Paragon Project: Terminal Cyberdeck
Every once in a while I see a project that just screams at me. This terminal cyberdeck, put together by Robson Couto, is one of the coolest cyberdecks I’ve ever seen. And it incorporates my all-time favorite mechanical keyboard.
In terms of creativity and stylishness though, this cyberdeck takes the cake.
Robson calls it the KOAT0 and has been sharing updates on the build over on Hackaday. It uses a Raspberry Pi and a vacuum florescent display as the terminal screen.
If you happen to be new here, I should mention that a cyberdeck is a computer that’s made to be intentionally cool-looking. Often they have a cyberpunk aesthetic or something similar.
And this one is no different. Check it out:
Hardware
The first thing you’ll need is a Raspberry Pi. Robson is using a Raspberry Pi 3, but mentions that a Pi 4 would work even better.
You’ll also need to get a vacuum florescent display and a mechanical keyboard.
As a matter of fact, Robson uses the exact same mechanical keyboard that I’m using to type up this article: the Ziyoulang K68.
Maybe the best part is that the wiring of the KOAT0 is super straightforward:
It’s just a matter of hooking up the keyboard and screen to the Raspberry Pi.
This very cool setup is based on 11 3D-printed pieces. Robson has been kind enough to share the .stl files.
So if you want to get this thing printed out, you can start immediately.
Robson mentions in the posts on the site that there are still a few things left to do on the build, such as finding an appropriate battery along with adding a few LEDs to accentuate the colors and features of the cyberdeck.
Software
While the hardware is more-or-less complete, Robson is still developing the software for the project.
I think what makes a project like this so exciting is that the software possibilities here really feel endless. And I’ll be sure to update this project page as Robson develops it further.
At the moment, the project page has a code to get the display up and running, but the kernel display driver isn’t yet up and running.
But once the kernel display driver is set up, this is going to be one crazy awesome cyberdeck.
Conclusion
Listen, if you haven’t yet mastered the ultimate Linux terminal commands, then building a cyberdeck like this is guaranteed to inspire you!
Go check out more details about the project here.
You can also check out more Paragon Projects that we’ve featured by clicking here. If you want to check out other cyberdecks, then I’d suggest looking at
- this ham radio cyberdeck!
- this other mechanical keyboard cyberdeck!
How would you utilize a terminal cyberdeck like this?