Garbage Terminal: Part 1

I decided I wanted a little Linux handheld terminal. I had seen some YouTube videos of them and thought they were a neat idea. However when I went out and started pricing them, I was surprised at how expensive they were. I am sure part of that was just post COVID bullshit, but still. Then I started thinking about it and I realized I probably already had all the parts I needed. So I dug through my parts box and found a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a Pimoroni HyperPixel 4, a mini keyboard, 3 AA battery pack, a toggle switch from the junk drawer and an embarrassingly large pile of various USB flash drives. All stuff from other projects that were upgraded, abandoned or long forgotten. Now I just had to put it all together and make it work.

In the next installment I will go into the building process and include some pictures. However, before I get to building it, I am also thinking about what upgrades I might want to make in the future. I am also thinking about what I would do if I were buying these parts today.  I went out and looked at the current price and found these parts would cost $106.75 at today's prices. Mind you, I bought most of this stuff pre COVID, so it was considerably cheaper, I suspect at the time all of this stuff cost me less than $75.

If I were buying these parts rather than digging them out of my parts box, I would probably make some different choices. For instance the Hyperpixel 4 LCD screen does not play well with the current version of Raspberry Pi OS, which is why I am going to have to use an old version for this build. This LCD also uses all the GPIO pins, I would like to have a few left exposed for other things. I would likely choose the Miuzei Raspberry Pi 4 Touchscreen with Case Fan, This would cost me $30, but it would give me a touch screen and open GPIO pins. This flows right into using a Raspberry Pi 4 rather than a Pi Zero. While this would make the build much bigger and heavier, it would give me a lot more CPU power, memory and sound. I would also get a rechargeable battery pack, 3 AA batteries will probably not last nearly long enough. Unfortunately, buying all this stuff today would probably throw the price well into what just buying one of those Linux handheld terminal I was talking about earlier.

Here is my parts list for anyone who cares.

• Raspberry Pi Zero WH
• 4" LCD Screen
• CardKB Mini Keyboard
•  Battery Pack
• Switch
• Optional: SanDisk 128GB microUSB Flash Drive

 Obviously if you shop around, You might get this cheaper, like the switch you can probably get at a hardware store for 89 cents and it never hurts to shop ebay for used hardware.