This is a project that had been eating away at me for a bit, sitting in the back of my mind.

It's a computer that fit's perfectly underneath an Apple Magic Keyboard, and has a compartment to store peripherals like a dongle or small mouse. It has no display, instead opting for XR display glasses.

The internals are the main board, cooler, and battery from a Steam Deck OLED. I bought the parts separately rather than gutting a perfectly good one.

The link is to the CAD files. I decided to open source it as I explore building a better one.

Feel free to jump straight to that, here's the origin story for anyone interested:

I started using the XREAL glasses a few months ago. they're great, easily my favorite "XR" product. It's built around the one killer app of XR, a virtual display. shedding all non-essential hardware into a small, lightweight package.

but I hate the redundancy. Whatever device I'm using it with, the built in screen goes unused. In parallel, I've also found myself extremely disappointed in each product calling itself a "spatial computer" despite being nothing but an overweight iPad for your face.

I wanted a real computer designed to be used with these glasses, and in the smallest package I could possibly achieve.

So I grabbed an actual iPad, downloaded Shapr3D and got to work. My iteration process involved jumping back and forth between my iPad and a 3D printer. I went through roughly 15 failed iterations getting the screw mounts, airflow, and ergonomics just right.

The final result is what I believe to be a true spatial computer. I've been daily driving and I'm pretty happy with the experience. It's currently running Ubuntu 24, but I may switch back to Steam OS, given it's better optimized for the hardware.

I wonder if we're on the brink of a world where hardware development is as easy as software engineering. Projects like this make me think so.

This project mentions a Framework-based version as a future idea. A similar Framework 13 build popped up in r/framework a few months ago:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1jo7m8c/framewor...

Updated with a new mainboard from the Ryzen AI line:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/1kjknh4/vrxr_cyb...

GitHub repo with STLs and build details, with it running Linux and Stardust XR with non-spatial inputs on XREAL glasses:

- https://github.com/Pyro57000/fyer_deck

I was thinking of entirely removing the screen on my Framework, and using the Xreal Air instead. This is a really cool build, and it's inspired me to give the screenectomy a shot! I just hope I don't break anything.

That's really cool. I don't think you should support another keyboard, there may be better ones from a certain POV but I don't think there's a better one that's not significantly thicker and any keyboard options will quickly multiply complexity with any SBC/computing options. You will go down a rabbit hole if you start taking requests here. I think steamdeck internals plus rpi5 plus latest framework internals with no other configs is ambitious but not too ambitious.

My hobby is miniaturizing everything. If I were to fork this project (and I would love to after about 10 other projects are complete), I would think about selecting one good dongle, "shucking" it any other needed things, integrating them, and then finding the minimum volume to fit my preferred travel controller[1] and preferred travel mouse[2]. Then, I would consider customizing the housings of those things to be even slimmer without customizing any electronics except for maybe making sure everything gets charged while stowed. I would also consider minor mods to the keyboard to get rid of the bulk of the usbc cable. Pogo pins plus some 3D printing should do the trick.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55DO1HDeCHQ. No longer available new but this is the only good slim dual analog controller I have found.

[2]Still looking for a good one

> Primarily out of frustration. The dominant players in XR keep promoting their hardware as “computers”, when really they’re an iPad for your face. The most you can do is browse the web, play games, and consume content. They’re overweight and over constrained.

I'm a fan of HMD programming in general so I love this project. But it should be noted that AOSP-based XR headsets can run pseudo Linux environments via termux + X: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/fc5sfr/oculus_qu...

Also if anyone is looking for a full-sized portable keyboard, I suggest https://www.protoarc.com/products/xk01-tri-fold-bluetooth-ke... which is my primary keyboard when I'm working remotely on my tablet. It is "pocket-sized" for certain definitions of "pocket".

very cool project

not long ago there was a post by a user also using glasses -- 85% sure they're the same ones -- but the goal was to replace a laptop display a fuller size one. I like that this project replaces the laptop with a SBC. I spent a decade and a half wishing that SBC would be a Raspberry Pi but ... welp, better late than never

I’ve been hoping to see PCs in a proper cyberdeck form factor for years now, so it’s great to see them start to emerge. One thing I would suggest that creators consider is building in a smartphone or small-tablet capacitive-touch display to the right (or left) of the keyboard. That could serve as a trackpad while in VR/AR while out of VR it could act as a notification screen, a pinch monitor if the HMD is not working or not available, and so on.

beautiful <3

This is a super awesome project. Truly the best of all worlds. A real keyboard, a beefy enough compute, an xr glass that has constant use case.

How is the Xreal One Pro for extended use? My concern is I have to put up with low res screen as I code away.

This just makes me wonder what you can do with that GPU that's not gaming. Perhaps TinyLlama but is it good enough to be useful?

Oh good. Another thing named “Bento”.

Oh I posted this yesterday too

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44309248

Why did Valve not do this, or something similar with just the Deck MB in a box with USB-C?

What AR glasses are currently the best? Asking for a friend.

> Raspberry Pi 5 variant: this is crucial, but I can’t find a good battery solution (i.e. a HAT of some kind.)

Check out the PiJuice HAT. It works great as a UPS for all RPi models.

Sometimes people break their MacBook screens, and people sometimes turn them into "headless MacBooks". I've been wanting to get my hand on a cheap "headless MacBook" and add XREAL glasses to it!

The coming of AR glasses has finally opened the market for "cyberdecks". I don't think they will be massively popular, but there is definitely an audience among geeks who travel a lot. I would totally buy one to pair with my XREAL One glasses.

The problem will be finding the right scale. LingLong had a crack with a limited kickstarter run, but they don't seem interested in following up with sustained mass-production.

"Apple Magic Keyboard" - what is the key travel for this keyboard? It looks rather suspicious.

This is what I imagined computers would look like in the distant 2020s, as a kid!

That's an awfully big Raspberry Pi kit you've made there. /s

Seriously, though, this is amazing work. Well done!

All this effort wasted on using a really bad keyboard as a base.

This is super nice as it's a native unencumbered linux environment.

I recently blogged about trying to do web development on the Quest 3, and although it kind of works, it's way more hacky (and performance is still lacking). The nice thing however about the Quest, is still being able to leverage virtual window placement in the space around you vs. the fixed 2d monitor approach here.

https://benkaiser.dev/web-development-in-vr/

why not use a Trackpad 2 keyboard with the mouse nubbin?

This README is dozens of megabytes. Can't load it on my phone at all.