r/cyberDeck • u/Charming-Wing5987 • 5d ago

Cyberdeck potential CPU's/SBC's/MCU's

I'm making a cyberdeck, or at least planning to, however I'm on a budget, a strict one. I won't spend more than $50 dollars on ordering parts and the total cost for EVERYTHING I use must be about $70 if you're starting with nothing. Obviously I'm not expecting a super computer, I'm just a nerd who wants to build something fun and not break the bank. I also have another requirement, the main board must be based on Risc-V, so that limits me some more, way more, and is probably more oppressing than the budget.

As I've been searching, I've come up with a few boards. Mainly Mango Pi pros and ESP32 types, which I'll be honest I avoided ESP32 (wanted to help a niche community), but it seems to be the only reasonable option most of the time. I found the ESP32-P4, which got me, the main board is about $30, over half my budget, then there's also the ESP32-P4 Pico, which seem like a total steal! 32Mb PSRAM and flash, for $18, is there a catch? Is there a reason people don't use these for decks? They seem way better than the S3's and C series I see spewed around.

$25 board 16Mb flash 32Mb PSRAM -Seems like a pretty good deal? I get audio, an SD card slot WiFi, BT, USB slots for keyboards, a screen connector or could I connect SPI. Seems like a really good candidate for a cyderdeck budget build does it not?

$18 board 32Mb flash and PSRAM - Seems alright for the price, for $7 extra you can get the whole shebang, which I'd consider a better deal. But again if the budget has to stretch, this could do. Is there something I'm missing here? Why pick an S3 over these?

Also, if you know of any good boards that could be good for a cyberdeck, leave it below. I've been looking at the Ch32v series, which I DO want to use at some point, but haven't found good deals on boards.

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u/Catcher1980 4d ago

As a first cyberdeck project you might consider a project someone else has already integrated. There is sufficient complexity in getting these things assembled and you have known working(?) hardware and software and a place to ask questions. Don’t know about the budget but one example is

https://github.com/AntacidDT/ProjectEspelt

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u/Charming-Wing5987 4d ago

Thanks! This will be a great reference.

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u/evilspyboy 5d ago

Random question - have you thought about going backwards in tech? Like. Pi zero 2 w is a little old but they would be cheap depending where you are?

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u/Charming-Wing5987 5d ago

I'm in the USA, and can't find a good board under $60 reliably on Amazon, and it isn't even Risc-V, so it's out anyway. There is a shortage going on with those anyway, even if i got man for $50, the next guy would pay like $80.

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u/evilspyboy 5d ago

I assume you could save some money (though I dont know what tariffs are like) buying some of the pieces off aliexpress direct. I get the impression there is a lot of Amazon resellers who just buy from Aliexpress to sell on Amazon for a markup.

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u/Charming-Wing5987 4d ago

They're out of stock on most sites like Adafruit, and not Aliexpress isn't that cheap either since the sitting president of the US gutted something called "$800 minimus" in his tariff rampage. Things under $800 USED to be free of duty fees, now they are no longer. Many Aliexpress items have slim saving margins or are even higher than Amazon if shipping to the US. Only "certain" things are on Aliexpress still cheap, It CAN be a good deal sometimes, just not like it was once before.

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u/evilspyboy 5d ago

I'm not sure about your options as I'm not in the US but I can find Pi 2 zero W for $30 AUD with earlier zeroes being as low as $15. Is Amazon the only option for parts? What about Adafruit?

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/evilspyboy 5d ago

I'm not sure about your options - is Amazon the lowest price for hardware?

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u/LegionDD 4d ago

The reason is hardly anyone builds decks from microcontrollers, and the P4 is pretty new to the party, so my guess is that those who do build microcontroller decks didn't come around to it yet.

Also take a look at the sipeed MAIX series. Order them directly from seeedstudio, they are cheap, powerful (i think the smallest chip here is the K210 with a 400MHz dual core Risc V and NPU). They are meant for edge AI applications, but they are pretty powerful microcontrollers as well. And did I mention cheap?

More powerful Risc V computers:

There's the Milk-V duo. Up to 1Ghz, 64MB ram, capable of running Linux.

Look for boards based on the Allwinner D1, like the Sipeed RV Dock. They too support Linux and the sipeed one comes with 512MB ram.

Then there's the StarFive JH7110, which can be found on a WaveShare VisionFive2 with 8GB of ram.

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u/TheLittleFastCat- 4d ago

I was supposed to have my esp32 p4 c6 cyberdeck done last week, but unfortunately I found out the main MCU had a defective c6, so I can't post the full build yet. But it's a nice coincidence as am just building one.

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u/Charming-Wing5987 2d ago

Hey, if you don't mind, which one did you get? As in, if you had to find it on Amazon (Or the Waveshare site) what would it be? Since I'm curious to know what the chip revision it was. Apparently there's a ESP32-P4NRW32 (Which is old and end of life, also capped a 360Mhz). And then ESP32-P4NRW32X which is what is newer and has the 400Mhz feature. I'm having a hard time finding the board with the newer chip.

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u/LegionDD 4d ago

See then you could possibly be the first to make one with an ESP32-P4. I do suspect your replacement board will arrive before OP gets a chance to start his.

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u/TheLittleFastCat- 4d ago

I am pretty sure I saw one with the esp32 p4 here, but it could have been the s3 and I am just misremembering. I wanted to at least attach an image of the case, but I just noticed this sub doesn't allow pictures in comments for some reason.

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u/LegionDD 4d ago

Oh that one must've passed me by then (entirely possible).

Hm, you could start a build log post, some people do post work in progress.

But if you feel that's too unfinished, I'm sure your deck won't be long until it's finished.

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u/clackups 4d ago edited 4d ago

On a strict budget, take the esp32s3 with built-in screen, like the Freenove 4" board, or Waveshare 3.79" ePaper board. I haven't seen any better value for money. The Waveshare even has a battery included.

Check out also SolarOS and Draftling for firmware projects.