I was contacted by South Africa-based Ian Harrison who, together with his team, is doing a crowdfunding campaign to fund the PiKasa. The PiKasa is a housing for the Raspberry Pi with an integrated 800×480 screen, a splash-proof keyboard, a 5-port USB hub and amplifier/speaker. It looks rather neat – a bit retro with those keys, quite stylish with the curved edges and all self-contained and child-friendly. It’ll be interesting to see if their campaign, which is on IndieGoGo, goes well. It’s clearly something they’ve put a lot of thought into and I can see this being used quite happily for learning and programming. Take a look at the IndieGoGo campaign here or view the video below.
Hi Mike – Hope you are good I would be interested to see some of your play scripts…
I was looking for an integrated fold up screen and keyboard + mouse. The Pi Kasa seems rather to defeat the Pi ethos as you can’t get at the 40 pin GPIO by the look of it. Is there another option which still allows you to get at the board to use the sense hat or my Q-bit?
Thanks
Hi Peter,
I think your best bet is the Pi Top (http://www.pi-top.com/). It’s first batch has shipped and they’re expecting the next lot in December, according to their pre-order site. The whole Pi is accessible behind the perspex slide-out board along the top of the keyboard. I’ve seen the 3D-printed prototypes and they’re very impressive and flexible enough for you to use the GPIO easily. They’re not cheap.
The only other alternative is something like an HDMIPi (which you can get from Rapid Electronics http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/HDMIPi-9-LCD-Screen-for-Raspberry-Pi-Model-B-Pi-2-1280×800-73-6022) which has the Pi built-in on the back and then get one of those tablet covers with a USB plug-in or bluetooth keyboard and fold it up in that. I’ve done that and it’s a pretty good solution if you don’t mind it looking a bit DIY-ish. 🙂
—
Mike