RE: https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/110737883575942892

myrmepropagandist

Thinking about electronics enclosure boxes on this new year's day. That is what the new year is like for me.

One of these boxes that could be anything.

What will you put inside?
What kind of power supply?
Will it connect to wifi or nah?
What kind of display?
What kind of inputs will you design?
What kind of blinkin lights?
How many chunky knobs?
Will it have a little transmitter dish that pops out of a hatch and rotates?
What kind of outputs?

What will you make of this brand new year?

Nazo

@futurebird For me, a Raspberry Pi "laptop" (or luggable.) A Raspberry Pi + screen with a decent battery pack and DC-DC converter and a nice keyboard as well as physical access to the USB ports for plugging in other things.

I've actually done this once before and it became sort of a laptop alternative I used for a while, but I didn't have the money to get good parts, so it was... less than ideal and eventually I gave up on making it into an actually usable thing without spending the money I didn't have.

myrmepropagandist

@nazokiyoubinbou

I once saw an eink display that was seamlessly integrated into a flat white plastic surface. Think about using a countertop that's white with a thin layer of protective resin, but, under the resin it's also a display like ink, no glowing, just shapes forming on the surface like they were painted there.

I was captivated by this-- it was so elegant and luxurious and I've never seen it used in any mass produced product.

Nazo

@futurebird I've always wished for eInk displays to be more achievable. I absolutely would use one with such a device I think. They have incredibly low power use and modern ones are capable of color output (albeit limited) and relatively low refresh rates (like you wouldn't game on it, but it won't make you go crazy browsing the Web.)

You would probably appreciate that my contraption was a mess of ugly wires and stuff with a keyboard that didn't quite fit and everything just sort glued in with hot glue into a wooden case I'd cut up with a rotary tool. Look, I make do with what I have, and I don't have much!

sidereal

@futurebird Maybe tangential, but a home electronics project I've always wanted is an intercom system for my parents' house, inspired by the ones from classic Star Trek.

But I also really like the idea of making a portable LAN server device with like 10 or 20 ethernet ports on it, wikipedia + other reference materials (and movies and music) stored on it, mostly to share music and movies but also to be a micro-backup-offgrid-internet when the power goes out

https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/115/822/659/376/057/105/original/33e1e80c09c285de.png

myrmepropagandist

@nazokiyoubinbou

So .... uh we are not talking about "the PCBs with such fine design they made us think of jewelry" then?

? Offline

@futurebird I like the ones that are shaped like old calculators.

I've never used one for anything. But some day I will.

myrmepropagandist

@apLundell

For your consideration:

Nazo

@apLundell @futurebird What I would like to see brought back are those things where you had a calculator built into the keyboard keypad that worked independently of the computer. So it was both a keyboard keypad and a separate calculator.

I think that was mostly only in full sized keyboards back in the day (but then you couldn't really easily plug in multiple keyboards until USB anyway so I guess it had to be) but it would be handy to have in a keypad addon!

(Also I use a sideways keypad as a "gameboard" and would imagine that something built around a concept like that could be super useful in its own way too utilizing a screen for something or other. I have no idea what since almost nothing would integrate with it, but it's such a neat idea to me!)