the animation should show the level of charge as well, and just indicate movement (i.e. a flowing gradient, instead of a solid green color; but either way, the percentage should not move).
The battery indicator is nothing more than a repeated animation at the moment. I included it right back in the second episode just to demo the screen. Once I have the battery management stuff in and actually have some information to read out I'll be making changes exactly like what you've described!
Wonderful project. I think it is important to use Hall Effect stick modules to make the life of the stick modules as long as possible.
Yeah, I would've loved to use hall effect joysticks but I started designing this project almost a year ago and at the time all I could find were xbox/playstation style joysticks with hall effect sensors. The ones I've used have a significantly smaller internal footprint which gave me a lot more room to fit things in.
@@cncdan There is another option, the Guikit Hall Effect stick modules for Nintendo Switch, they are small.
@@InterstellarLord they also weren't around when I started designing this I'm pretty sure. I'm also not a big fan of the limited travel of the switch style sticks which is why I opted for the ones I did. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that a hall effect version of the sticks I've used will become available as they are a great size and still offer full-sized like travel.
@@cncdan Thanks for the reply. I wish you success in your project, super interesting.
Forget windows, this would be great with Nobara Linux
I had a go with HoloISO shortly after I began the project, but the support for this older intel system just wasn't there. Once I have everything functioning correctly I will go back and have a look at all my different software options in a future video!
this is sooo amazing, but I think you need a resin printer :D if I would cnc the buttons I would actually use the metal ones :D
Yeah, I'd love a resin printer. I'm sure it'll happen one day! I've actually built a handheld in the past with aluminium buttons and they are surprisingly cold and heavy feeling (not to mention rattly). The resin just makes for a much nicer feeling button!
@@cncdan Ive experimented with resin printed buttons and they come up quite nice, not to mention done quite a few dj mixer knobs that after a coat of paint look factory made ;] its a pity that resin printers arent perfect as well, bigger parts are fragile and really hard to print precisely, Ive tried to make my own retropocket with the nice square screen but some parts turned out way harder to print that I thought
This is more of a DIM (Did it myself) than a DIY.
Yeah I totally get this. I've tried to keep it as easy as I can, but it's definitely still not a simple project. Hopefully at least a handful of people will still manage to make their own!
This is really cool
You think you could try out "The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth" or any of its following DLCs on the NucDeck?
I googled it quickly and it looks like something that should run. I've already got a bunch of games I need to test in the next video but if I get a chance I'll take a look
Spex?
Why r they not in every video description?
Because that's not really the point of the project! Its a DIY project that allows you to use any NUC form factor PC without many modifications needed!
@@cncdan yeah but the tech savvy guys have an itch that you are obligated to scratch if you gonna post tech videos 😞
This is also going to help us pick similar system to yours and have similar results.
looking great!
Thanks!
How can I get on of that
It's not for sale, its a project you can build yourself. All the files will be available once the project is complete!
yo that's dope as hell dude
gday mate just saw ur nucdeck wow really sweet job really really really cool great job keep up the great work cheers
Sounds like you're another Aussie? Glad you're enjoying it!
I appreciate an effort you put into this project, it's really remarkable, and the build itself is great, but why not just use a resin printer for this buttons?
You're right, you absolutely could. They may not end up quite as glossy and smooth as these ones but if I had a resin printer that's exactly what I would've done!
nice, i almost have all my parts ready. i don't think you have speakers yet on your bom
Yep, you're right. I have them group with all the PCB components since I bought mine from DigiKey at the same time as the other parts. I'll get them added when the BOM for the controller PCBs goes up which will be soon hopefully!
Amazing.
Please add a trackpad man, otherwise the thing would be perfect ❤
As much as I'd like a track pad, there isn't much spare room. The design is open source though so if you want to build one yourself you can add whatever you want!
What cnc machine did you use?
It's a machine I designed and built myself. I will do a video about it at some stage in the future!
the small screen on the right look cool
Thanks! It should make keeping an eye on the battery level much easier than it otherwise would be without interfering with gameplay!
amazing job!
Thankyou!
Very impressive
Thanks!
Nicely done 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you 😁
@@cncdan i hope you make another handheld pc.
Well done.
Why didn't you just make the buttons out of aluminium? I have thooose cheap aliexpress "bullet shape" buttons for my 360 controller and they're lovely
I've done aluminium buttons on a past build but I find them to be a little "heavy" feeling on these light tactile switches!
@@cncdan well, to be fair my usecase is with membranes so it's probably very different.
why not use the moonstone R9?
I had to look that one up because I'd never heard of it before. Looks like it was released about 6 months after I started working on this, so that should answer that question hopefully! I am considering a version 2 so there's a possibility of something like that in the future!
Phenomenal work
Thanks!
He " missed" Skyrim. Oh to be under the rock hes been living.
It was released late 2011, I was 21, i was just finishing University, I'd just got my first fulltime job and I was busy dating the women I eventually married. Guess I just had a busy couple of years afterwards and never realised it was a massive hit until semi-recently and now I'm older my list of games to try out is probably already longer than the amount of spare time I'll ever get 😭
i don't want to sound hater, but with the open source idea on mind is not better, faster and cheaper using already existing buttons? i mean for that diy project, you can make a perfect prototype using current hardware... and is more repeatable for ppl around the world... that aside DANG WHAT A NICE AMOUNT OF WORK! it turns out beautiful...
