Kickstarter project makes 9-inch Raspberry Pi monitor a reality

Potential Pi monitor
It's monitoring the situation

A Kickstarter project aiming to bring a 9-inch portable display to the Raspberry Pi has secured 928 backers and raised £82,100 ($131,000, or AU$138,000) since launching on October 31.

Started by Alex Eames of RasPi.TV and Dave Mellor from Cyntech, the campaign has already surpassed the £55,000 goal ($87,000, or AU$92,000) needed to bulk order 1,000 screens, HDMI drivers and cases.

Dubbed the "HDMIPi", the display takes advantage of the Raspberry Pi's HDMI connection and outputs to a 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution, matching that on Google's Nexus 7 and a whole range of 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablets.

The Raspberry Pi can output to a full-HD display (1,920 x 1,080), but the lower resolution was chosen to keep costs down, according to Eames.

Quick swoop

It's expected to ship in February 2014. For £65 ($104, or AU$110) you can back a HDMIPi "early bird" version - consisting of a 9-inch HDMIPi 1,280 x 800 LCD, driver board and plastic surround.

Rising up the ladder, the most expensive package will bag you the above components in addition to a power supply, stand, SD card, Cyntech Pi case, PiHub, "Noodle" USB and HDMI leads for £128 ($204, or AU$215).

The campaign's creators say the campaign was started in response to user demand. Eames wrote: "We're pretty sure there's a demand for this. We see regular comments in forums from people 'looking for a small HDMI screen'."

Kane Fulton
Kane has been fascinated by the endless possibilities of computers since first getting his hands on an Amiga 500+ back in 1991. These days he mostly lives in realm of VR, where he's working his way into the world Paddleball rankings in Rec Room.