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I’ll offer some thoughts on your video “Clockwork UConsole: EVERY Space Enthusiast NEEDS This!” from 2026-03-28:
- That expansion board is more like a “blank” than any sort of adapter.
- Consider trying other operating systems if you’re still using ClockworkPi’s official release; Rex’s Debian images are the de facto standard.
- Your trackball looks interesting. Did you change the ball out?
- The chassis acting as Faraday cage doesn’t block the antenna signal, rather, the stock antenna is the bare minimum and doesn’t have very good reception. The stock antenna is necessary because without any sort of external antenna you have to be pretty close to the wireless AP in order to get a weak signal - but don’t do this, because running without an antenna does accelerate wear on the interface.
- Those antenna connectors on-board (1.13mm MHF1, in case anyone was wondering) are indeed a pain to snap together!
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Using the thing now since 1 and a quarter years as my main device for anything really. I still run the cm4 module that came with it so its…well a potato with screen but said potato is the most reliable and fun device i ever had. It just works, thats all that i can say. I recently upgraded it with a bunch of hackergadgets parts and now i got a more or less perfect machine. 3TB of storage, the sdr, lora, gprs nonsence and all the size of an obese gameboy with all controls you need right away build in. A dream machine and certainly for a long time a daily thing to grab for me besides my keys before leaving the house. At home it got its dock on my work desk and gets used like any stationary pc. I am not delusional and gonna claim the device is for everybody, hell nah… any run down the mill thinkpad or other random laptop with linux or a tower pc will be the right choice for most people but for me? Im very happy with my console.
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Same here. I love the damn thing, but would not suggest to any of my friends that they get one.
I didn’t change the trackball out, thanks for the feedback!
Oo another daily driver!
Well, I have a few questions;
So ive heard of reports of USB-C port breaking/falling off, has that happened to you in your 1+ years of usage? Also have you broke any components for that matter? If not, do you use any protection mechanisms?
Sorry for the large number of questions.
the usb c never broke or had any issues so far and nothing broke else broke so far either cept a trackball and the cells are overdue for a replacement and some paint chipping arround the edges what i personally like. I dont really use protection besides a cloth i wrap it with before transport.
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Okay that’s great to know, thanks.
03/04/26
I haven’t yet fixed the WiFi issues I’ve been having with my extender.
I edited my podcast’s audio today, using audacity and it was just 
. Other than that the USB-C doesnt support data transfer so I couldn’t plug in my earphones, and I had to use the built in speakers.
Now, I’m going to use krita for a little game development project I have, will see how it is with the trackball, but I will probably connect a mouse.
I’m interested in the trackball breaking - do you have any pictures? I haven’t had that happen but I suppose I rarely use my mouse in general.
it broke in a way that affected the movement, basically a harsh jitter that made it impossible to even hit what you want to click at. The ball in question went to the trash and replaced by a new one from aliexpress for like 1.60 and since then it behaves. Got a couple of these trackballs just in case but so far didnt need another one
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Okay just used Krita for a bit, no mouse setup was usable, but not pleasurable.
So I used a mouse, and it all went smooth.
04/04/26
I just installed libre office, going to test out how it runs soon, as I hope it’s better than using web-based office apps.
Well, I haven’t used any other computer (other than my phone/tv) except for my uconsole since I got it, and I’ve loved it.
I’ve been using it offline a lot, as my workload only needs me to use internet on my uconsole maybe for an hour a day, while most of my internet tasks (like uploading YT content, or sending an update here) is done on my phone mostly.
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Don’t let this thread get too off-topic. Maybe you should start a separate thread for uConsole topics for those interested in space.
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I’m probs now gonna post the space enthusiasts stuff on r/ClockworkPi.
06/04/26
I installed two things today, Freeciv and Zeal. I have tried playing freeciv, but I got really confused, so I might come back to it.
As for Zeal, I have booted it up, but haven’t loaded any documentation onto it. Overall uconsole daily driver expirience rating so far is 85/100.
12/04/26
It’s been almost 20 days now, of me daily driving the uconsole! I haven’t touched any laptop/Desktop PC since.
One major thing that I have realised is that the uconsole keyboard is significantly better than the counterpart of the PicoCalc’s. But, I also made a realisation that if your fingers are greasy from moisturiser, or something similar, the trackball doesn’t work as well, and needs to be wiped to work optimally again.
I haven’t worked at all on Astralixi OS yet, as I am trying to quickly finish one of my remaining projects within the next week.
If you have any queries feel free.
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13/04/26
I got an AI model running locally on the uconsole! Specifically the Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B-Instruct.
It runs well, but to make a simple tic-tac-toe game in python, it took 2 minutes, and heated CPU up to 45 degrees celcius, and had CPU averaging at around 97% usage.
I might so something that when the AI is running, CPU is capped out at 80%, where I will take the sacrifice for the extra time, but it will be better for thermals.
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14/04/26
I have capped the AI to use only 3 out of the 4 cpu cores at once, to help with thermals and power management.
Welcome the new “employee” to Astroxia.
Astralixi OS development will begin today, and keep in mind that I will do MAJORITY of the coding, and AI will be used for less than 50% of the code.