Attributable to their origins in William Gibson’s Sprawl universe, cyberdecks nearly at all times exhibit a cyberpunk aesthetic. As everyone knows, cyberpunk’s largest competitor within the cosplay group (of which cyberdecks are one thing of an extension) is steampunk. So whereas some might even see it as blasphemy or easy popular culture confusion, Alleycat’s steampunk-styled cyberdeck does make some sense.
For a strong decade, steampunk was the maker aesthetic of alternative. It has been largely supplanted by cyberpunk aesthetics, however steampunk will at all times have a spot in our hearts. Alleycat’s machine combines a lot of the performance and {hardware} conference from the cyberdeck motion with steampunk type. On this case, that type comes via within the type of brass panels and stained wooden accents. There may be even a leather-based deal with to finish the look.
On the {hardware} facet, this machine incorporates a single-board pc (SBC) as anticipated. However as an alternative of the everyday Raspberry Pi, it makes use of a LattePanda 2 Alpha 800s SBC. That LattePanda stands out as a result of it may run normal Home windows working techniques, versus Linux distros like most different SBCs. Alleycat has it working Home windows 10, although it may deal with different variations of Home windows.
The opposite standout function is the big E Ink display. That may be a 10.3” mannequin with a decision of 1872×1404 and a blazing 15Hz refresh charge. 15 refreshes a second is sluggish for LCD and OLED screens, however it is vitally quick for an e-ink display. That display and its HDMI interface permit for various show modes, together with dither, black and white, and grayscale. The refresh charge is even quick sufficient for gaming in DOSBox.
Alleycat selected to not incorporate a keyboard, as they use this cyberdeck for coding and like to reap the benefits of their Ergodox mechanical keyboard. Energy comes from a hefty 30,000mAh USB energy financial institution from Baseus. That energy financial institution has a nice-looking cost show, which is seen via a window in one of many cyberdeck’s brass panels. For storage, Alleycat added a 256GB M.2 SSD. They then wrote a customized Python script that shows a photograph of a cat on the E Ink display at shut down to shine issues off.
