The HackberryPi CM5 handheld computer

Posted by kristianpaul 9/8/2025

The HackberryPi CM5 handheld computer(github.com)

257 points | 92 comments

summermusic 9/10/2025|

> There are dual speakers on board, it is needed to pair with the bluetooth audio module to make sound

This is cursed

monocasa 9/10/2025||

For real. For the kind of sound I'd expect out of this, the pwm channels on the rpi work just fine. If you want better sound, the rpi supports i2s.

bangaladore 9/10/2025|||

> As we know, it's always been somehow difficult or tricky to add sound for RaspberryPi. Some use gpio to generate pwm to make sound for speakers, some use I2S audio module to generate sound for speakers. But they all have some shortcomings. PWM generated from gpios on raspberryPi have much noise that make the speakers nealy usable, and I2S audio module will occupy the very precious gpio resoureces(usually take 3 gpio pins). And in some operating system there is no driver for these pwm or I2S audio module. Due to the reasons above this is how I solve the sound problem. [1]

[1] https://github.com/ZitaoTech/HackberryPiCM5/tree/main/Speake...

monocasa 9/11/2025|||

Ok, digging into the schematic, I think I see the problem.

Almost all of the normally free GPIO is eaten up by a DPI (Display Parallel Interface) connection to the screen.

The screen should instead use the currently unused MIPI pins if you're already at the level of sophistication of laying out PCIe and USB3 traces.

That gives you back nearly all of your GPIO to use for stuff like I2S, and you can then even expose more non USB externally than just that one stemma port.

On top of that, for a project like this, I would disagree with the quality you get out of the pwm as audio thing. It's not audiophile by any means, but neither is some cheap Bluetooth receiver chip, and it's certainly good enough for the speakers that weren't designed for this case.

nicman23 9/11/2025|||

still just use a inexpensive usb to 3.5?

bangaladore 9/11/2025||

Far more complex because then you'd have to have a USB 3.X hub/switch IC on board unless you want to consume a USB interface. And USB hub/switches are notoriously not the greatest.

I'm not saying I like Bluetooth, but the justification isn't that bad.

OhMeadhbh 9/10/2025||||

The design artifacts are released with a liberal license, it shouldn't be TOO hard to fix that. Though I've never worked with SPI or I2S sound chips before.

guywhocodes 9/11/2025|||

When I've used i2s it has required setting spi clocks that made my spi devices not function. While it does have all of these IO buses, using more than one at a time is a bit of tetris. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some hardware constraint making i2s impossible.

nine_k 9/11/2025|||

I'd say the opposite. There's one interface, BT; pair your headphones, pair the internal speakers, there can't be a conflict, nor two places to look at.

hildolfr 9/11/2025||

It's a wireless device that is burning battery making negotiations with itself and wasting precious bt bandwidth in the process, and since most of Linux Bluetooth stack is user space stuff provided by the wm/de managers it guarantees no console sound compatibility without another layer of work. I think I could live without a pre console system beep but the other issues are pretty major oversights.

leshokunin 9/11/2025||

Be grateful the keyboard doesn’t require pairing hahaha

jeswin 9/11/2025||

Iirc, CM5 cannot really deep sleep like phones or tablets do (at milli watts). Meaning you can't really use it for anything really portable - and that's a huge problem. I think RK3588 does, and it's a big win.

Edit: Sorry I meant deep sleep, not idle. Corrected.

lelanthran 9/11/2025||

> I think RK3588 does, and it's a big win.

I'll put that down as a TIL :-)

I'm really wanting a clamshell-like device with console controls in addition to the qwerty keyboard, with a large 7" screen (even if resolution is lower than 1920x768) based on the RK3588.

I want what the Pandora/GP2X could have been: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(computer) but with a larger screen and a more easily acquired SoC. Using replaceable 18650s (and charging via USB-C) is on my requirements as well.

I want to play games, basically, but set up my own linux distro for it, complete with mame and some ROMs.

If it can do games other than mame, then so much the better!

