The engineers at Zepsch ran a crowdfunding campaign last year for PocketStar, a keychain sized retro gaming device built off of the Arduino platform. The group is now back with PocketScreen, a small form Arduino compatible multitool. PocketScreen is the subject of a Kickstarter funding campaign.
PocketScreen's best feature is the combination of microcontroller, color OLED screen, micro SD card reader, hotkey buttons, RGB status light, and charging module. The system takes the previous PocketStar and halves the footprint, only losing the vibration motor and three buttons. There are a few great photos on the campaign page showing all of the components that the PocketScreen can replace, and a breadboard full of wires and pieces that can be replaced by the 'star unit. The chip is a slim 22 x 25 x 5 millimeter footprint, comparable to a 50 cent euro piece when the chip is folded behind the screen.
The guts of the system is the ATSAMD21G18A microcontroller, able to display graphics at more than 30 frames per second. There's a great demonstration video on the page that shows a unit plugged into microUSB for power, and then loading and playing a video when the microSD card is inserted and a button is pressed. Five analog and five digital pins are available to bring extra functions to the PocketScreen. The campaign page has some nice suggestions for end uses, ranging from keychains to pocketwatches.
Even though my forty seven year old eyes can't always appreciate small screens, the maker community continues to enjoy smaller and smaller visuals. The PocketScreen is novel not just for its small footprint but also how many features it contains. The group maintains an active community and library of pre-programmed files on its website, and one plus of this product being so similar to the PocketStar is the compatibility of codes and functions. The campaign for PocketScreen is already successful and ends on June 18, 2019.