
An always-available, online-capable Raspberry Pi in your pocket - incanus77
https://justinmiller.io/posts/2019/09/21/pi-gadget/
======
rcarmo
I’ve been doing this via Bluetooth for a good while now - works great from the
iPad, too.

Here’s my notes:

[https://taoofmac.com/space/links/2019/06/27/0713](https://taoofmac.com/space/links/2019/06/27/0713)

...and a gist with the Pi setup:

[https://gist.github.com/rcarmo/6ad6c09e904c35857bad2dd2769ed...](https://gist.github.com/rcarmo/6ad6c09e904c35857bad2dd2769edf76)

I switched from a Zero to a 3A+, though. The Zero is just too slow to do
anything productively, and the only real issue with the 3A+ is still having
only 512MB of RAM.

~~~
ssivark
Nice! So, how do you use this setup?

~~~
rcarmo
I SSH or VNC into it over Bluetooth to build ARM containers, mostly.

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ansible
Huh, that's neat.

I'm imagining a follow-on version of this, where the Pi Zero has a battery
backup built into the case.

So at any time your can just unplug it, and it will go into a low power mode,
like sleep on a laptop.

------
newnewpdro
I want something like this, except I want the Pi to be able to directly
interface with the laptop keyboard and display in a way that the laptop's
internal computer can't snoop or otherwise access.

That way the Pi can serve as a secure computing environment sharing the
display and keyboard of my insecure laptop.

On top of that a bunch of neat integration can be added like the insecure
laptop submitting ciphertext to the attached Pi with a seamless switch of
keyboard and display over to the Pi where I can view the plaintext or do other
operations on it, and have new ciphertext sent back to the insecure laptop
with a seamless switch back of keyboard and display. I'm imagining integration
with tools like mail reading software etc. for doing the switching.

Unfortunately USB-C alone isn't going to enable this level of integration, but
I'm optimistic projects like the mntmn reform can facilitate this area of
innovation in the future.

~~~
andai
Is there something like a KVM switch for laptop keyboards? I think on some
models they are attached by USB so it should be possible, if there’s room in
the case (and you poke a hole for a cable to the external device :)

~~~
cylinder714
This almost certainly isn’t what you had in mind, but the NexDock is a kind of
“dumb notebook” that integrates a keyboard and display for smartphones and
single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi:

[https://nexdock.com/](https://nexdock.com/)

~~~
andai
> nexdock + raspberry pi: world’s most affordable laptop!

> $229 (excluding the pi)

> Laughs in $100 ThinkPad.

Seriously though this looks great. And from what I gather it works with lots
of newer phones, and can even be used as a second laptop display.

------
starik36
What are some practical uses of having an RPi W in your pocket?

~~~
detaro
I know some people use them to have a small linux dev environment they can
access from their iPads (without internet).

As a travel router for your devices to relay WLANs with captive portal (and/or
handle VPN etc).

~~~
dTal
Is it just me, or does something seem horribly wrong with the world when your
4-digit-price-tag personal Unix computing device from the world's richest
company needs a 5 dollar hobbyist board to be a useful Unix development
environment?

~~~
nine_k
Nothing is wrong: iPad is mostly a consumption device which does not show any
development interface to the user. Compare it to a music player that does not
expose any music creation interface.

This allows the maker of iPads to change the underlying implementation how
they see fit, without making users notice anything. If iPads started to run a
mickrokernel OS underneath, the UI / UX won't change at all.

The expensive parts of an iPad are the screen, the battery, the QA, and the
brand. The CPU is not particularly expensive, though maybe isn't a $5 part.

~~~
jjeaff
The marketing line for the iPad pro is "like a computer. Unlike any computer"

~~~
Semiapies
For most of the people it's being marketed to, a _computer_ is not a
development system, either.

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bravura
I've been interested in RPis for a while, but I travel a bit and it's a huge
hassle to onboard to a new wifi network. This is great, does it work for other
RPis besides Zero?

What I would love is to do the RPi wifi configuration wirelessly, perhaps
through bluetooth on my phone.

~~~
kingosticks
Gadget mode is limited to Raspberry Pi 0, 0W, A, A+, and 4.

> What I would love is to do the RPi wifi configuration wirelessly, perhaps
> through bluetooth on my phone.

As I understand it, this is what BerryLan does.

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CraigJPerry
I've been doing something similar
([https://github.com/craigjperry2/pipad](https://github.com/craigjperry2/pipad))
but i found the PiZero-W just too slow. The 15 min load average was 3+ when
doing something simple like creating a new react app.

I switched to a Pi 3B+ for now but i have my eye on the 4 precisely for the
ethernet over usb idea, although the 3b+ is capable enough for my needs for
now.

------
hinkley
What’s the case in the picture?

~~~
incanus77
Author here. Yep, official case. There is a lid variant with a camera hole as
well as one with the GPIO pins exposed, too, which I'll switch between.

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1996
It would be better with a UPS. Maybe a LCD screen too. And a speaker, and a
microphone.

Maybe a camera too? Then we could even call it a "cellphone".

Joke aside, any rooted cellphone works much better to run a normal linux
distribution. Become familiar with bootstrapping and crosscompiling.

~~~
detaro
So it works "much better" despite being more expensive if you need to buy one
and apparently harder to use (for the Raspi I can just download a Linux distro
that just works)?

It's certainly interesting, but IMHO not obviously better.

~~~
1996
Your raspberry needs a case, a SD, etc. Cost add up.

Price of a used cellphone: generally nothing, as we all have extra as spares
(and family members do the same). It is self contained.

If you need a brand new one, a ulefone with 6' screen costs as little as $57
all included: [https://www.banggood.com/Ulefone-Note-7-6_1-inch-Triple-
Rear...](https://www.banggood.com/Ulefone-Note-7-6_1-inch-Triple-Rear-
Camera-3500mAh-1GB-RAM-16GB-ROM-MT6580A-Quad-
core-3G-Smartphone-p-1454511.html)

It is ready to be rooted with mediatek exploit.

You get wifi + bluetooth + cellular, a screen (always useful for debug). Spend
more if you want more ram, more processing power. $80 for a IP68/IP69K one,
that's good.

I just can not see how spending more on an elaborate raspberry setup, to have
an overall worse solution in the end can be a better idea.

~~~
inferiorhuman
_Your raspberry needs a case, a SD, etc. Cost add up._

A Pi Zero with WiFi costs about $10, case costs another $10, a name brand 32
GB SD card runs $10, and a 3.5" screen runs about $20 for a grand total of
$50. A screen won't fit in the stock zero case but the zero does have a micro
HDMI port.

 _I just can not see how spending more on an elaborate raspberry setup, to
have an overall worse solution in the end can be a better idea._

Well none of that is true, so there's that. As an added bonus you don't have
to exploit security vulns to get root on a Pi.

~~~
1996
Leaving the screen aside, does the PI also has a battery and 1G of RAM?

That's what the $57 new phone has.

EDIT: it was a rhetorical question. Never mind. Keep spending on Rapsberries,
while I will keep spending on waterproof devices with a battery/screen/camera
that are sold as 'phones'

~~~
inferiorhuman
_Leaving the screen aside, does the PI also has a battery and 1G of RAM?_

Well the information is out there and freely available so I'd suggest looking
it up if you're posing an earnest question.

 _That 's what the $57 new phone has. _

That $57 phone comes preloaded with an antiquated version of Android and lists
for $80 (the sale ends in two days).

