The heyday of PDAs and Blackberries is gone, but form factors are still desirable.This Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W handheld from pdrift is a masterpiece that combines electronics and 3D printing into one mean green machine.
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W was released in 2021 in the midst of a global supply shortage. While it didn’t enjoy the highest stock levels in its short lifespan, this $15 board brings his Raspberry Pi 3 level performance to a zero form factor and pdrift is using it to its advantage.
Let’s work from the outside. The green 3D printed case was designed using Tinkercad and printed in PLA. We recommend using one of the best 3D printers as the print quality is excellent. In the image you can see that the threaded inserts are strategically placed around the case. PLA plastic is fairly strong, but frequent twisting and unscrewing of the case can wear down the plastic and cause damage. To alleviate this problem, using a soldering iron to insert the threaded insert heats up the brass fitting causing him to melt the PLA. A flange on the outer circumference of the insert hooks into the plastic and provides resistance to overtightening once it cools.
The screen is from Pimoroni. Hyperpixel 4.0 SquareThis 4-inch-square IPS goodness features a 720 x 720 resolution and a full 60 fps. Oh, and it’s a touchscreen too! Below the screen is a detachable Blackberry keyboard. to be specific, Solder Party BBQ20KBD,alias Arturo 182The keyboard connects to the Pi via the USB-C interface using a USB breakout board. The keyboard also features a Stemma QT connector in case you want to add sensors or additional components. If you like gaming, pdrift is working on a gamepad to replace your keyboard.
The most recent additions are a USB sound card and a 6W amplifier that provides sound through speakers taken from a broken Amazon Fire tablet. Pdrift successfully demonstrates this new feature by using an emulator to play the Game Boy Advance game Warioware.
There is a Raspberry Pi camera on the back and pdrift can take pictures using Picamera2 or libcamera. Adapting this project to use the new Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 with autofocus is a simple but nice process.
Powering everything is a 5000mAh Li-Po cell with dedicated charge control circuitry. I’m not sure which circuit this is. It looks like an off-the-shelf component instead of a custom chip.
This is a nice, well documented project.Grab a drink/snack and scroll pdrift Detailed imgur gallery To get inspiration for your next build.
