The Raspberry Pi is no stranger to cyberdecks, with thousands of them having been created and shared over the last decade alone. Today, however, we have something a little more simple, yet just as complex, to share that uses one of our favorite SBCs, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. This project is called ZeroWriter and it was created by a maker who goes by Tincangames over on Reddit. ZeroWriter is a completely portable DIY writing computer that features an eInk display and uses a 40% keyboard for input.
This portable writing computer features a 4.2-inch eInk panel and has plenty of room for expansion. The project is completely open source so there’s plenty of opportunity for modification. You can add as much storage as you’d like and make all sorts of other adjustments for both usability and efficiency.
Because the ZeroWriter is built around a Pi Zero, you can use pretty much any USB keyboard as long as it’s compatible. Tincangames is using a 40% Vortex Core keyboard and the code shared in the project files is designed specifically for it. There are also STL files available for anyone who wants to download and 3D print the chassis that holds everything together.
If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project, you will need at minimum, about $50 (USD) worth of materials which includes a Pi Zero 2 W, a micro SD card, an eInk display, and a USB keyboard. To recreate Tincangame's ZeroWriter to a tee, you'll need more hardware and will have to spend about $200 in total.
The software for the project was made by Tincangames just for the ZeroWriter and is Python-based. It allows you to do things like create new documents, save them, and power down. You can explore the code for this project over at the official ZeroWriter project page on GitHub. There are also more details about its creation over at Hackaday.
