Hello all,
I am new to this, I jus ordered uConsole few weeks ago, but I have some ideas,
for example, has anyone considered producing an alternative backplate to acomodate full size
Raspberry 4 so we could make use od full RPI4 connectivity.
I would imagine the major ports (USB, ETH and external RPSMA port on the top) and other ports
(audio, microHDMI on the left) and last but not least 40 pin GPIO on the bottom-center of the device
Best regards, and keep up te good work
Mario Lohajner
While conceptually possible, to make a CM3 carrier board to RPI4b adapter - it would need multiple forwarding cables for usb, dsi, gpio, audio, etc into the CM3 adapter. All this would hamper portability which seems antithetical to the uconsole goals. It would also need new dtb overlays in the kernel.
Unless you mean swapping out the mainboard entirely and using it as a shell? That would loose the power and battery circuitry which lives in the mainboard.
A fun idea but probably not anything people are working on.
Agree with @NanoCodeBug 's “A fun idea but probably not anything people are working on.”
But it should be not that hard, since RPi4 has MIPI DSI output, unlike pi zero, so you should be able to get full function with uConsole. A CM3-like daughter board and some fpc cable should work.
If you can desoldering ports, you can make it smaller like this:
Ofcourse,
I mean using the form factor: display, keyboard and trackpad and dir-pad woud reamin exactly as they are.
Rerute the display cable and connect one of the USB2 connectors to frontend (keyboard and mouse) no need for adapters of any kind, just replace the motherboard with RPI4 and replace the backcover / backplate while retaining current look and feel which is excellent. (the wire stand and everything)
Eventualy one board (interconnect for display, frontend and battery management) would remain -it may be integrated with battery holder with similar arrangement as is now BUT with room for 3P 18650 arrangement.
Again MAJOR benefits of this:
-connectivity improovement
(2 USB3, 1 USB2, ETH, RPSMA, standard GPIO, 2 HDMI, USBC power and 3.5mil audio)
-faster production (less parts mainboard is standard RPI4)
-at this time there are too many variants of uCosonle basically doing the same thing
variant name:
pConsole3 (or 4) would be RPI 3B+ and RPI 4B compatible
p for “Pi Console 4”
Very good addition to the idea, however, in this iteration
I would prefer to keep all the available ports on top
the side ports (POWER, uHDMIs and 3.5mil on the left) GPIO and CPU facing down
-CPU would be thermaly connected to back cover etc…
-GPIO would remain open as a 40pin header to the bottom of the device
(imagine PI-400 GPIO header connector ony directly available on the bottom)
you could connect 40 pin flat cable to that and use as intended…
Ofcourse if we would want to make it slim size / compact, slimed-down RPI could be used, (without headers or with single ports as per your purposal)
But as I mentioned before, in this iteration, the whole deal is what we’re after.
Maybe related and helpful if you are thinking to embark in this journey:
I am doing what I call now hConsole:
It is a Raspberry Pi 4 B with a Waveshare 5 inch touch screen, connected to a Xbox 360 Keyboard powered by the PiSugar S Plus (5000mAh). It is almost done.
hsavior, thank you for your contribution it looks very promising,
however I would prefer the form factor of current clockwork uConsole device.
Even if ETH and USB’s would not be completely enclosed in casing OR to have the case just a bit
bulkier around the connectors and the rest of the case slim.
Ofcourse i LOVE the wire-stand → that is a must have.
Quite a number of users are asking for touchscreen -I think, this is not a touchscreen style of device
(it has decent trackball and d-pad) this is all you will ever need, also the display is sunken beneath the case level and has a nice “frame” detail on the case… so it would not work right.
In short it’s not a touchscreen type of device and I think it doesn’t have to be
(me personaly… “I’m sick and tired” of touch screen devices)
I was looking exactly for THIS format…
that’s why I feel so enthusiastic about it while hoping to make/get the most out of it.
I have a history with HP calculators so I dare to say this device is the basic EE tool for 21.st century.
(like HP calculators where back in the day)
I got you :), in any case, here is the entire project to whoever wants to replicate: hConsole Cyberdeck | Hackaday.io
