RASPAD 3 Raspberry Pi tablet

Raspberry Pi tablets are the holy grail of single-board computing. Christian Cawley builds his own using a RasPad 3 kit.

- Christian Cawley

Portability and immediacy are missing from the Raspberry Pi by default. It’s hardly a surprise, though: the barebones nature of the Raspberry Pi package underlines its versatility. A common way to overcome both problems is to convert the Pi into a tablet. Various solutions have been developed for this, but Sunfounder’s RasPad kit is leading the field.

New in 2020 is the RasPad 3 kit, which has been designed specifically for the Raspberry Pi 4 (priced $213, see www.raspad.com/products/raspadv3). You’ll also need a 16GB or larger microSD card, and an adaptor for installing the operating system. The potential to have an 8GB Linux powered tablet is in your hands – if you can handle the straightforward assembly, that is. But we think you’re more than up to the task.

Open the box!

The efficiently packed kit features one standard USB cable, one Ethernet cable, two micro HDMI cables, and a USB Type-C cable. Ranging from four to eight inches in length, these connect the ports on the Raspberry Pi to the expansion boards mounted around the peripheral of the RasPad case.

One such board is a microSD card extension, which is included along with an FFC ribbon cable. An Accel SHIM is included to control screen rotation. A built-in battery is also included, together with a power cable and adapter.

To keep your Raspberry Pi cool, the kit includes three heatsinks and a fan. Also included are four M2.5x9 millimeter screws for mounting the fan, and nine M2.5x4 millimeter screws for securing Pi and the case There’s also a screwdriver in the box.