THE HANDHELD LINUX TERMINAL VERSION 3 (PORTABLE PI 3)
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Hey everyone. Today I want to show you the new version 3 of the Handheld Linux Terminal.

It's taken a long time, but I'm finally finished. This one takes all the things I've learned so far, and improves on many of the features from the previous iterations.

- Youtube link
- Archive.org mirror
- Torrent
- Keybase mirror

SPECIFICATIONS

ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2GHz CPU
1GB (900MHz) RAM
4x USB Ports
1x Ethernet Port
3.5mm Audio/Video Jack
802.11n Wireless + Bluetooth
64GB Micro SD Storage (Swappable)
QWERTY Keyboard/Mouse (RF240-50K)
3000mAh Battery (814864)
UGeek 3.5" Screen (800x480 Resolution)
Adafruit Powerboost 1000c

DESIGN

The computer consists of a modified Raspberry Pi 3, a high res screen, keyboard, touch mouse and some other parts, and it's all enclosed in a 3D printed case. It's a bit fatter than the previous versions, but that's because it has more inside.

On the left side you have the standard Raspberry Pi ports, 1 ethernet, and 4 full size USB ports. Then on the other side you'll find 2 switches, 1 for the machine, and another for an internal fan. You also have access to the micro SD card, a micro USB charging port, as well as a 3.5mm composite audio and video port.

The 3000mAh battery gives you around 6 hours runtime between charges, and the adafruit powerboost 1000c charge controller allows for automatic switching between battery power and charging.

For heat management, I've included a bunch of vents on the back and underneath of the device, and inside there is a mini fan which can be toggled on and off, to circulate air around the components.

The hinge and screen design were a bit challenging, due to having to manually remove the original GPIO connector, and add the ribbon cable, but it worked out ok in the end.

INPUT

One aspect that makes this different from the previous versions is the inclusion of an optical touch mouse. This, combined with the fairly high res 3.5 inch display, allows you to use the graphical user interface quite successfully.

The keyboard has left and right mouse buttons, and a really nice scroll feature. Besides that, all the standard QWERTY keys are available, including all the special characters for using a terminal.

Unfortunately this keyboard was discontinued about ten years ago, so it's very hard to find one for sale.

SOFTWARE

The software side of things is where it really shines though, and the Pi 3 is more than capable of performing most non-intensive tasks.

This runs the stock version of Raspbian, giving you access to a big range of ARM compatible apps. I have also installed Exagear Desktop, which allows it to run X86 apps too, and this works great.

I have X86 apps such as Sublime Text and Spotify running without any problems, and it's technically possible to use Wine to also run Windows apps on the device.

The display interface basically mimics the HDMI interface, and this means that you can now also run apps and games which weren't possible on PiTFT screens because of the framebuffer interface they use.

Besides that, it can browse the web, watch youtube videos, as well as playing emulator games without any problems.

You could also swap out the micro sd cards and run other operating systems, such as pentesting OS Kali Linux, or you could turn it into a retro gaming console with Retropie. I mean you could even hook it up to SDR dongles etc and use it as a portable radio machine.

CONCLUSION

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and I can genuinely say this is by far the most useful Raspberry Pi handheld I've created so far. It is a bit fatter than the other versions, but you can do so much more on it.

Anyways, I hope you liked it, and maybe it has given you some ideas to make your own. The actual build process is basically the same as my other projects, except in a different shell, so check them out if you're new here.

Alright, thanks for watching. See you in the next video.

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BY NODE