Raspberry Pi Tablet

From Hill Country Makers Wiki

Why Make Your Own Tablet

As well as just to make something for the sake of making it, creating a custom-built tablet makes it possible to have a really clean operating system installation, without any of the "bloatware" typically installed by commercial manufacturers. Since the Android operating system for mobile devices is opensource, it is a good choice for this project.

Another advantage of a Raspberry Pi based tablet is that if you run low on data storage space, it is very easy to replace the SD card with a larger-capacity one instead of replacing the entire tablet. For that matter, it would not be difficult to replace the Raspberry Pi with a newer model and still keep the display, case and battery. So obsolescence can be postponed for a long time.

How to Make an Android-based Raspberry Pi Tablet

Link to Instructions

The tablet that Kat is working on is based on the instructions from the MakeUseOf website.

Parts List

The links to these parts point to some online stores, but they might be less expensive from other sources. As long as they meet the specifications, that is fine.
If you don't have a 3D printer, you can use a service to print the file from Thingiverse. There is a link on the page with the downloadable STL file, or try your local library or makerspace. They may have a printer and be willing to print it for you.

Android for Raspberry Pi

The main reason for using Android rather than one of the more frequently used Raspberry Pi operating systems, like Raspbian, is to have touchscreen capability. Also, Android is opensource so is free to install for personal use. This article describes how to install Android on a Raspberry Pi.

Raspbian Buster

The latest version of Raspbian operating system for Raspberry Pi available on the official website, nicknamed "Buster", includes touchscreen support, and it is also opensource, so I decided to use this instead of the Android version suggested in the article above. Raspbian is based on Debian Linux, and I am more familiar with developing in Linux than Android, so this was a natural choice now that all the capabilities I need are available in this distro.

Tools Required

  • Soldering iron and solder
  • Screwdrivers
  • Wire stripper/cutter
  • Hot glue gun

Our Experience

So far all the parts (except a case, which still needs to be 3D printed) have been assembled and are working. I still need to solder the wires from the Pi to the Power Booster, but everything else uses wires with pin connectors that don't require soldering.

When configuring the software I had some trouble creating an SSH connection from my Windows 10 Home machine, but once I figured out the security issues it worked fine. (I needed to turn on developer mode and enable the device portal, as well as install OpenSSH server on the Pi.) I wanted to use SSH because the wireless keyboard I have for the Pi is too tiny to do much typing. Now I can do whatever extensive data entry needs to be done from my laptop's command line window instead.

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