Random musings: 80s hardware, cyberdecks

Having made several cyberdecks over the years and run the whole Pelican case thread longer than ideal, it has been about making custom one-off builds. There are really no limits other than attention span, budget, and design/build skills. I've seen some held together with hot glue that are just as cool as others from those with access to CNC facilities. Personally, they have been a great vehicle for me to push my boundaries in 3D printing and get from Tinkercad to Fusion 360, having fun the entire time.

(of course a plug for https://doscher.com)

Reminds me of when I visited Huaqiangbei for the first time in 2024. I had a vision of a cyberpunk tech market full of unique, hacked-together gizmos and gadgets, and was very disappointed to find that every stall sold the same knockoff airpods, electric air blowers, and discount drones. I would have been ecstatic to stumble upon some underground cyberdeck shop there, but alas, just worse quality versions of the same stuff you could find at Best Buy.

I first encountered cyberdecks a while ago and thought they were a fun idea for hacking about but more recently I've started seeing videos of beginners making them by cramming raspberry pis into random cases salvaged from second hand shops.

It's been really cool to see people creating hardware without worrying about the usual limitations of soldering or 3d printing. Some have more technical ability than others and have salvaged screens or other bits from random electronics.

It feels like a rediscovery of hacker ethos without the slightly toxic baggage of maker culture.

I hadn't heard of "cyberdecks" until a month ago, but the term seems to have first become popular in November 2020: https://trends.google.com/explore?q=cyberdeck&date=all&geo=U...