H
aving long dreamt of owning a usable
Linux-based portable device, a group of
enthusiasts set out to create one and the
CutiePi tablet was born. Based around a Raspberry
Pi Compute Module 3+ Lite and custom carrier
board, it features an 8-inch touchscreen, typical
tablet features, and everything you need to make
your Raspberry Pi projects portable.
“We tried to make the CutiePi tablet on par with
normal tablets,” says project lead Penk Chan.
“You’ll nd a gyro, a microcontroller for battery
and button monitoring, WiFi/Bluetooth, and a
speaker. We also kept the camera connector and
made the remaining GPIO pins available, keeping it
hacking friendly.” This will enable it to be used as a
launchpad for users’ portable Raspberry Pi projects.
Making a portable device isn’t easy, though. “It’s
not just about the Li-Po battery nor the DC-DC
step-up converter,” says Penk. “Those features
that we take for granted in consumer electronics,
like using the device while it’s charging, reading
remaining battery level, or simply detecting a
power cable plug-in, are very hard to get right with
modules and kits, let alone having a user interface
that works. To top it all o, you need a case that
houses all the hardware parts and cables.”
Custom carrier
The rst CutiePi prototype was a cardboard box
which housed an o-the-shelf HDMI display, a
Raspberry Pi 3, and a power bank. For the second
one, they stripped everything from the Raspberry
Pi 3 board and soldered ex cables to replace the
bulky HDMI connector, with the electronics now
housed by a 3D-printed case.
While most hobby projects would have stopped
there, the team went on to create a third prototype,
based on a Compute Module 3+ Lite connected to
Want to liberate your projects from the desktop? This
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Phil King investigates
CutiePi
Anyone who wants to produce it, or even build on it to
make their next portable project, can freely do so
Penk
Chan
A digital nomad
wannabe from
Taiwan, currently
living in Tokyo
and working as a
principal software
engineer at The
Qt Company. He’s
leading a team
of open-source
enthusiasts to
make the CutiePi
tablet happen.
cutiepi.io
MAKER
their own custom-designed carrier board. “Using
the Compute Module allowed us to make the device
a lot thinner, explore other form factors other than
the regular Raspberry Pi 3’s, and probably most
important of all, it allowed us to mass-produce the
CutiePi tablet,” explains Penk.
Taking around three months to develop, the
CutiePi carrier board is based on the reference
designs made freely available by Raspberry Pi, and
the team have open-sourced their now OSHWA-
certied hardware: magpi.cc/CutiePiBoard. “At
the heart of this project is our love for open-
source, and CutiePi is our expression of that
aection,” says Penk. “All designs are available
under open-source licence, and anyone who
wants to produce it, or even build on it to make
their next portable project, can freely do so. In
fact, we advocate it.”
Multi-touch display
The CutiePi tablet features a 1280×800 MIPI-DSI
display, with a ve-point capacitive multi-touch
panel. The user interface is built on top of Raspbian,
and you can access the standard Raspberry Pi
Desktop via a toggle switch. “When you toggle on
over to our made-from-scratch, touch-friendly UI,
you will have access to the CutiePi shell, including
a WiFi settings manager, a Chromium-based
web browser that supports all the common touch
gestures, an on-screen keyboard with multiple
You’ll be able to
rotate the screen
to portrait mode,
for instance to use
it as an e-reader
CutiePi
20
magpi.cc
PROJECT SHOWCASE