CMAKE Kasprzak 🎃🍁

Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud

Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!

Pshaw, Jar jar fans

the Castlevania 2 dialogue box, reading: IS NEXT THURSDAY A GOOD TIME FOR YOU TO HAVE A CURSE?

A death scythe, plus 2 other bootleg kits that looked cool, plus a box-less one with cat ears because lol (also the original box was a bit "salacious" for the shelf)

I've got a good backlog of kits as is (Chinese bootlegs I got for ~$10 each, plus another Gundam Wing model in a cupboard). Also I've been more into the electronics headspace as far as "hand crafted" things go, but wow! A local store with actual selection!! 😱

This was our (Fake London's) Canada Computers. Behind me were Star Wars and car model kits, and yeah, lots of other nerdy things

I've seen some odd all 3" Android phones on AliExpress/Temu

WTF! 😱

Local computer store has a MASSIVE wall of Gundam model kits for sale! 😳

Drawing...

Assuming we're talking photo-synthesizing, and not what plants do.

Dinner? Movie? Nah, here's an even more unforgettable first date idea.

Sorry baby I cant tonight im generating shaders

Again probably a better smart watch form factor, but it looks like a tiny cellphone to me

Colored epaper

Yes it has ears

4 inch hockey puck

There's admittedly a lot of crossover with smart watches, but I'd love to see impossibly small cellphone lookalikes, e-ink, and literal hockey pucks (Dragon Ball radar) you can carry and communicate with. 😋

Put another way, I think it would be cool if there was a common platform for low memory touchscreen modules with built-in radios (Bluetooth, WiFi, LoRa, LTE, GPS); AKA, DIY communicators. Like with Flipper Zero and Cardputer, but touch input.

Yep, though that's more narrowly focused or a facet of what I'm thinking. I'm pondering what standardized thing you could do to turn touchscreen modules into. Admittedly there's overlap with smart watches, but I'm more thinking of platforms like Cardputer or Flipper Zero, but for DIY touch modules.

I don't know for sure, but other WaveShare boards have pinouts for PSRAM on the backside. I'd hope tall-boy has one too

This RP2350 board with a 2.8 inch display has an easily accessible PSRAM connector

The beast, 4 inch hockey puck... I just wish it came in an RP2350 variant

I dig the idea of encouraging a higher spec (i.e. RP2350 as it has an SIMD FPU), or encouraging you to find the 8-pin PSRAM connector on certain boards, or simply adding it "mod chip style" with free-floating wires.

Or heck, be a freak that walks around with a 4" hockey puck communicator! 🏒✨

An example DIY board with optional PSRAM

Another board showing a PSRAM header on the rear of the board.

Neat loooong module

The rear of a more normal shaped 2.8 inch module with SD Card slot

Anyway, just pondering the sort of community you could foster with a communication software stack designed for bargain dev boards. A tiny multitasking OS/Kernal written in Rust, targeting device with 512K+ of RAM (or MB of PSRAM), 16MB of Flash (or SD Cards), touch screens, WiFi, BT, other radios. 🤔

My finger is nearly 50% the width of the device

To be frank, this size would be too small of a communicator for me, short of use for YES/NO/MAYBE questions. So as a pager-like device, or something iPod Shuffle like.

I just so happen to have one of these

Battery vs device size comparison

Rather thick together, but I see this as more a proof of concept to answer the question of "how small can it get". Also a cat

Cramming an LTE radio into an under 2" device is silly, but many micro devices will often include WiFi, Bluetooth, and/or LoRa radios, making them still suitable as communicators. These chips sip tiny amounts of power compared to a smartphone chip, so a 200MAh battery may do for pager-like uses.

This started as a joke, but there are SO MANY interesting tiny screen+microcontroller devices available powered by Raspberry Pi Pico's or ESP32 chips. Supporting everything is unrealistic, but the "higher spec" devices with touch, megabytes of RAM (PSRAM) and multiple cores have potential. EInk too!

No, but that's a valid point too: touchscreen eink.

I did, and didn't care for how bulky it was. That screen enclosure that doesn't even house the board is such a waste of space. 😋

My LCSC order took about a week for them to ship, all "in stock" items. Add to that the (hopefully) 1-2 weeks of travel time from China to Canada. Something for me to keep in mind in the future.

Also, spending $30+ nets you $4 off shipping ($12 otherwise).

Digikey/Mouser are definitely quicker. 😋

Great, it even has a PSRAM socket. 👍

Oh heck ya, massive 2.8" screen. Good choice.

Yeah, I'm only half joking. 😋

But ya, I've been looking at the smartwatch sized modules too, I'm just not sure 1.6" is enough for me. Also the product shots from this slightly larger one gave me smart phone vibes. Just needs an LTE radio and GPS to kit it out. 😋

Oh dear. I hope you feel less awful soon! 🫂

2" Raspberry Pi Pico 2 module and screen... Looks like a tiny smartphone

Anyone else think what they REALLY need is a 2" smartphone? 😅

I know 'eh? Lots of 320x240 displays as well, but that's even worse.

The solution used by several GameBoy IPS mods is a little gross IMO, but finding a cheap exact match seems unlikely. Settling for something close seems the most affordable option, just hopefully not this off. 😅

I'm too impressed by this extra-small nRF52840 module. It looks nearly half the height, though it's probably closer to 65%. It even has the LiPo battery charge pads on the back. Unfortunately it costs 3x the price of the regular module. 😑

Okay lol, the hardest part seems to be finding a viable screen. 😅