TypingCat's 3D-Printable PDA-Like Chassis Turns a Smartphone and Keyboard Into a "Pocket Cyberdeck"
A Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone gets an HP Jornada-inspired makeover thanks to a three-part 3D-printed chassis add-on.
Pseudonymous maker "TypingCat" has designed a 3D-printable chassis that turns a low-cost Bluetooth keyboard and a Google Pixel 6 Pro phone into a clamshell "pocket cyberdeck" for on-the-go coding and more.
"This is a chassis designed to join a portable Bluetooth keyboard with my Pixel 6 Pro to make a sleek pocket 'cyberdeck,'" TypingCat explains of the creation, which is being made available for anyone to print, "similar to the [Hewlett-Packard] Jornada 720 of old, but much more capable!"
Inspired by the aforementioned HP Jornada and other clamshell-style personal digital assistants of years gone by, the unnamed gadget designed by TypingCat uses just two off-the-shelf parts: a Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone and a "Kenkor"-branded Bluetooth keyboard, attached together using a three-part hinged chassis.
"You will need to remove the attached faux leather cover from the keyboard," TypingCat explains. "You can cut it off with a hobby knife, or heat up the glue and peel it off (I used my 3D printer's bed to do this). I am not responsible for voided warranties!"
The 3D-printable chassis' STLs have been made available on Thingiverse under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license; the top part of the shell is itself a derivative of another designer's work, licensed separately as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0.
