Mecha Comet is a modular, handheld Linux computer with snap-on extensions

This isn’t a cellphone. The Comet by Mecha Programs is a modular, Linux-based handheld pc constructed for hobbyists, engineers, college students, artists and roboticists of every kind. The Comet is a chunky palm-sized system, and it has a 1.8 GHz ARM64 Quad-core processor, 4 GB of reminiscence and 32 GB of on-board storage, although this area is expandable. Many of the Comet’s options are customizable, the truth is.

The Comet’s magnetic snap interface permits customers to clip on a wide range of management panels, known as extensions, reworking the hand held into no matter system you want. For now, Mecha provides three commonplace extensions: a gamepad with a soft-press D-pad and 4 enter buttons, a GPIO panel with entry to 40 pins, and a keyboard with ABS keys.

The entire thing runs on Mechanix OS, a customized Debian-based Linux distro, and its graphical person interface is powered by Mecha’s open-source Mechanix Shell, “making it among the many few small-screen contact interfaces out there right this moment for Linux,” in accordance with builders. The Comet’s display is an IPS LED show with capacitive contact and it is 3.4 inches on the diagonal. The hand-held has a 5MP digicam with auto focus, a mic, speaker, two USB-A ports and an ethernet port, plus Bluetooth 5.0 and a couple of.4 GHz wi-fi slash 5 GHz 802.11ac capabilities.

The Comet can take any Raspberry Pi-based HAT and any mikroBUS Click on board. It is designed for individuals to play with each half, particularly its internals. The again of the Comet pops off for straightforward tinkering and there is even an Allen wrench embedded within the system to encourage exploration. The display additionally comes off with a couple of fast screw turns — principally, for those who see one thing on or contained in the Comet, it is customizable. All of its housing components and extensions can be found as 3D-printable information.

“Comet was constructed over the previous 3 years with a imaginative and prescient to create a flexible computing platform for constructing within the real-world,” Mecha Programs mentioned on its web site. “Our target market contains college students, hobbyists, creatives and engineers.”

At CES 2025, Mecha Programs builders demonstrated a handful of apps operating on the Comet, together with a Chrome browser, notes web page and digicam reel, and so they additionally confirmed off a video of the hand held getting used to energy a little bit wheeled robotic, which was very cute. Different potential makes use of embody a drone launcher or distant, automotive communicator, nano satellite tv for pc, AI assistant or long-range radio transceiver, however these are simply the concepts that Mecha has offered up. The actually sudden improvements ought to come from customers themselves.

The Comet is coming to Kickstarter any second now.