You're a freaking genius man, loving your vids! Subscribed. I was a machinist until I was disabled. I thought that was the end of the world until I started researching more the tech side of the world. You have given renewed hope that I can be productive and help myself at the same time! I'm digging both the coding and manufacturing that you do. I'll say it again, genius man.
Love watching these tiny builds. I probably would have gone without the micro USB OTG port on the side and instead, disassembled one of those tiny USB wireless dongles and then wired it directly to the Pi Zero's USB OTG pins to add built-in wireless networking functionality, but I suppose that you could achieve the same thing with a short USB-OTG cable and any wireless dongle that works with Raspbian. Awesome project guys, thanks for sharing!
Hey Ben, what you've made yourself there would actually be considered a fixture. Fixtures locate parts for repeatably where as a jig is what guides your tool during a operation. Otherwise awesome stuff as always!
"we were afraid that no one would be able to get one (pi zero) so that they could build it themselves at home". Yeh, i don't think most of us are worried about whether we can actually get hold of a pi zero. More like, unable to get a lazer cutter, a 3d printer, a vinyl printer, etc. etc. Would be great if you could do more projects using things that dont require large expensive machines to make.
Upon rewatching it, I have to say that this is one of the neatest projects you have worked on. Super cool. I'd like to see you add a lip around the top part of the device, so as to close the unit better and completely hide the keyboard (edit: kind of like the nintendo ds lite), and make a thicker hinge in order to hide the ribbon cable making it go around and on the outside but not exposed, and also making it (the hinge) stronger.
So cool! Discovered your channel after watching your Nintendo PlayStation repair series :) One quick tip as I heard you mention around the 13:15 mark that when prototyping 3d prints you always have an elephant foot on the bottom. The typical way around that is to print with a raft! They're a dirty word in hobbyist circles but commonplace in industry when you need things that are dimensionally accurate with FDM printing. Ok that's all the wisdom I can share, everything else you talk about is above my pay grade 😂 Keep up the great work!
I wonder if it would have saved time by using those old T-Mobile SideKicks or 2 way pagers and putting in the raspberry Pi Zero. PS the "getting jiggy with it" line was so funny.
Zhao Zhao if he really just connected the composite output then the truth is he doesn't have a working headphone jack because I don't see the circuitry needed to get an audio out from the gpio
I liked the Yackity Sax reference during the diode wiring. Also, I'd like to suggest that Ben Heck doing acapella be known as "Heck-apella" from now on.
You guys should make a raspberry pi cluster, I'm looking to make one with 10 pi zeros and a pi 3 to make a jarvis home automation system and also a host for my 3d printer
So, apparently there are configuration options you can change in the composite video output that can adjust the amount of overscan compensation and the proportions of the screen, so that you can avoid getting that horizontally-stretched look, and also avoid any black bars around the edges of the screen. It looks like you guys have taken care of the overscan, but not the proportions.
Ben, to avoid the bigger first layer you can apply a tiny draft to the base layer. Effectively the first layer will still be slightly bigger than the model, but the draft would negate this effect.
thats a sweet build, I like how you did the keyboard. The idea I have for a Pie Zero is a smart watch type computer. I would try it myself but I can hold the iron steady enough to do those types of builds.
CatTheRigger They're still in stock at Pimoroni, where I ordered. Also, you can always check this site to see if and where they're in stock. whereismypizero.com/
Nice project. Maybe should have printed the bottom a few mill taller to recess the screw heads on the bottom of the unit. Then glue on some rubber feet.
Ben says that's possible, but the ribbon cable is really short, so it would be difficult to make the different parts fit into the compact design. The LCD itself is still pretty thick.
Ah, I see. If he did that he'd probably end up with something similar to a Pocket C.H.I.P., which seems thin, but thanks to its screen, case and overall component layout (esp. the battery) it's actually a bit bulky. And isn't foldable. We need thinner batteries. Thanks for the reply, ninja Karen! Keep on ninja-ing!
The Pi Zero has a composite output - it's not broken out to a connector but it's accessible on a pair of solder points marked "TV". Getting audio out is a little harder - the Pi Zero doesn't provide audio out except via HDMI, so if you want analog audio you either need to get it from HDMI, or recreate the audio circuitry that's present on other Pi models.
