[BlackBerry Priv] Debate_Haver57:
Gonna switch to a hackaday for this after this post, because it’s worth logging my research nobody else wastes time if they too understand the superiority of the portrait sliding form factor, but I’ve found another possible avenue.

BlakRPI 2K

Our on going project is willing to deliver a small linux Raspbian/Ubuntu based mini pc with a small mechanical keyboard, a 2K HDMI high resolution display avec a lipo battery. We think this could be a nice handheld device you can keep in your pocket (big pocket). The display is a LS055R1SX03 2K...

hackaday.io

The blakrpi 2k seems almost purpose built for this project. Now obviously it’s in a line which we don’t want, and unfortunately, with the way it’s put together, we’ve got the keyboard wired directly into the gpio, which is marvellous from a plug and play perspective, and terrible from an “I need my phone to SLIDE dammit” perspective.

The next option is the same people with the sharpikeebo. Bit more work, gpio port needs a little flattening for compactibility, but again, this solves the main issue with the design, that being either trying to stick an sbc on the back of a priv (while being unable to, or having a very difficult time using the hardware), or having to find a keyboard in the right form factor that I can build a device around from scratch.

So where I’m leaning rn, is keep most of the parts the same. Those are fine. Ultimately I’m building a pc that can make phone calls. But until someone chimes in with all the details from my original questions, I think it will be more feasible, and annoyingly, less wasteful, to just build the hardware myself.

Of course, the next challenge is sourcing a working sliding mechanism with support for a flat display (those extended edges on the priv upper frame make it basically non-viable). I could cannibalise a torch maybe, and I need to check the Xperia play and psp pocket dimensions (although I’m loathe to steal one from the emulation community), and I know that there are options out there for buying sliding mechanisms on their own.

For visualisation (we’re still very much blue sky in this phase), look up the sharpikeebo. Now imagine a screen that fully eclipses it (maybe with 1-2cm at the bottom, whatever keeps it 16:9). I’ll be minimising the bezel where I can, but effectively, I want to steal basically as much of the priv’s design as possible, and I am not a device manufacturer, so there’s gonna be a little of that fallout chunky tech about it, but hopefully, if I can raise the keyboard with plastic keys/a keymat, I should be able to minimise the pitch between the keyboard and screen sections, and then of course the rear is a free for all on what I’m gonna try to fit in (again, the keyboard on the sharpikeebo is usb, so I’m gonna save space that I would have used to add a breakout board on the priv, and I need to investigate the power circuitry, because I may well have reduced some of those needs).

The other thing I want to do is prototype in plastic, build in metal. I’m not actually 100% sure on how much that will cost to do, but it doesn’t hurt to email companies that do custom metal cutouts, and see if they’ll kill me for doing a 1 off, but it does mean that I’ll have a more solid phone once I’m done, that hopefully will have some of that blackberry appeal about it.

Anyways, I’m done. After this, any research I do is going on hackaday, where I’ll start to compile more concrete parts lists, and really cost this thing up, and see what my construction and software challenges are. I don’t have all the money I need just yet, and I’m allowing for a long research phase, so if it turns out cannibalising a priv is viable, and someone is able to answer me, fantastic, I’ll go that route. But for now, I’m going to research like it isn’t, because I think I’m at a dead end.