Anyone have any ideas?

aa-jv 9/11/2025|||

ClockworkPi's uConsole comes pretty close:

https://www.clockworkpi.com/uconsole

I have a couple of these - they work great for dev systems and its occasionally fun to load up PICO8 and have a bit of a bash..

I also have a couple of OpenPandora's but I stopped using them when I got a Steam Deck.

jeswin 9/11/2025||||

I suppose you can DIY this with the RK3588 - but I haven't used it myself.

I had previously experimented with the CM5, and found out that you can't really use it for anything portable without attaching a heavy battery. With its excellent software stack, CM5 could have been everywhere if they had gotten this right.

awjlogan 9/11/2025|||

The Raspberry Pi SoCs optimised for cost rather than power consumption (or maximum performance). This is an engineering trade off, not a criticism. More power partitioning requires more area, more complexity in design and verification, and more expensive external components to support the internal voltage domains.

Another comment mentions the RP2xxx microcontrollers. If you look at those, they are optimised for compute power and data throughput rather than low power operation. I think it's a reasonable choice - the Pico boards are pretty sturdy and the original target is people running MicroPython, Arduino, etc rather than looking for µA standby currents.

Ciantic 9/11/2025|||

It seems to be a really hard problem. Deep sleep even with Raspberry Pi Zero and Pico product lines has been problematic. I hoped they would make Pico 2 deep sleep better, but it still needs external deep sleep RTC like DS3231 to make it truly useful.

rbanffy 9/11/2025|||

I miss netbooks as well.

nylonstrung 9/11/2025||

These projects are cool but there is no reason for them not to be using RK3588

Besides brand awareness what could justify foregoing mainline Linux kernel and superior performance

RK3688 looks incredible based on leaks and could make the CM5 form factor practical instead of the novelty it is now

int_19h 9/10/2025||

If you don't specifically want the Blackberry keyboard, there's also https://www.clockworkpi.com/home-uconsole

axegon_ 9/11/2025||

The waiting time is horrendous though. Mine arrived 8 months after I purchased it but beyond that, those are absolutely great. I stopped carrying a laptop in my backpack, just one of those with an additional expansion board and an HDMI port. My work involves a ton of data which I can't fit into memory so in all cases, my computer is just a terminal to a large server somewhere. So Clockwork ticks all the boxes for me. The one thing I wish they had thought about is an easy access to the CM and be able to swap them for different use cases: when I want to preserve battery and speed is not a big deal - cm5. When I want some additional power - pull out the cm4 and toss in a 5 instead.

tartoran 9/11/2025||

I wish there was access to swap the batteries without having to unscrew the back plate. I got mine after the long waiting period and was initially excited but eventually it became a dust collector as I don't have a usecase for it. It is also quite heavy to lug around in a pocket or something like that.

axegon_ 9/15/2025||

Tbh I never thought of that but yeah, it would be nice. Hypothetically if you have a 3d printer, you can modify this guy's designs and add a removable battery cover: https://github.com/strtfnst/uConsole-Parts

Personally I got the lora-gps-wifi-sdr expansion board and I found that he had a design to cover the otherwise exposed top of the port, I modified it a bit so that I have direct access to the power button(his covers the power indicator, which I hate) and trimmed it off a bit cause it was too bulky for my likings.

That said, you have a point. The reason why I've got a rpi4 as opposed to 5 is partially because of the thermals but also partially because of the battery life. You know what, I might actually work on that when I have some time to spare.

LeoPanthera 9/11/2025|||

I have one of these. It's so pretty. But the keyboard is borderline unusuable. It's a lot smaller than it looks, the keys are tiny, and have no feedback whatsoever. They're just squashy rubber. Like the ZX Spectrum, but a quarter the size.

Awful.

alias_neo 9/11/2025||

I had waited forever for this to stop being a pre-order, like literal years, and by the time I gave up, I'd come to the conclusion that the keyboard layout would just be a nightmare and I wouldn't use it, think I made the right decision, even if I do look at it occasionally and think it looks like a really nice cyberdeck.

I've got big hands and I think the allure of pocketable full-keyboard devices is just not for me.

bullen 9/10/2025||

This also supports Radxa CM5 which is twice as powerful/watt as the Raspberry CM5.

