ClockworkPi DevTerm

Preamble

I think it was a quite successful crowdfunding project that grew up quite nicely (website).

Got it on a whim several years ago looking for a toy to play with; now this computer helped me big time on several occasions.

Hardware

Modular and extendable design, period. The initial thing is essentially a DIY kit that you have to assembe by hand (felt like building gunpla again to be honest, very cool). It supports external modules, though I only have only one - small thermal printer.

The best part is replaceable core; the design itself is open and there are several SODIMM modules that you can put inside that work. So far I got:

• original RPI-CM3+ module. As the name suggests it is basically a Raspberry Pi 3 in sodimm form-factor. Has the best battery life in my experience, “the boring one” as I call it because it just works despite being somewhat outdated arm32.
• risc-v core (R-01). it is based on Allwinner D1 SoC which I’m not the biggest fan of because it somewhat lacks in standard implementation and as a result some software just doesn’t work there (clang being a notable example); but in general it is a cheap and fun to play with.
• rk3399 core(R-06). It has whopping 4 gigabytes of ram and quite a beefy CPU, so it takes a noticeable toll on battery life.

Oh and the batteries being proper ’exposed’ 18650 cells in the design decision all the laptop makers should abide to, imho.

Another thing Devterm has is extensions/expansions support. Though there is only one addon I saw so far, it is quite a thing: small thermal printer!

Software

‘Stock’ OS images are based on Debian usually with LXDE for desktop environment. ‘Beefy’ modules’ images have XFCE by default, but it is all possible to change to ones tastes.

Photos