The Tanmatsu handheld terminal is a an upcoming gadget from Nicolai Electronics that’s designed for programmers, hackers, and makers. The open source handheld combines a display and physical keyboard with a RISC-V processor, support for wireless protocols including WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee and LoRA, and a hacker-friendly designed that’s meant to be modified thanks to several expansion ports.

It’s not yet available for purchase, but you can sign up at the Tanmatsu website to be notified when it launches.

The device features a “big” 800 x 480 pixel MIPI-DSI display, a 400 MHz ESP32-P4 dual-core microcontroller with 32MB of PSRAM, 16MB of flash storage, and an SD card reader.

Wireless capabilities are courtesy of an ESP32-C6 radio module (WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee), and an Ai-Thinker Ra-01S or Ra-01SH LoRa module for 433 MHz or 868/915 MHz networking, respectiely..

Other odds and ends include a Lithium polymer battery, headphone jack, and expansion ports on the front and back of the device – the expansion port on the back is designed to support upcoming “personality modules” that will expand the functionality of the Tanmatsu. Everything is held together with a 3D printed case. Since this is a niche device that will probably be manufactured in small batches and sold on hobbyist stores like Tindie and Lectronz, I wouldn’t expect a higher-quality mass-produced case anytime soon.

Since the hardware designs will be open source, anyone who wants to build their own instead of buying one should be able to do that… assuming they can source all of the appropriate components at reasonable prices.

In terms of software, the plan is to ship the handheld with open source “launcher firmware” that “allows starting user made applications” and “provides access to a marketplace for applications where developers can publish their creations.”

There’s no word on a price or release date yet.

via Rubenerd