[HN Gopher] Show HN: Slime OS - An open-source app launcher for ...
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       Show HN: Slime OS - An open-source app launcher for RP2040 based
       devices
        
       Author : abeisgreat
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2025-02-21 20:22 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | wayvey wrote:
       | I just watched the authors video on the cyberdeck they made.
       | Impressive project!
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/rnwPmoWMGqk?si=pD3z4mPFuYq61ROq
        
       | abeisgreat wrote:
       | Hey all - this is the software part of my cyberdeck, called the
       | Slimedeck Zero.
       | 
       | The Slimedeck Zero is based around this somewhat esoteric device
       | called the PicoVision which is a super cool RP2040 (Raspberry Pi
       | Pico) based device. It outputs relatively high-res video over
       | HDMI while still being super fast to boot with low power
       | consumption.
       | 
       | The PicoVision actually uses two RP2040 - one as a CPU and one as
       | a GPU. This gives the CPU plenty of cycles to run bigger apps
       | (and a heavy python stack) and lets the GPU handle some of the
       | rendering and the complex timing HDMI requires. You can do this
       | same thing on a single RP2040, but we get a lot of extra headroom
       | with this double setup.
       | 
       | The other unique thing about the PicoVision is it has a physical
       | double-buffer - two PSRAM chips which you manually swap between
       | the CPU and GPU. This removes any possibility of screen tearing
       | since you always know the buffer your CPU is writing to is not
       | being used to generate the on-screen image.
       | 
       | For my cyberdeck, I took a PicoVision, hacked a QWERTY keyboard
       | from a smart TV remote, added an expansion port, and hooked it
       | all up to a big 5" 800x480 screen (interlaced up from 400x240
       | internal resolution).
       | 
       | I did a whole Slimedeck Zero build video (
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwPmoWMGqk ) over on my channel
       | but I really hope Slime OS can have a life of it's own and fit
       | onto multiple form-factors with an ecosystem of apps.
       | 
       | I've tried to make it easy and fun to write apps for. There's
       | still a lot broken / missing / tbd but it's enough of a base
       | that, personally, it already sparks that "programming is fun
       | again" vibe so hopefully some other folks can enjoy it!
       | 
       | Right now it only runs on the PicoVision but there's no reason it
       | couldn't run on RP2350s or other hardware - but for now I'm more
       | interested in adding more input types (we're limited to the i2c
       | TV remote keyboard I hacked together) and fleshing out the
       | internal APIs so they're stable enough to make apps for it!
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-21 23:00 UTC)