Loads of cyberdecks are an try to supply some kind of performance that the builder cannot discover within the shopper pc market. However typically cyberdecks are all about type. In these instances, the cyberdecks channel the spirit of William Gibson (don’t be concerned — he is nonetheless alive) to get that elusive neon and grime-covered cyberpunk aesthetic. Everybody is aware of that the easiest way to attain that’s by harnessing the cultural touchstones of the Nineteen Eighties, so Matthew H selected to make use of a tape deck from that decade because the inspiration for the CyberTapeDeck.
Regardless of the way it seems, Matthew didn’t use an precise tape deck enclosure to construct this cyberdeck. He modeled the enclosure after a tape deck he acquired from an aunt in 1980 for a sixth birthday current—a present that included the soundtrack to the film Grease. Matthew now not owns that tape deck, so he needed to accept a replica. He spent weeks modeling the design in CAD and going by way of prototype iterations 3D-printed on a Voron 2.4 earlier than nailing down the ultimate product, which has a colour palette paying homage to an Atari 2600 and elegance that mirrors each shopper electronics system of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
The CyberTapeDeck’s mind is a Raspberry Pi 3 Mannequin B, which feeds video to the 7″ LCD display through HDMI. The keyboard/touchpad combo system is a wi-fi Bluetooth unit, however the CyberTapeDeck itself has buttons to set off particular features. These hook up with the Raspberry Pi by way of an Arduino Professional Micro working USB HID firmware. So so far as the Raspberry Pi is anxious, that’s only a second keyboard. Energy comes from a Sunfounder Raspberry Pi UPS energy pack that features a 2000mAh battery.
Matthew constructed the CyberTapeDeck for 2 functions. First, it would function a workshop pc that he can carry out to the storage with out worrying about damaging a elaborate laptop computer. Second, it would let his son experiment with Scratch so he can begin studying the fundamentals of programming. We like that second function, as a result of it signifies that Matthew’s son will use a tool that appears similar to the tape deck that Matthew himself owned when he was the identical age.