Finally finished the build I have been working on for the past two months. This is a fully self-contained field cyberdeck housed in a Pelican 1150 case, designed for portable operations in harsh environments.

Core Specifications

• Compute: Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) with active cooling via a custom copper heatsink and 30mm fan
• Display: 7" IPS primary display (1024x600) + 4.2" e-ink auxiliary bar for persistent status/info display
• Input: 40% ortholinear keyboard (custom PCB, Cherry MX Browns) with integrated trackball
• Power: Dual 21700 lithium cells (5000mAh each) with TP4056 charging board and MT3608 boost converter for stable 5V output
• Connectivity: Internal RTL-SDR dongle, WiFi antenna (RP-SMA), Bluetooth, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB-C, Ethernet passthrough
• Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD (USB 3.0 adapter) + 256GB microSD
• Case: Pelican 1150, pressure relief valve, custom laser-cut aluminum plates for mounting

Build Notes

The hardest part was fitting the dual 21700 cells alongside the Pi without creating a short risk. I designed custom battery sleds in Fusion 360 and 3D-printed them in PETG. The e-ink bar runs a lightweight script that cycles through system stats, weather, and PGP key fingerprint — all without waking the main display.

Full parts list and STL files are available on my GitHub. Ask questions below — happy to share more details on any part of the build.