Raspberry Pi Tablet OS

[bjtheone]

Keyboard have turned to crap and so mechanical keyboards are back as well.

Not for data entry where a Coleman keyboard is "best", keyboard flame war?

Pouring out the gasoline, tossing a match... Mechanical rules, membrane drools. Logitech K840 is very nice for under $150. Never going to do better with a touch screen in terms of speed or feel.

Swipe works well for "free form spelling" and when exact characters don't really count short format data entry like for texting. Its exhausting for longer data entry. Perhaps if I spend enough time it would get better but I can touch type while I an spending brain power on the content. Certainly can not do that when swiping on a on screen keyboard. Do a lot of txting in the car, using a voice interface that works really well.

[sakaki]

FWIW, the twofing gesture daemon works pretty well with the official RPi 7" touchscreen. It (and the on-screen pop-up keyboard onboard) are bundled with gentoo-on-rpi-64bit, and I have used these to create a standalone BIOS-flashing bench tool that I use fairly extensively:



Not perfect by any means as the basis for a tablet OS, but quite serviceable (and nothing Gentoo-specific about the apps used) *

best, sakaki

* however, to be clear, this is very much a mouse/keyboard-centric O/S adapted to touch, rather than an O/S designed for touch-based devices from the ground up. Which o/c is quite a different animal ^-^

[iznobe]

You can look here , to try to find what you want

https://distrowatch.com/

[sine]

@InnovateAsterisk
how is your project going ? i am looking for a RPI 4 Tablet/pad as well , in my case , OS does not really matter. i just need a pad/tablet with all interfaces that RPI 4 offers , ethernet port/usb3/two hdmi out/ ... otherwise a regular android pad/tablet will do my job .

my project is to develop a media controller based on RPI 4 , displaying several video streams at same time , and a touch screen to control/adjust camera angels/other peripheries . it will be hanged/displayed in some public spaces , so it has to be a compact/presentable appearance , but i have not found a RPI 4 pad/tablet for my project so far , it is something to do with RPI 4 's heating problem ? or GPU driver ?

regards

[InnovateAsterisk]

Progress Report

I'm calling this version 1.

The RPF mission is to teach us "kids" how to learn to fish, not to provide a store to buy fish.

... Well this kid sure learned a lot



So this version has:

• A Raspberry Pi version 4B+ - for the SBC
• 7 inch LCD Display with touch
• PiJuice UPS with battery - right now it's a small underpowered battery - this may need to change.
• 1080p front-facing Camera
• The Waveshare Audio HAT - powers 2 speakers, and 2 microphones, and provides an audio jack for headphones.
• MPU-6050 Gyro - to orientate the screen. (with python)
• It has a cooling fan (inside the red box/tube) connected to a Mosfet fan-speed controller (speed is controlled in python)
• Breakout USB (not currently connected)
• Power Button
• Volume Up/Down rocker
• Charge, power and activity LED light is redirected (using nylon) to the case.
• Bamboo wood back, with laser etched decal

So, although this version is somewhat complete - I will be going on holiday until next year, so will not be working on this for a few weeks. In the new year, ill try a version2 - with quite a bit of cable management!

Once the build is complete, its on to the Operating System (User Interface). So far the most promising option is to us the vanilla Raspbian OS (since it's officially supported) and work on some kind of Skin/UI that better supports fat little fingers, and on-screen typing.

Here are some more photo's of the process:

[Gavinmc42]

Damn, that's good enough to sell for money.
Is that ABS and what paint did you use?
Setting the bar pretty high for the rest of us.

Got a box under the xmas tree with a 4.5" HDMI screen.
Need to get one of those 3D printers.

[InnovateAsterisk]

Thanks!

I'm printing in PLA - I have not tried ABS yet, my understanding is that its quite difficult.

The thing I have always found about 3D printing is that the outcome just looks too rough - the layer lines are just too noticeable - so I have been working on a way to make the outcome look "production ready". It involves making sure the 3D design is made in such a way that surfaces can be easily sanded (sanding I found to be the best way), and then what I do for the large flat surfaces is just use a 3mm bamboo.

I used just any old black matt spray paint from the local hardware store. (I do use undercoat/primer, and sand until its 100% smooth)

I fitted the Ender 2 with a laser modification, so that I can etch (small scale) on the bamboo wood.

The end result should be something that, although shouldn't fool anyone, should make you have to take a closer look.

Once i'm happy with the Fusion 360 work, i'll publish the STL on Thingiverse so that anyone can make this solution.

[tpylkko]

If my memory serves me, ABS allows for many more ways to polish the surface after the print, however. But PLA is more environment friendly. It is true that when you take the part of the printer, it often looks rough, but it is possible to use many post-processing methods with solvents, sanding, heat gun and polishing and so on to get a way better look. The settings used in the printing of the part also can have an effect on what the end result looks like. Unfortunately, this often means slower printing.

there are lots of good guides

https://www.fictiv.com/hwg/fabricate/ul ... nted-parts
https://rigid.ink/blogs/news/how-to-smo ... ror-finish

but I agree, many times just laser cutting plastic or wood is more convenient

[InnovateAsterisk]

I see the Pi4 is simply going to draw too much power from the current range of batteries and controllers. Most of what im finding online is referring to Raspberry Pi 2 and 3.

I have ordered two 3.7v batteries - does anyone know of a good controller/charger for this. If they are in series the volts should be 7.4, and a step down to 5v or 5.1v should provide enough amps for me.

Assuming the meaning for referring to "amp hours" on the packaging means that it is capable of outputting 3.7volts at 1.820Amp for 1 hour, then the default 1820mAh battery is easy to see why it doesn't work: 3.7Volts x 1.820Amps = 6.734Watt, so if it needs to produce 5Volts, then its: 5Volts x 1.3468Amps = 6.734Watt.

However, the bigger battery should have worked worked: 3.7Volts x 5Amps = 18.5Watt, becomes 5Volts x 3.7Amps = 18.5Watt.

Does anyone know of a good controller or power management system to solve this?