The Split Deck Is a Dual-Screen, High-Spec Cyberdeck That Folds Up for Ease of Transportation
Built with a UDOO Bolt at its heart, and an upcycled PS/2 mouse as a trackball, this high-spec deck is a clever creation.
Pseudonymous maker "legion.ultimedia," hereafter simply "Legion," has put together a foldable cyberdeck packing a pair of screens and a powerful single-board computer plus a split keyboard packing two Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller boards: the Split Deck.
"[The Split Deck is] a dual-screen cyberdeck with split keyboard that is foldable for ease of transport," Legion explains of the 3D-printed build. "The Screens are 13.3" 2560×1440, the system is a UDOO Bolt (Ryzen 1605b, 8GB RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD), and the power supply is a USB-C PD [Power Delivery] enabled power bank (20V@3A out with 26Ah capacity)."
Built on that hardware, the dual-screen system has plenty of power — but it's the portability that impresses. Two 13.3" displays aren't that easy to handle, but a clever 3D-printed chassis brings them both in when not in use, folding with the screens facing inwards so as to protect against damage in transit.
The same applies to the keyboard, a custom split layout with Gateron Blue switches where each half is powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico as controller. A UART connection between the two halves allows them to communicate, while one Raspberry Pi Pico connects to the UDOO Bolt at the heart of the system via micro-USB cable.
One keyboard half also houses the pointing device, an upcycled optical mouse turned into a trackball. "I soldered the buttons and wheel on the opposite side of the PCB," Legion explains, [and am] using a steel ball suspended over the optical sensor as the trackball.
"The Arduino [compatible microcontroller] on board the UDOO Bolt reads it using the PS/2 protocol. While the system is still shut off, using the right mouse button on the trackball causes the system to power on."
The folding framework itself is built from 2020 Aluminum X profile bar and standard mounting hardware, with the casings 3D printed in PLA. A 60W USB Type-C powerbank provides the power through a bank of eight 2.7V 10F supercapacitors — a neat way to get around a short power cut when the Split Deck is connected to or disconnected from external power.
Full details of the build are available on Legion's Hackaday.io project page, along with downloadable STL files for the 3D-printed parts and a full components list.