Wizard XV Do you mean "good ways"? Basically you just wire up those two pins to an RCA plug or jack, square pad to the center pin, then plug the screen in. (You could, of course, eliminate the connector pair if you needed to save space.) There are tutorials online. Here's a pretty good one: www.modmypi.com/blog/how-to-add-an-rca-tv-connector-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero
Would you be able to tell me what screen it is you're using? I had a hell of a time finding a screen that I could transform my Pi into a portable gaming machine, and that thing looks perfect.
Fubukiyo it's one of those screen you use to drive in reverse while in a car, you can easily find them on amazon or ebay, its something like: "car backup display"
dunno... he (you?) kinda reminds me of one. For a better image google images: bunny with glasses cartoon . And for real laughs just bunny with glasses ^_^
can you please make a parts list and where to buy everything and the 3d printing stls please because I love your show and im really interested into making one of these little pi laptops
So idea I have. What if you did a Raspberry Pi Switch? A handheld raspberry pi running emulation station, that removes the hdmi, usb, and ethernet ports. Then you plug it into a dock, which adds the missing connections, as well as a fan system to safely overclock the pi for higher end emulation.
I'd like to see a Rpi used to make a cheap carputer stereo on the cheap. One that can be used to play music, videos, and even access TH-cam through tethered internet.
Hi, Got some question about that : - How did you wire the audio jack ? - How did you wire all the key of the keyboard ? How to bind key to letter ( when you type it type the letter, all thoses things other gpio ) - Where did you buy the screen too ? Thanks if you answer, bye
The keyboard used a matrix with a diode on each key to make them individually addressable. The link for the screen is on github in the Parts folder on the BOM. github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
Actually i had a idea if you can move that LCD More left you can make room for small speakers and maybe a small amp that can fit adafruit has a small mono amp and speaker.
Wikipedia tells me sudo is currently being maintained by an openbsd developer. So not really a Debian command, just included in Debian and a lot of distro's.
+The Ben Heck Show sure is easier than getting that pi zero. the famous 5$ computer made from pure unobtainium. either pay 35$+shipping or as in the case of adafruit with 6$ worth of other stuff (case+sd+..) for about 60 bucks. and that is if you can get one at all. wish people would stop using this marketing scam product in project shows since most people can't get this overhyped thing.
Curently buiding a 16x4 Raspberry Pi Zero thermal imager. Had the sensor sitting on my desk for a few years now. Thought I might as well put it to good use.
Fastforward to 2018 and we're starting to see commercial ARM-based laptops. It would be nice to have something like this, a more free and open ARM platform, available in a full-sized notebook and running Linux. A more serious and robust version of the Pi Top, I suppose, with proper SATA or NVME storage and all.
github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable I think some of the .stl files are missing because Fusion360 stores files on a cloud, so we have to remind Ben to put them on our local server. Let me know if anything is missing and I'll get the github updated.
This is exactly what I have wanted to see since Pi Zero came out. Thank you.
You're a freaking genius man, loving your vids! Subscribed. I was a machinist until I was disabled. I thought that was the end of the world until I started researching more the tech side of the world. You have given renewed hope that I can be productive and help myself at the same time! I'm digging both the coding and manufacturing that you do. I'll say it again, genius man.
That soldering song, amazing!
That soldering background singing was awesome. That's going to be my new ringtone.
Love watching these tiny builds. I probably would have gone without the micro USB OTG port on the side and instead, disassembled one of those tiny USB wireless dongles and then wired it directly to the Pi Zero's USB OTG pins to add built-in wireless networking functionality, but I suppose that you could achieve the same thing with a short USB-OTG cable and any wireless dongle that works with Raspbian. Awesome project guys, thanks for sharing!
"The past, the future, and the present walked into a bar. It was tense." X D I liked your shirt.
"$ sudo shit" at 19:10 :D
Hey Ben, what you've made yourself there would actually be considered a fixture. Fixtures locate parts for repeatably where as a jig is what guides your tool during a operation. Otherwise awesome stuff as always!
"we were afraid that no one would be able to get one (pi zero) so that they could build it themselves at home". Yeh, i don't think most of us are worried about whether we can actually get hold of a pi zero. More like, unable to get a lazer cutter, a 3d printer, a vinyl printer, etc. etc.
Would be great if you could do more projects using things that dont require large expensive machines to make.
Upon rewatching it, I have to say that this is one of the neatest projects you have worked on. Super cool.
