Escape the Limitations of Traditional Tablets With This Raspberry Pi Build

Stefan Vorkoetter is a hobbyist with very specific tastes in his electronics. Though a software developer by day, he didn’t get a smartphone until 2015, and has resisted getting a tablet since he’s often near a computer, in his opinion making them redundant. After finally giving an Android tablet a try for a few days, he found the software too limiting, and decided to instead build his own based on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Though he’s not the first person to construct a tablet of this kind, he believes his is the smallest and lightest so far, measuring 195 x 112 x 17.6mm, and weighing in at 484g. Even with this small size, it packs a 6200mAh LiPo battery, which gives it four to 12 hours of run time.

Normally Vorkoetter plans out his projects in advance, but this time he chose to simply make things up as he went along. His first order of business was to slim down his components, stripping unneeded parts like the USB and Ethernet connectors off of his Pi 3. He then modified the touchscreen display to take advantage of this new form factor. Finally, after adding the requisite supporting electronics, he built an enclosure for the Pi-tablet, using wood for the sides, and fiberglass circuit board material for the back.

Though “unplanned,” after three months of work, the resulting build looks superb, and runs Raspbian Jesse with a few software modifications.

[h/t: Raspberry Pi Pod]