Guru
Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 10968
| Posted: 12:43pm 01 May 2025 |
Is there really a big market for this sort of thing?
If there is why not do it properly?
Single board that can be fully built by JLC using my standard component blocks from various boards
RP2350, 16Mb Flash, 8Mb PSRAM
Battery backed RTC
I2S Audio with amp, speakers + headphone jack
Battery with onboard charging and use when external power connected.
16-bit parallel display so fast
Custom keyboard with 10x8 matrix scanned direct from the RP2350 so no tacky I2C faults
Case design for resin print by JLC or home print
Properly supported by standard MMBasic
Everything open source and no profit
The only bit that would require a bit of investment is the tooling for the keyboard. Looks like this would be about GBP1500 one-off for a similar keyboard to the PicoCalc and probably less for a membrane keyboard with click keys. The £1500 is a UK price I'm sure there are Chinese firms who could do this cheaper - haven't researched - and that would have to be amortised across a reasonable build volume - say 100
Interesting?