Building a writerdeck, lessons learned
Building a portable writerdeck using Linux and Raspberry Pi Zero 2W was easier than I thought; here is what I learned. Yes yes, I know it is an indication that I am avoiding writing but I also admit that I am easily distracted while writing and that in the worst case I end up with a portable linux system to build other things. FYI, it is a chocolate mint look.
If you do not know the term, a writerdeck is a single purpose writing device. With that in mind a typewriter is technically considered a writerdeck, but the modern use of the term is considered some sort of computer running a word processor.
Why not use a bluetooth keyboard and phone… that is not single purpose. Why not a laptop running Linux? That is not a bad idea and everything is all in one place. In my case I like to build and the laptops I have are heavy.
I settled on a recent design called Bee Write Back by Simon Shimel. It has a 3d printable case and a full walk-through for around $200 in parts. That fit my budget and it had store links for all the parts : )
The build was exactly like in the video. Please see the full video or PDF at the Bee Write Back GitHub site for how-to details.
Important Fix For Blank Screen
One problem I had was a blank screen at startup. Maybe because I use a different operating system (see below). When powering the system on I never got the mobile screen to display. SSH into it fine, plugged into a monitor fine… just not when it was using the small display.
Turns out that the HDMI was not advertising itself fast enough and the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W board looked at startup but did not see the HDMI ready, and so deactivated it. I had to update my /boot/firmware/config.txt file to tell the Raspberry Pi to always enable the HDMI using the following:hdmi_force_hotplug=1hdmi_group=2hdmi_mode=14
The hdmi_mode sets the desired resolution. In this case, mode 14 means 480p 60 Hz (Pixel doubling enabled).
Keyboard
This is a distraction. I feel my fingers are deep diving into each key as opposed to gliding off my home keyboard. Also, getting used to having only 40 keys was more challenging than I thought.
Fortunately the keyboard is fully programmable using VIAL but it is not for the faint of heart… not horrible either. And yes, you can reach all the keys like a row of numbers and grammatical characters and will learn more about keyboards than you ever thought necessary.
There is also kind of an echo / resonance when I type… I am guessing it is from the plastics of the case. The keyboard vendor sells a thin pad that sits between the keycap and the switches, this might help with that sound.
Operating System
The designer of the Bee Write Back package used Raspberry Pi OS Lite but I preferred DietPi for a smaller footprint and a nice config menu. The DietPi also has easy access to setting autostart scripts.
Display
The screen ended up being the size of my mobile phone screen but it uses HDMI. These screens are also really easy to use with Linux. I settled for the 480p resolution of 854 x 480.
The Raspberry Pi has another connector for video… DSI (Display Serial Interface) but unfortunately this is not on the Raspberry Pi Zeros so only HDMI.
Although sharp, the characters were smaller than I liked. Did you know you can change the console font? I plan to stick to console / command line mode for everything and I learned that setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/Lat15-Terminus22x11.psf.gz got me to the text size I liked. Depending on your operating system you may have quite a lot of fun console fonts to explore.
A screen flat on the table is okay… but at a slight angle is even better. I use a small stick to keep it open at a slight angle.
The Case
Everything lines up… the display is held nicely, place for the power switch and external USB plugs. Simon did a great job! Two areas maybe to update… the attachment of the UPS battery board to the base and easier access for the SD card of the Raspberry PI.
I am not a fan of how the UPS power board attaches to the base. Maybe add space for a nut that the screw can go into instead of just holes in the plastic base. Everything feels snug but I never got the Raspberry Pi board connecting to the UPS battery connectors. I am worried that tightening the connection more might strip those existing holes. My workaround was an extra USB cable from the battery board to the Raspberry Pi board to bring power.
As for the SD card, you can slide the keyboard out enough to remove the card if necessary but maybe a future design turns the board to a different angle.
Power Supply
The good news is that you can power everything with a USB cable or use a battery and go untethered. Added bonus is that you can use the deck while charging.
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I like the UPS power board Simon chose… extra USB ports, power monitoring, on/off switch, run while charging. 4–5 hours battery usage was what Simon reported though I am not sure how powerful his battery was. I picked up a 3000mAh one.
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2W also runs by default at 1000MHz. I moved that down to 600MHz, turning off Bluetooth and WiFi by default, and using the DietPi OS I am hoping to extend that battery time.
Recharge through the UPS board showed 0.737A power pulled (1.650A+ if you also turn the system on while charging). That is pretty close to my external 18650 charger using 0.972A to charge. If you go remote consider bringing an extra battery (however swapping batteries out was hard due to the super snug fit). Or grab a portable solar charger.
Good to know
The 18650 batteries come in 2 versions, one with a button / bump on the + side, like AA batteries, and one type that are flat on both sides. You need the one that is flat on both sides or it will not fit.
Battery monitoring is a challenge… now the indication it is low is that the system reboots for no reason and then just does not reboot.
Be sure to switch off the power supply after you shut it down… otherwise there will be some power drain, even if you sudo shutdown the system (the display?). For example there was 0.944A power pulled after shutdown but with the power switch still on. Turning off the power switch it dropped to 0.813A.
Software
Simon’s project includes some good applications. I chose to vibe-cod my own text editor in python with Claude Code and Textual. Since it is Linux you can easily load in whatever editor you like or stick with the basics of nano/vi/emacs. Simon has some nice presets in his GitHub repo. Worth checking those out.
Data Storage
For now I am sticking with the SD card but having the data on a USB drive, or setup a script to rsync somewhere would be a more robust solution. Otherwise, when you enable WiFi it is easy to ssh / scp / ftp into the device to move files.
What Next
It has been a lot of fun building this and I learned more about keyboards, batteries, and displays than I expected. I like Simon’s idea of preloading virtual terminals with aps so you can quickly switch between one or two. Need to explore that.
Something missing in the whole package is a real time clock. If you leave WiFi connected this should not be a problem but if you really go off the grid with this you will want to add something to keep the time correctly.
Until the keys are more welcoming I do not see myself typing fast on them. I will keep at it but also look for alternative keycaps, maybe XDA or Cherry.
Maybe work more on my text editor, add a spell check / synonym lookup and explore better screen use like moving the screen display to one side or the other so there is room to attach post-it notes.
If I end up not writing much with this it can be a great place to load Frotz and explore interactive fiction or even a MUSH/MUD client. Or maybe setup some LD2450s on bluetooth so I can deploy a radar sensor array before writing so nobody sneaks up on me. Ha.
If anyone has any tips for optimizing their terminal / keyboard / deck please let me know.
References
- Writerdeck.org (with software and hardware for your writerdeck)
- Un Kyu Lee’s Micro Journal series (beautiful)
- Freewrite (other nice devices)
- Reddit group on writerdecks
- Learn all about batteries on adafruit.com
- Fun Aliens themed writerdeck