I'd like to see you add a lip around the top part of the device, so as to close the unit better and completely hide the keyboard (edit: kind of like the nintendo ds lite), and make a thicker hinge in order to hide the ribbon cable making it go around and on the outside but not exposed, and also making it (the hinge) stronger.
Those are great ideas!
theHeckwithKaren Hey, Karen, thanks!
I read that in your voice, by the way. haha.
But yeah, the NDS has a great design to -copy- get inspiration from.
So cool! Discovered your channel after watching your Nintendo PlayStation repair series :)
One quick tip as I heard you mention around the 13:15 mark that when prototyping 3d prints you always have an elephant foot on the bottom. The typical way around that is to print with a raft! They're a dirty word in hobbyist circles but commonplace in industry when you need things that are dimensionally accurate with FDM printing. Ok that's all the wisdom I can share, everything else you talk about is above my pay grade 😂
Keep up the great work!
What pins did you connect the keyboard rows and cols to? I was trying to follow the code, but it look like you connected some to the power pins.
"Like a Gameboy SP"
No, like a fcking Laptop
Firsty McFirstFace
no one cares :)
what lcd is that
Kudos for the t-shirts, Halo Reach aka the best Halo in my opinion.
I wonder if it would have saved time by using those old T-Mobile SideKicks or 2 way pagers and putting in the raspberry Pi Zero. PS the "getting jiggy with it" line was so funny.
+Lostmuppet Yep
Best fast build ever. How did you get the headphone jack to to work from a Pi Zero?
My question too. I know there are ways, it's just odd it wasn't mentioned at all.
yep, mine too. UPVOTE THIS!
The Pi Zero routes the audio through the HDMI to the screen driver board, where there's a headphone jack.
*****
No there isn't. he said the LCD uses composite input, which disables the HDMI on the zero.
Zhao Zhao if he really just connected the composite output then the truth is he doesn't have a working headphone jack because I don't see the circuitry needed to get an audio out from the gpio
I liked the Yackity Sax reference during the diode wiring. Also, I'd like to suggest that Ben Heck doing acapella be known as "Heck-apella" from now on.
Best Non Copyright music On youtube I ever heard
18:32 I'm no engineer but I'm pretty sure I don't need to be one to use fabric just like a braided cable to sleeve and hide a ribbon cable.
You guys should make a raspberry pi cluster, I'm looking to make one with 10 pi zeros and a pi 3 to make a jarvis home automation system and also a host for my 3d printer
Jonathan Luna sounds cool, if youre not lying
You got my attention
how about a pip boy?
+MineBlock :D I think it's a good idea dweeb
MineBlock :D Notice how you commented the same thing 4 times
Amazing project! Would love to replicate this.
Please make an Electronic skateboard using a Raspberry Pi next!!
That keyboard is insanely interesting, it would be great to make a write up on how that's done!
"You could type sudo into windows if you wanted, it just wouldn't do anything." Lol hahaha
So, apparently there are configuration options you can change in the composite video output that can adjust the amount of overscan compensation and the proportions of the screen, so that you can avoid getting that horizontally-stretched look, and also avoid any black bars around the edges of the screen. It looks like you guys have taken care of the overscan, but not the proportions.
+The Ben Heck Show that warping on the 3d part, Try buildtac printing surface
I wish I had a good enough understanding of electronics to do stuff like this.
That's why I'm watching and learning. I understand enough to get me entrenched in more learning. Interesting stuff.
ikr
For a dude who seemed to have just been working his garage, you sure have come along way.
kinda wish we could order preprinted parts to make this ourselves like what others did with the pi boy
that'd be pretty cool haha
Ben, to avoid the bigger first layer you can apply a tiny draft to the base layer. Effectively the first layer will still be slightly bigger than the model, but the draft would negate this effect.
That was completely incredible and awe inspiring:O
Thanks for sharing all the amazing technology that has my heart and mind soaring! Just wow!
reminds me of those good ol HP tiny PCs (like the HP 200LX) except this one can actually do things. I miss good engineering
thats a sweet build, I like how you did the keyboard.
The idea I have for a Pie Zero is a smart watch type computer. I would try it myself but I can hold the iron steady enough to do those types of builds.
did you get the audio jack working too?
"Always make something you can take apart" - up there with "Mesaure twice, cut once"
Didn't you have to write a keyboard driver for your homebrew keyboard? Source code?
Well, I haven't built anything with a Pi Zero, but thanks to this episode, I decided to check if it was in stock again somewhere and ordered.
