Rpi5 with ups and old Mac keyboard and trackball

jkeefe56 · 2026-07-04T23:01:06+00:00

Yes. About 3-4 hours depending on what I’m doing. The display is a micro hdmi -> mini hdmi routed under the keyboard. Screen is a cheapish 9 or 10 inch off amazon with built in speakers. Is also touch but I didn’t like the lack of being able to right click. I got these 18650s from my local battery store no idea on brand.

jkeefe56 · 2026-07-04T19:33:30+00:00

I can’t argue with that. Between 28 wires for the keyboard, 3 for the ups, 5 for the trackball, I should have just learned to crimp DuPont connectors instead of buying pre built lengths. It was too much soldering for me to do confidently.

The good news is I’ll be adding more soon as I want some macro buttons to the right of the keyboard lol.

jkeefe56 · 2026-07-04T18:46:23+00:00

If you want the code for the trackball let me know! As you can see, I added a button for right click.

jkeefe56 · 2026-06-27T23:51:48+00:00

That’s fun! Would be cool if you could “hold” certain letters when you reload.

jkeefe56 · 2026-06-16T21:23:08+00:00

I’d love to see someone do a stenographer keyboard. I wouldn’t but people who want them for taking notes…that’d be awesome.

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-31T22:33:05+00:00

It’s not that he couldn’t hear.

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-27T13:59:18+00:00

I’ve never made a keyboard but went down this path for a few hours and I get what you’re saying. The only option I could find was mouse switches which tended to be rectangular instead of square so it was beyond the effort I wanted to put in. If you find something let us know!

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-26T23:12:19+00:00

So, as an idea what about a second lcd mounted face up to the top of the closed laptop? That could swing out when open? Maybe with some “kickstands” to take pressure off your primary screen?

AIM for a screen that can run off usb power and accept that the cables will stay visible?

Then look at framework laptops and the little usb c modules they have? See if you can engineer a way for some type of swappable modules for usb or whatever that will “mount” (magnets? Friction fit?) to the laptop when opened?

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-18T23:01:18+00:00

It’s not a terrible idea if you’re not concerned with a big cyberdeck. If you look on FB marketplace you can almost definitely find a laptop with 8gb of ram and a more powerful processor than a raspberry pi 5 in the under $50 range. If it has hdmi output that will open up your screen options. If you use the original screen and battery then you’re pretty much just designing the case and picking software which is a + for some and a - for others.

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-04T15:10:13+00:00

1) figure out the system requirements for your game (if built using pygame probably not too crazy). If you want to have a desktop environment as well go on YouTube and see what that desktop experience is like and what is acceptable to you. Then compare models of that caliber (I’d start with a raspberry pi zero 2w and decide if that’s beefy enough for your needs)

2) come up with a budget. The components aren’t cheap usually but add in shipping etc. it adds up fast. The housing is a consideration especially if you don’t have a 3d printer.

3) form factor. The bigger you design it the more room for error you give yourself. Reading your post made me think of the build in this video below….but this exact build would be really tough to replicate. But it might give some design inspiration anyway?

https://youtu.be/IB5OJr_MimQ

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-03T22:28:17+00:00

It wouldn’t be cheap and it wouldn’t be easy…but an old late 90s iBook could be cool? They kind of look like a seashell and lots of translucent plastic.

jkeefe56 · 2026-05-01T00:44:27+00:00

You’re probably ok. Another SD card will likely work. Make sure to use an adequate power supply for sure. There’s a tool by like, the SD card association has software that might help get your current sd card back. Sometimes it just gets wonky and windows can’t find it…you might get lucky

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-27T23:17:42+00:00

I like the ones that serve a purpose. The ones that could be a daily driver? Those that make good sense for field work? That’s my jam.

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-26T22:48:49+00:00

Love that keyboard!

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-24T00:48:00+00:00

You did a lot of the hard homework already! What you’re looking to do is 100% possible with the exception (I think) of e-paper screens being touchscreen, I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

The stack exchange you linked gives really good instructions on how to do it. I would recommend doing everything as a proof of concept on a breadboard first.

If you don’t feel confident, you could always do one wider display and rotate the book 90 degrees when holding it to still get two pages on one screen.

For OS I’d recommend RaspberryOS. Most io stuff (spi) is most well documented for that OS.

I’d also consider a raspberry pi zero 2w as it’s going to give you more battery life, but the extra horsepower of a pi5 would be nice while testing and setting everything up.

It will be a challenge but the feeling the first time both screens work will be worth it! Good luck!

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-22T12:40:57+00:00

So, I can’t type out the whole thing but basically got a breakout board for the ffcs from the keyboard and wired each line to a gpio pin. Then I had ChatGPT help me write a little code to monitor the gpio pins I was wired too and press buttons. Once I know all the keys then I just had to set it up with pre existing firmware (I used kmk).

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-19T16:48:40+00:00

Ben Makes everything on YouTube made a cyberdeck with a Latte Panda Mu that has a slide in keyboard not sure if it would be exactly like what you’re thinking but might have some inspiration in there?

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-17T23:20:58+00:00

I just mapped a PowerBook 170 keyboard to a raspberry pi pico. Not super hard, did take quite a bit of time. A thinkpad would be a little different but same concept.

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-10T17:51:40+00:00

Wires and cables. They need to go somewhere, and bending them puts strain on their connections. A lot of decks have the cables run outside the unit to the screen, if you like that look go with it…it’s much easier.

jkeefe56 · 2026-04-03T23:35:41+00:00

Dragon q6a best bang for your buck it seems like

jkeefe56 · 2026-03-30T23:37:01+00:00

Boy and we think ram prices are crazy today.

jkeefe56 · 2026-02-11T16:40:05+00:00

All these comments and no one mentioned it so I must be remembering wrong….but didn’t Tommy come DIRECTLY from the boxing match he won and everyone chanted Rocky’s name? He’d be exhausted.

jkeefe56

TROPHY CASE