Though you'll need USB hub for internet (WiFi/Eth adapter) and audio.

Also shipping takes a few months, which is kinda scary when you don't know the tariffs that far in advance.

sharedptr 9/11/2025||

This sounds like another device that will end up in a drawer, as an experiment it looks good but not sure what you are going to do on a 4" inch display that cannot idle at low milliwatts

Cthulhu_ 9/11/2025||

Yeah that's a problem, I "want" a lot of tech too but I also know I would never use it on the regular. Gadgets are cool, but it's more of a "I want to have it" than a "I really need to use it". Same with e.g. the Flipper Zero, it's a cool device but other than some fiddling I'd never use it.

I have a bunch of Raspberry Pi's in a drawer, lol. Although I did pull one out the other day to set up a PiHole.

esskay 9/11/2025||

Seems to be the case with most of the Pi projects left these days. It's turned into a bit of a "oh cool, thats neat" thing that nobody is practically using day to day as there's better alternatives that are cheaper and/or better.

jazzyjackson 9/10/2025||

An interesting alternative to the SQFMI Beepy / Beepberry [0][1] which is just a rpi zero but has a Sharp Memory Pixel display that I love. Both could use some work on adapting the UI to the little blackberry touchpad. Neither using a mouse cursor nor meta/ctrl modifier combos are very ergonomic on these little handhelds.

[0] https://beepy.sqfmi.com/

[1] https://blog.beeper.com/2023/05/16/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry/

crumpled 9/10/2025||

I've been playing with the Beepy. So much potential, but the community around it never sprung up, and the developer has moved on.

For me it was a cool little terminal that mostly didn't work outside my usual hotspot. Managing WiFi on a Pi from the terminal is no fun.

jkingsman 9/10/2025||

That's adorable, but the censored/pixelated keyboard is a little offputting. Am I guessing right that they're using Blackberry overstock and censoring trademarks?

jsheard 9/10/2025|||

Yeah, it was also rebranded from "Beepberry" to "Beepy" because RIMs lawyers had nothing better to do than rush to the defence of a long-dead brand apparently.

extraduder_ire 9/10/2025||

The company is just called Blackberry now. They rebranded sometime around 2013.

jazzyjackson 9/10/2025||||

Oh LOL I didn't even notice that on the first link, yeah I guess they're just obscuring it for the logo. IRL it is a non pixelated keyboard xD

FWIW the project hit a wall and they didn't deliver the quantity they planned on, I ended up buying one on ebay for an extortionate cost (but buying rare electronics scratches an itch for me) - digging in the discords lead to discover an offshoot project that made some progress at a recent chaos comms congress, called Beepis

https://bbkb-community.github.io/computers/beepis/

eichin 9/10/2025||

Oh, not that CM5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine

kkkqkqkqkqlqlql 9/11/2025|

Isn't a phone more powerful these days?

eichin 9/11/2025||

Than 1024 SPARC cores? ... actually, looks like phones beat the 130 GFLOPS score mentioned on wikipedia at least 5 years back, so it looks like yeah, even if your problem is widely parallel a modern high end phone will still do better. Woah.

zekrioca 9/10/2025||

Would ge possible to install a small Clipper LTE 4G Breakout (SP/CE) into this design? For instance, there is this one which seem small enough to fit in the case (if adaptions): https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/clipper-breakout?variant=...

abawany 9/10/2025||

I got the Hackberry Pi Zero from Elecrow recently and it has been excellent for playing around. I really miss real keyboards on mobile devices and it has been fulfilling to use it.

elwebmaster 9/10/2025|

Same. The zero has only 512MB RAM so I started projects to rebuild the original BB OS for this while also adding Xpra to stream a browser running on a remote server (they all require 1GB+). Then priorities hit and I have not been back on this project since.

Beijinger 9/11/2025||

I always wanted to buy this. Now sold out: https://lilygo.cc/products/t-keyboard

lawlessone 9/10/2025|

This is the future i wanted in the 90s.

I like it.

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