Wow lucky
CatTheRigger
They're still in stock at Pimoroni, where I ordered.
Also, you can always check this site to see if and where they're in stock.
whereismypizero.com/
+TheRexDark Thanks :D
"Felix had a whole real of diodes from school."
I believe those supplies aren't suppose to be taken out of the labs.
Nice project. Maybe should have printed the bottom a few mill taller to recess the screw heads on the bottom of the unit. Then glue on some rubber feet.
1:14 - Which Adafruit LCD were you talking about? Couldn't it be disassembled to save space? (assuming it's one connected to a Pi hat board.)
Ben says that's possible, but the ribbon cable is really short, so it would be difficult to make the different parts fit into the compact design. The LCD itself is still pretty thick.
Ah, I see. If he did that he'd probably end up with something similar to a Pocket C.H.I.P., which seems thin, but thanks to its screen, case and overall component layout (esp. the battery) it's actually a bit bulky. And isn't foldable.
We need thinner batteries.
Thanks for the reply, ninja Karen! Keep on ninja-ing!
Can you further explain how you connected the diodes to the buttons and how the button internally connects?
Does Allison still work there?
Best build in a while.
How did you get that screen to work on the zero.... Where from.... and would it work with retropie... Thanks
The Pi Zero has a composite output - it's not broken out to a connector but it's accessible on a pair of solder points marked "TV".
Getting audio out is a little harder - the Pi Zero doesn't provide audio out except via HDMI, so if you want analog audio you either need to get it from HDMI, or recreate the audio circuitry that's present on other Pi models.
Tetsujin Know of any good guys for connecting a screen in that way?
Wizard XV Do you mean "good ways"?
Basically you just wire up those two pins to an RCA plug or jack, square pad to the center pin, then plug the screen in. (You could, of course, eliminate the connector pair if you needed to save space.)
There are tutorials online. Here's a pretty good one:
www.modmypi.com/blog/how-to-add-an-rca-tv-connector-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero
Where did you learn how to make all this stuff?
BTW that son you were singing at 5:11 is called Yackety Sax
I WANNA LIVE IN A WORLD WITH "BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES" AGAIN!
me too but i'd prefer 'batten' over 'bend'
Fixed ... thanks.
Would you be able to tell me what screen it is you're using? I had a hell of a time finding a screen that I could transform my Pi into a portable gaming machine, and that thing looks perfect.
Fubukiyo it's one of those screen you use to drive in reverse while in a car, you can easily find them on amazon or ebay, its something like: "car backup display"
I think Ben should do the show dressed as a bunny and talk while eating carrots.
While a hilarious mental image...why a bunny?
dunno... he (you?) kinda reminds me of one. For a better image google images: bunny with glasses cartoon . And for real laughs just bunny with glasses
^_^
[after Googling] HA! Yes. Thank you for that.
Of course you realize, this means war...
can you please make a parts list and where to buy everything and the 3d printing stls please because I love your show and im really interested into making one of these little pi laptops
So idea I have. What if you did a Raspberry Pi Switch? A handheld raspberry pi running emulation station, that removes the hdmi, usb, and ethernet ports. Then you plug it into a dock, which adds the missing connections, as well as a fan system to safely overclock the pi for higher end emulation.
That is some talent. But I wish it was longer; like how did you make the hinge and what are the keys made from? This is like adam savages channel.
I just watch these to see Ben say "Let's get started!". I don't even watch the rest.
would it be possible to squeeze in a trackpoint for this? I think it would be useful.
How exactly did u get an analog audio jack out of the raspi zero? did i miss that part?
Love this project. Why didn't you use ribbon cable for the keyboard? Seems cleaner
I'd like to see a Rpi used to make a cheap carputer stereo on the cheap. One that can be used to play music, videos, and even access TH-cam through tethered internet.
how is the the audio out and the video out actually made? I mean in terms of the PiZero output.
How hot does that pi zero portable get?
Is this computer orderable ? I think I'll not be able to make a mini-laptop like this but I'm very interested by this product.
Mr. Ben Heck, I am getting a pi zero soon and you gave me ideas. And for that I thank you
Where did you get that outlook water bottle?
How is there no parts list for this?
How's the battery life?
How did you program the keyboard
hi, how did you get audio out of the Pi zero?
great work !! how do you configure so the pi boot directly on the screen ? thank
Hi Ben. What driver do you use for GPIO keyboard? I would like to wire Laptop keyboard to Pi.
