I get the same set of questions about Decker… a lot. Frequently, even.
So let’s just knock them all out here:
Why?
I’ve wanted a head-mounted computer since I was just a wee nerdlet. I thought it was cool and have pursued making one off and on for years. Unfortunately, I’m really not much of an electronics guy, so for most of that time I would run up against the necessity of soldering a video input board from a VCR onto a display unit from a camcorder and decide it just wasn’t worth it.
What do you see?
This:
Across the top is the daily weather forecast (single char day + single char forecast value); the current time / date; the current temp (F); and finally the hourly weather forecast for the next 8 hours.
Down the left side we have gauges for Memory and CPU Utilization to help me keep an eye on whether anything has gone horribly wrong with the software.
And in the middle is the primary console view. It’s an interactive shell where I’m able to run and interact with standard console application. In the screenshot it’s displaying Vim output. Typically, I’m running TodoR, my Todo-List/Calendar application that gives me a display of the upcoming meetings / todo-list items I need to complete.
All of these widgets are independent console programs whose output I compose through Decker. I’ll write more about Decker in another post. It turns out that wrangling stdin/stdout is a lot more complicated than it seems.
How did you build it / How much did it cost?
I’m definitely a software guy, so there’s literally only two little dots of solder in there. Anyone with a few dollars to burn and some time to spend can build themselves one of these.
Here’s my Bill of Materials. All in, this was around $300. Most of that was the Vufine display at $199.
Also, none of these are affiliate links. Buy stuff or don’t.
- Raspberry Pi Zero W
- Vufine+ Display
- USB Power Bank
- Bluetooth keyboard
- HDMI Ribbon Cable (HDMI D to C Male/Male cable)
- USB Micro charge headers
- You’ll want a USB Micro cover/case(?) for these to keep the solder joints covered, but I couldn’t find one while prepping this post
- USB Micro to USB A charge cable
- Wires with Dupont jumpers
- Micro USB Hub
- You don’t technically have to have this this, but it makes debugging network issues much easier.
Are you going to Patent this?!?
No. Definitely no. For one thing, I’m not interested in starting a business around Decker. That’s a lot of work and I don’t think the market is there for terminal-based wearable tech.
Secondly… This is far from a new idea. People have been strapping battery-powered displays and computers to their bodies since the 80s.
FAQ Over
Phew. That’s always a mouthful. Especially trying to rattle off all those Alibaba urls.