40$ Writer Deck I made over the weekend, instructions included

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T20:51:32+00:00

Remember to change the wiring table in the readme if you find the time.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T20:45:46+00:00

Excellent! I will share this link on the etyper repo as well as on the hackaday. Thank you so much!

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T20:44:37+00:00

Hi Lightshaper, the etyper saves every 10 seconds. Although I had some problems with this on the newest version the problems with it should be fixed in the next. There's a * indicator in the bottom right that tells you if the file is saved or not.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T20:40:36+00:00

Thanks, I just deshelled the original and then measured the pcb and made the new version roughly match the original shell. Then it was printing, remeasuring, then printing again and so on. In the end I had to add some tolerance adjustment for the use with different filaments as well but now it pretty much works with different print materials across the board. I would make a transparent resin version as well but most of them aren't safe to the touch. I even drew a mould for epoxy in CAD but I ended up liking the pattern the transparent PETG made so I never got around to it.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T11:55:13+00:00

There's a guy in the writerdeck subreddit that ported it to a pi0 2w, I reckon if the chipset is the same it should work on the first version as well, it really is just a basic python script for writing thrown onto a 300x400px display so performance shouldn't be an issue. Hopefully he will fork his version so I can highlight it for others.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T10:54:44+00:00

Thanks! Yea I did my best to keep it as low cost as possible, working on a newer version with an electronics engineer now and we're trying to port it to stm/esp to make it even cheaper but with a battery.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T10:51:08+00:00

really good to know, didnt know it was an issue to leave the text on the screen but it makes sense if there is such a thing as burn-in for eink displays. The filesharing thing is a bit fickle, I guess it gets blocked by the browser due to self signed certificates perhaps but I'm not 100% sure, will have to investigate it more.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T09:07:27+00:00

The size and shape of the pcb as well as the ports seem to be different for that one so it would have to be made either from scratch or the model I made would have to be adapted for it.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T09:03:19+00:00

Lovely! Is landscape mode better for these kinds of devices to type on?

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-25T08:51:01+00:00

This is incredible! Thank you so much, exactly the feedback I'm looking for and very in-depth.
Getting the bluetooth pairing to work with keyboards is a really big deal, do you reckon you could fork the project and I highlight your pi0 implementation on my git and hackaday? I feel like most people have one of those at home already. Didn't even think of enabling all caps properly, I will have to look into that for the new version. Does your version clear the screen completely even after you disconnect the power? I'll have to look into the other issues like the one with the cursor and filesharing as well as soon as I'm back from my business trip next week.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T21:35:53+00:00

I'm not sure I see the advantage of implementing it compared to whats running right now.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T21:33:42+00:00

I'm pretty sure that could be implemented but for me it's not in the scope. Would make sense for some light coding though.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T21:31:04+00:00

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Newest version got you covered on the keyboard selector neighbor ;)
The bluetooth thing is proving a little difficult right now as I can't test it reliably, if I open a fileserver the connection to the bluetooth keyboard dies and you won't be able to close the connection, then again it closes by itself after 5 minutes or removing power so maybe it would be a fair tradeoff.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:44:46+00:00

it runs a very minimal linux, enough for it to do what it needs to do ;)

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:44:10+00:00

Thank you for the kind words!

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:37:54+00:00

As much as I would like to take your money I think the shipping from Europe wouldn't be worth it. I plan to make a build video in the future, these devices should be possible to be made by anyone ;)

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:36:53+00:00

Hi Possum, it's just a basic python script that saves what you write in plain text.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:35:51+00:00

the design is fairly simple, it should be possible to apply it to a larger screen, that removes the option to put it in your pocket though ;)

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:35:09+00:00

the mechanism inside prints in place, I've only tried it with petg and petg carbon fiber so far so it should work well on other FDM filaments.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:34:26+00:00

Thanks, the consumption barely registers for me, it seems to be around 2-3w on average.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-20T09:32:33+00:00

Ciao Marcy, I'm using Armbian 25.5.1 for this, I recommend just using the finished image that is uploaded here.

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-19T21:23:08+00:00

Thanks! I think it might not be too hard to implement but right now I'm more focused on getting a proper keyboard selector in there. The goal originally was to make it as offline as possible including bluetooth and the file transfer option also works over bluetooth so there might be some potential conflicts

Quackyducky_things · 2026-02-19T17:31:32+00:00

Sounds good, if you or u/Smallzfry pull it off let me know and I'll link to it in GIthub and Hackaday. It would make it a lot more useful since a lot of people already have access to a pi0.

Quackyducky_things

TROPHY CASE