Felix says: The Wiwring library. (I think that's how it's spelled.)
Why do you use diodes when you have tristate scan lines?
Hi,
Got some question about that :
- How did you wire the audio jack ?
- How did you wire all the key of the keyboard ? How to bind key to letter ( when you type it type the letter, all thoses things other gpio )
- Where did you buy the screen too ?
Thanks if you answer,
bye
The keyboard used a matrix with a diode on each key to make them individually addressable.
The link for the screen is on github in the Parts folder on the BOM. github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
where did you get your screen from??
What is the headphone jack connected to on the zero?
Actually i had a idea if you can move that LCD More left you can make room for small speakers and maybe a small amp that can fit adafruit has a small mono amp and speaker.
Love to get my hands on a diy kit to make that!
How the hell did you get an audio jack?
Love the Benny Hill deedle deet deet song Ben.
"Is this Linux, can you write sudo?" Not inherently a Linux command, it's a Debian command.
It's been adopted into many non debian distributions though
+Ryan David Sheasby True, but things like Red Hat use different commands. Unless Red Hat uses Sudo now, I haven't used it in a long while.
+Zachary Gillenwater Not sure about red hat but Fedora(that's based on red hat right?) has sudo. So does Arch and suse just to name a few.
Wikipedia tells me sudo is currently being maintained by an openbsd developer. So not really a Debian command, just included in Debian and a lot of distro's.
At this point, it might as well just be Unix, as OSX, Red Hat, and CentOS all have it, I believe.
How did he do the audio with the raspberry pi zero?
can you bend it back as far as a ds or does it only go back so far?
So I have a digital photo frame lcd screen with a 50 pin ribbon connector. Where can i get a cheap driver like the one in the video?
You should sell a kit for this, I would buy one or two for sure.
Anyone else think that Ben and Great Scott! should collaborate or something. Two of my favorite channels
Could be cool if you could put one of those wireless monitor things in it, so you could use any monitor you were near to use it.
probably the best looking build
Awesome. I would take a large gauge heat shrink, cut in half and sandwich the ribbon cable.
Pi 0 huh? Boy do I have an update for you.... from the year 2020 comes the PI 4!!!!
But , that is not working like that
What gauge wire are you using?
How did you connect the video feed from the RPi Zero to the display controller board?
could u do this with a intel compute stick
The Intel Edison? Potentially, you need to find a way to output graphics though. ;)
I think he's talking about this: www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html
+The Ben Heck Show
sure is easier than getting that pi zero. the famous 5$ computer made from pure unobtainium. either pay 35$+shipping or as in the case of adafruit with 6$ worth of other stuff (case+sd+..) for about 60 bucks. and that is if you can get one at all. wish people would stop using this marketing scam product in project shows since most people can't get this overhyped thing.
+The Ben Heck Show You should do a project on the Motorola z force with it's snap on.
Pretty cool device to make into portable windows 10 pc :D
Ben reminds me of Data from Star Trek, after 1000 years of aging.
how long will it last with that battery?
what interface was used to connect the lcd to the pi? was it hdmi?
Curently buiding a 16x4 Raspberry Pi Zero thermal imager. Had the sensor sitting on my desk for a few years now. Thought I might as well put it to good use.
You could've covered ribbon cable with vinyl sleeve. And keyboard: little membranes and vinyl sticker over 'em.
That's a quite pretty beast you got there.
Fastforward to 2018 and we're starting to see commercial ARM-based laptops. It would be nice to have something like this, a more free and open ARM platform, available in a full-sized notebook and running Linux. A more serious and robust version of the Pi Top, I suppose, with proper SATA or NVME storage and all.
The sad part about these cool projects is that it's not actually helping you to do it yourself.
Doesn't the pi zero come with a charging jack anyway?
That's my most favourite project you've ever done.
Where is connected the jack ? He did not make pwm audio and there is no audio output except hdmi on the pi zero...
Any chance you could list out the components for us? Perhaps share the 3d print... *cough*.... please...?
github.com/thebenheckshow/244-tbhs-raspberry-pi-zero-portable
I think some of the .stl files are missing because Fusion360 stores files on a cloud, so we have to remind Ben to put them on our local server.
Let me know if anything is missing and I'll get the github updated.
+theHeckwithKaren Ayyy thanks
can you please add the laser cutting stls and update the parts list