Yeah, that's an option I considered. It may not look like it but the front edges of the controller sections taper down a bit so finding buttons to match that was proving to be a bit difficult. If you didn't care too much about how they stuck out though you could easily modify it to use buttons from something else!
(Little disclaimer that's the first video I saw here on the channel so sorry if he maybe done things already that I list here up.)
Oh I have so many Ideas how I would try to pimp it. But that would be a bit too much. 😅
Especially because I need the knowledge first and second problem would be the battery/batteries.
Because I thought about putting an Nvidia RTX Laptop GPU into it with a thicker cooling fan then normal laptops have today, a mouse switch so I can use my sticks as a mouse and last but not least keyboard.
So at the end I have the strength of a gaming Laptop in a smaller device.
I mean no mouse and a small display and keyboard.
It would be a bit more compact in the overall size then a gaming laptop but still would have a good amount of power.
Love the enthusiasm! The graphics card thing is probably a bit of a stretch given current battery technology, but maybe one day we will see it! As for the mouse switch, I've already included that on this device and its working well! You will also be able to map all the buttons to keyboard buttons when in mouse mode so while you won't have a full keyboard, you will have the buttons that are most important to you!
@@cncdan Ah okay yeah I thought about the keyboard thing because I'm planning on playing my Skyrim with a ton of mods that has keyboard shortcuts.
With a little bit of work, you could add a bunch of keyboard combos in the controller menu system for the lesser used commands that you still need access to. I've found it very useful to include shortcuts in there for stuff like "Alt + F4" to force close a program/game without needing to go and get a keyboard. The pi pico has LOADS of memory spare, so you could probably store hundreds if not thousands of combos in there although you'd want a better way of organising/displaying them at that point.
@@cncdan I'll see how things are going. I'll watch all the videos you done for that and then I'll see. 😊👍
I haven't had a close look at the controller display since the second or third video in the series. I've added a lot since then. I'll be taking a closer look at it in the next video!
why no autostereoscopic screen?
You mean like what the 3DS used? I don't think I've ever seen a larger screen with that technology. Also, what games would even support it?
Recently i heard of a similar device using the framework laptop internals
Yeah I've seen that video getting around. It's a cool idea but In my opinion the framework mainboard is a little too wide for a project like this. Maybe with an 8" screen it would be better!
amazing
Ummmm.... Sir that is Pretty Bad-assed I must say!!!
Thankyou!
Cool project I only have one question: WHY?! Maybe I shouldn't start with Episode 6 but this showed up on my home feed so here I am.Why use resin after you already milled freaking metal buttons? how cool would metal buttons be? Why go through all this struggle of making a DIY Handheld and put windows on it instead of a custom UI? With this amount of work collaborating with a programming UA-camr shouldn't be out of the question should it? Or at least throw SteamOS on there, something meant for Hardware like that. okay the windows part is just a general pet peeve of mine: I see so many Windows Steamdeck knockoffs and the bottom line is always "yeah the OS outside of games feels ever so slightly off," I wonder why? Among a bunch of other issues that vary between device but can usually answered by "Yeah Optimized software is almost always better than just a .exe UI on top of a needlessly power hungry all rounder OS."
Also who would go through this hellish long high effort process for a DIY project? Are there really people doing such ridiculously high effort DIY projects like this (at least that's how this seems to me) just for the end product/project and not for a UA-cam Video?
Hope this didn't come off super negative, the project as well as you and your work have my utmost respect. Just wanted to leave an honest comment, and my honest reaction was "WHY?!"
Wow, that's quite the comment! Let me see if I can answer all of these questions. I've done one of these in the past with metal buttons and whilst they are very cool looking, they are a bit heavy so the springiness of the buttons doesn't feel quite as nice. If I had a resin printer I would just print them and they'd be fine, but I'm just working with what I've got. As for the windows thing, most games I'm intending to run are native to windows. I agree it isn't a great OS in terms of handheld use but with this older intel CPU, you wouldn't see comperable performance from some of the modern linux based solutions like SteamOS. For what it's worth, I did try holoiso early on in the project but the driver support just wasn't there so I wasn't able to get it running properly. I believe there's a few more options around now which I will have a go of once I've finished building it and I may even upgrade it to a newer AMD based PC so I can use SteamOS. As for people doing DIY projects like this, yes, there definitely are. I did a few before I even started UA-cam and there are several forums dedicated to people building similar devices. I just noticed there was a bit of a lack of well documented, professional looking builds on UA-cam and decided it would be a good way to start my UA-cam channel!
Try a syringe for filling the molds
Yeah I did try that a while ago but I found I still got some bubbles in the corners of the molds. It was a pretty big syringe so perhaps a smaller one would be more controllable.
Easiest way to get those air bubbles out, just go grab BOB out your old ladies sock drawer.
Bahahahahaha yeah, I reckon that probably would work!
wow looks great!!!
Thankyou!
Can u try to integrate xbox series s system and gpu?
I did a quick google search on the Series S and it looks like it can consume up to about 75W, meaning you would need a much larger battery. Its definitely something someone could do, but it would end up being a much larger system.
needs a trackpad and i am in :D
This is why its open source! There's not a lot of spare room at the moment so you may have to make the device a little bigger to fit a track pad but if that's a trade-off you're willing to make then go for it!
Please show the internals and where the battery is located.
Not to worry, this will all be in the next video!