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This is a project that had been eating away at me for a bit, sitting in the back of my mind. It's a computer that fit's perfectly underneath an Apple Magic Key
by MichaelThatsIt 1y ago
This is a project that had been eating away at me for a bit, sitting in the back of my mind.
It's a computer that fit's perfectly underneath an Apple Magic Keyboard, and has a compartment to store peripherals like a dongle or small mouse. It has no display, instead opting for XR display glasses.
The internals are the main board, cooler, and battery from a Steam Deck OLED. I bought the parts separately rather than gutting a perfectly good one.
The link is to the CAD files. I decided to open source it as I explore building a better one.
Feel free to jump straight to that, here's the origin story for anyone interested:
I started using the XREAL glasses a few months ago. they're great, easily my favorite "XR" product. It's built around the one killer app of XR, a virtual display. shedding all non-essential hardware into a small, lightweight package.
but I hate the redundancy. Whatever device I'm using it with, the built in screen goes unused. In parallel, I've also found myself extremely disappointed in each product calling itself a "spatial computer" despite being nothing but an overweight iPad for your face.
I wanted a real computer designed to be used with these glasses, and in the smallest package I could possibly achieve.
So I grabbed an actual iPad, downloaded Shapr3D and got to work. My iteration process involved jumping back and forth between my iPad and a 3D printer. I went through roughly 15 failed iterations getting the screw mounts, airflow, and ergonomics just right.
The final result is what I believe to be a true spatial computer. I've been daily driving and I'm pretty happy with the experience. It's currently running Ubuntu 24, but I may switch back to Steam OS, given it's better optimized for the hardware.
- ezschemi 1y agoThank you very much for sharing the files and your experience! I just got my first XR glasses, Xreal One Pro, and had your link bookmarked to do something similar. I am very impressed with these glasses. Looking through ifixit I can't find the Steam Deck's mainboard. Where did you find it?
- MichaelThatsIt 1y agoEbay! But fear not! I’m working on a version based on the Radxa Rock 5B which is more readily available and has more kick than a pi 5. Also doing the research on productizing the whole thing and sourcing a custom board.
- ezschemi 1y agoI see. Need to check Ebay then. I am interested in a productized version - but only with x64 boards like the Steam Deck or one of the Framework mainboards. I don't want to deal with 3D printing and all that. The latter are larger than the Steam Deck, though. No battery for me though: I would use it after work, when I am near an outlet anyway.
- ludicrousdispla 1y agoYou should put at least the first three sentences from your comment into the project's readme.md file as I had no idea what a 'spatial display' or XREAL is for that matter.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- nottorp 1y ago> I started using the XREAL glasses a few months ago. How's your eye sight? Any signs of fatigue? I've seen people saying that they're fine for gaming and movie watching but too fuzzy for work...
- MichaelThatsIt 1y agoNo more than any other XR product. I can do the work I need to from it for the most part.
- nottorp 1y agoI’m asking AR vs monitors, not comparisons between AR products.
- MichaelThatsIt 1y agoMy bad. It’s as good as any 1080p monitor and it supports 120hz refresh rate. The FOV will be the thing that gets to you.
- zavec 1y agoThis looks awesome! > I bought the parts separately rather than gutting a perfectly good one. Huh, I didn't know you could do that. Neat.
- marci 1y agoInstead of carrying a small mouse, the case itself could be a trackpad :D https://ploopy.co/trackpad/ https://ploopy.co/trackpad/
- MichaelThatsIt 1y agoI have one! It’s huge haha. I’m still trying to figure out how to fit a full trackball in there…
- marci 1y agohaha.. now I wonder... a steam deck with dual trackballs instead of dual trackpads...
- holmesworcester 1y agodid you consider using the steam deck's trackpads? are they useful?
- jiriro 1y agoThe thing in the top left corner is killing ploopy spectacularly:-\
- ThibJP 1y ago> It's currently running Ubuntu 24, but I may switch back to Steam OS, given it's better optimized for the hardware. Do you have specifics issues in mind ? Battery consumption ? performance ? Stability issues ?
- ryukafalz 1y agoThis is very cool! Love to see the Commodore 64 style of keyboard computer come back. I got the Viture Pro recently and this would be fun to add to that. Ultimately I think this is a very nice form factor both for portable use with XR glasses, and for use with a USB-C dock at home. The XR glasses on the market are still a bit rough, but the nice thing about this kind of setup is that you can replace the computer and the glasses independently, so as the glasses improve (especially looking forward to glasses with high-quality waveguides) you can upgrade.