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Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

Would somebody please, please produce a very high quality, rugged, handheld radio case that can hold a raspberry pi zero and an RTL-SDR ?

So, not a computer, not a smartphone - a plain old motorola-esque handheld radio with physical buttons and a simple screen - but underneath, it's an extensible SDR platform.

Why doesn't this exist ?

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Rugged cases are extremely expensive and become affordable only through economics of scale that exceed an enthusiast project. You could pay for custom plastic molding and waterproofing if you wanted to, but the price would shock you. Look at how even projects as relatively large and established as Pine64 products are unable to get quality cases without becoming too expensive for what its community is willing to pay.

Okay, we'll need an rtl-sdr, a raspberry pi, a battery, a keypad, and a screen. We can 3d print a case, or put it in a project box. Both can be ruggedized later.

I found this for the keypad and screen: https://wiki.dfrobot.com/I_O_Expansion_HAT_for_Pi_zero_V1_0_...

There are separate options for keypad and screen, e.g eink and a number pad, but for a first pass this might be enough.

An rtl-sdr won't plug directly into a pi zero w, so we'll need an internal adapter. I know that HATs stack, so if there isn't a hard requirement for an rtl-sdr, we could find an sdr hat to put between the pi and the keypad.

Making the case is the “rest of the fucking owl”, like there hadn’t been a successful attempt at making silicone membrane keypads found on cheapest TV remotes in homebrew hardware scene.

There are some other outdoor keypad options - tv remotes, security gates, garage door openers, etc.

The case doesn't need to be special for a first pass. We just need enough of a fucking owl to decide what to do next.

https://i.imgur.com/KmaZLNy.jpg

Edit: my plan was to find a configuration of hardware that does what we want to do first. Next would be trying the new platform from a desk and, if that goes well, designing a case for the parts we selected. You can't really make a custom case without knowing what's going inside :)

Great idea about the eink display, any way to save battery power is good, plus, the readability of the eink displays is fantastic. Gotta have a robust water resistant keyboard though.

Maybe this helps https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/ljq262/epdiy_eink_pc_...

You can get a cheap Chinese radio and run OpenGD77 [1] on it. Not exactly Raspberry Pi with RTL-SDR, but still open source.

[1] https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/OpenGD77

Very interesting - thank you!

But that's not really a handheld radio; it's a scanner. An RTL-SDR doesn't transmit.

The most common usage of the term "handheld radio" refers to a receive-only device for the AM/FM bands, not a transceiver.

Case design and manufacturing is probably far more expensive than you think. Quality cases even more so. Rugged cases would probably astound you.

I'd love a device like this, but I don't think a raspi zero has enough processing power. My raspi 4 has a very hard time decoding P25 as it is, and that's with active cooling. Probably the best solution would be to offload the decoding to an FPGA, but that kind of blows up the whole "software defined" part.

Have you tried a hackrf portapack? It's an order of magnitude more expensive than a pi zero and an rtl-sdr, but it might be close to what you want.

You can always design one yourself. Analogue Devices offers many chips that are SDRs-on-a-wafer. The AD9361 is a particularly popular chip.

No, the innards already exist - a raspberry pi zero and a rtl-sdr.

I am suggesting a nicely made, high quality, plastic case - with buttons and screen - that has slots and mounting screws inside to insert a raspi zero and a USB dongle inside.

I quite like the standard handheld radio form factor - like this:

https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-rad...

... I just want a linux computer and an RTL-SDR inside ...

What people are trying to convey to you is your innate choices are very poor and recommending better picks. Not just for you, but for other readers who may try to follow in your (poorly thought out) steps.

Oh sorry, I misread.

Put together a team, design it, make some renderings and run a Crowd Funding Op, I'd consider contributing.

The most rugged handheld radio, for rock climbers, whitewater rafters, skiers: https://rockytalkie.com. Just no raspi. I just got a pair and they're incredibly well designed. The rubber case can be removed to make them even lighter. It comes with a full-strength rock climbing carabiner.

To be honest I've seen a lot radios a lot more rugged than that. Like what the military uses.

Our ham radios are generally only semi-rugged: Waterproof and can take a bit of a fall but nothing like what the military have. Of course those come with a weight penalty too.

related: https://m17project.org/

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