Got a spare weekend and a Raspberry Pi gathering dust? Maker chrisicksix's cyberdeck is the kind of build you start on a Saturday morning and end up playing music on by Sunday night. It crams a full portable studio into a chunky handheld shell, and there are two build paths depending on how brave you feel with a soldering iron.
What's inside the deck
At its heart sits a Raspberry Pi 4 handling the Linux side, paired with a Teensy 4.1 running the M8 headless tracker firmware. That combo turns the deck into a standalone groovebox — no laptop required. An 800x480 Waveshare DSI display shows the tracker interface, a 10,000mAh cell keeps it alive away from the wall, and a Rii Mini X1 keyboard handles input. The clever twist: the QWERTY rows double as piano keys, so you can tap out melodies without any extra hardware. Everything tucks into a printed enclosure that keeps the screen, battery, and boards in one pocketable package.
Parts and cost reality
None of this is exotic, which is what makes it a realistic weekend target. Here's the core shopping list:
