Maker Creates Custom Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Tablet

Raspberry Pi
(Image credit: Ostahos)

Raspberry Pi tablet projects occasionally arise in the maker community—there are even third-party tablet kits like the Raspad from Sunfounder. But the biggest restriction in many Pi tablet creations seems to be size. Models with the USB stacks and Ethernet port are at a notable height disadvantage. That's where projects like this Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) powered project from Ostahos come in to fill the void!

Ostahos designed a custom PCB carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 with a tablet-sized form factor and touchscreen compatibility via the official Raspberry Pi touchscreen. It has HDMI support, two USB ports, GPIO access and is powered using USB Type-C input. It also has slots for the camera module and microSD cards.

According to the Ostahos, the CM4 PCB was designed and fabricated just for this project. KiCAD, an open-source PCB designer, was used to design the PCB layout.

There is no battery circuit in this edition but plans are already in place to include one in the next iteration. Ostahos also mentioned the possibility of adding a metal shield in the housing that touches the CPU for passive cooling.

You can check out the project thread on Reddit for more details. If you want to see more cool creations from the maker community, check out our list of Best Raspberry Pi Projects.

Ash Hill
Freelance News and Features Writer

Ash Hill is a Freelance News and Features Writer at Tom's Hardware US. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting.