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Off-Grid Cyberdeck with RPI and Pelican Case
- criddell 4y agoI’ve been looking for low power cyberdeck designs and haven’t found anything. Where are the Alphasmart, eMate, Psion 5, or Model 100 descendants that run for weeks on AA batteries?
- amatecha 4y agoYeah, there's basically nothing (that I know of). I was looking into building myself a long-lasting solar-powered mini PC with e-paper display, but have "put that on the back burner" for the time being. Would be nice to have something that just barely sips power :)
- sleepymoose 4y agoI really love seeing the cyberdeck posts recently. It's always been an area that I've wanted to get into, but don't really have a need (nor the time or the money). Instead, I get my kicks vicariously through things like this article.
- xwdv 4y agoSame, however whenever I think about building one I demotivate myself by realizing it’s nothing more than an electronic art project and will never see any real usage for any practical purpose. We don’t really live in a world where cyberdecks are necessary.
- Syonyk 4y agoThat's slick! And I'm glad to see the models for the internal bits available. I've got pieces for a YARH handheld... laying around, mostly, since other projects came up and I'm less motivated to figure it out when I can't get any Pis for sane pricing right now. > EMP Shielding Not to drag this thread too far off topic, but this concept has been coming up a lot around me in about the past week. Is there something specific that's been coming up lately about it I've missed?
- scohesc 4y agoI wonder if it's the whole "russia might drop nukes or EMP-blast a large portion of the globe because of what's happening with ukraine, i better EMP protect my electronics in case they get fried"
- oceanplexian 4y agoFrom my casual research EMP is much less of a problem than people seem to think it is. Modern electronics are small, and don’t have large antennas where a large current can build up. Power lines and such would be vulnerable, but that’s about it, unless you were sitting right underneath or within a few miles of a nuclear explosion, in which case you have bigger problems to worry about.
- Terry_Roll 4y agoAnd raspberrypi's will probably know where the nuclear explosion has taken place. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/xenon-death-flash-a-free-physics-lesson/#comment-1215364 https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/xenon-death-flash-a-free-ph... Its the airburst nukes (ones that detonate just above the ground) that are most harmful for life as it spreads more, its what the Chinese had been testing which got them some criticism a few years or so ago.
- zw123456 4y agoI think it is this that has been making the rounds. https://defconwarningsystem.com/digest/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Russia-EMP-Threat.pdf https://defconwarningsystem.com/digest/wp-content/uploads/20... I'll post it new in case more people want to panic ;)
- Syonyk 4y agoAh, that looks... likely. Thanks! I know it's been a concern of various groups at a low level for some while, but it's been popping up far more than I'd expect lately, and I was curious as to what triggered it. The people who've brought it up (at least in person) don't seem particularly well informed as to the technical details, so I assumed there was something talking about it, I just wasn't sure what.
- user3939382 4y agoSweet! We need to acquire these and configure them to connect to an international network of self-launched store-and-forward cubesats.
- erva 4y agoI have been tinkering with a cyberdeck for a while now for off-grid usage, so this is a nice find for the hardware side. My main battle lately has been building out the software side; primarily Kiwix (https://www.kiwix.org https://www.kiwix.org).
- vorpalhex 4y agoAre you using kiwix server or one of the clients?
- erva 4y agoI was originally trying to set it up as the Kiwix wifi hotspot. But after playing with that I decided I wanted the pc to have more than one function so I switched to regular Linux with Kiwix. So now instead of just Kiwix; I also have my handheld radio programming software (CHIRP), ATAK Server, microcontroller dev environment, copy of Collapse OS, etc.
- vorpalhex 4y agoDoes ATAK (FreeTak I assume) run pretty well? Are you just saving everything to the sd card? I have had a similar project set bouncing around in my head. I have some LilyGo LoRa radios arriving soon to see how well Meshtastic works as an alternative to internet.
- erva 4y agoI am running the Pi from a solid state hdd as I don't trust the sd cards. ATAK/FreeTak does run well on it. Funny you mention LoRa as I am using exactly that. I have a bunch of the TTGO T-beams (915 MHz) that I have paired up with old Android phones that run entirely off the T-beams/Meshtastic. They can be slow at times for messaging, but it really depends on the channel setting (short range vs very long range).
- prawel 4y agowhole dump of English Wikipedia ZIM is around 95GB, which is fine to store on a laptop/phone nowadays
- no_time 4y agoGot that classic "I want to get shot by airport security" design.
- ethbr0 4y agoSurely airport security would recognize it as a single board computer! /s
- thfuran 4y agoI can tell you that if you walk through security with a bag full of loose sata to ide converters (bare PCBs), molex splitters (wires), and HDDs, the TSA gives you the bonus screening as well as some free advice to not do it again.
- sandermvanvliet 4y agoI used to travel back and forth between Rotterdam and London with a pelicase and I got taken aside every single time, repeatedly scanning it, drug swabs the whole shebang.
- zwieback 4y agoNice job on the wiring! I read that this is the second attempt and it shows. When I do wiring I always make a mess the first time and then get it a little better the second, third, ... time. Luckily at my job we get pros or panel vendors to do this, otherwise I'd be in trouble.
- tablespoon 4y agoThat's neat looking, but it really strikes me as a kind of cosplay than anything that would actually be useful in any kind of disaster situation: 1. If you're off the grid, where are you going to get power to run this? 2. If there's no power grid or internet, you probably have much bigger problems than "how can I browse an offline copy of Wikipedia." Those problems would probably last longer than you want to schlep around and item like this. 3. I'm not under the impression that Raspberry Pi's are especially durable, though the SD-card storage is probably the weakest link (though both those things probably have benefits of being common things that allow for the scavenging of replacement parts). 4. If you need to protect from an EMP, I don't think "tinfoil lined cardboard box" will be sufficient. I was reading up on that a couple of months ago when the war started, and it sounds like little gaps in the shielding can seriously compromise the effectiveness of the sheilding. 5. Mil-spec connectors look cool, but if you need to use something like this, you'll probably want connectors that are a common as possible. A connector is useless if you don't have anything to plug into it. Some kind of terminal block would probably make more sense. Using a male connector seems like a particularly fatal flaw (if you used female, you'd at least be able to stick wires in the holes in a pinch). If you want to usefully prepare for any doomsday scenario, you probably need to really carefully think about your actual requirements in that scenario, and then build to those requirements. IMHO, if it's an actual doomsday, it's probably safe to assume technological society will collapse and not recover for generations, and any high technology would in reality be a short-to-medium term consumable that will break without replacement.
- Ansil849 4y ago> 1. If you're off the grid, where are you going to get power to run this? There are many sources of off-grid power. Solar, wind, hydro being the big three. > 2. If there's no power grid or internet, you probably have much bigger problems than "how can I browse an offline copy of Wikipedia." Those problems would probably last longer than you want to schlep around and item like this. s/Wikipedia/GIS
- tablespoon 4y ago> There are many sources of off-grid power. Solar, wind, hydro being the big three. Agreed, but that's the kind of thing that should be one of the first things you think about in these scenarios with powered electronics, and it wasn't treated here at all. >> 2. If there's no power grid or internet, you probably have much bigger problems than "how can I browse an offline copy of Wikipedia." Those problems would probably last longer than you want to schlep around and item like this. > s/Wikipedia/GIS So let's say you have a reasonable doomsday requirement for maps. Why this thing, and not some paper maps? Or a kindle loaded with a bunch of street atlases? I feel like you're looking at this from wrong perspective. It's not "how can this <thing> meet a requirement, but "what (combination of) things can best meet my requirements." The former will weigh you down with lot of albatrosses, the later may give you a usable toolkit.
- jd24 4y agoMaybe I'm just missing the point, but couldn't you just put a laptop into a protective container?
- mastazi 4y agoCyberdecks are more about the freedom of selecting exactly the hardware components you want (in the same way you can when you build a desktop computer)[0] so I don't think an average laptop would do the job. For example, this cyberdeck has a mechanical keyboard which is quite rare on laptops. Yesterday I was browsing a forum that shows cyberdecks built by users, and one had a circular screen! [1] You would definitely have a hard time finding a laptop with that! :-D [0] https://cyberdeck.cafe/faq https://cyberdeck.cafe/faq [1] https://libredd.it/r/cyberDeck/comments/ulvl19/a_terminal_powered_by_framework_mainboard/ https://libredd.it/r/cyberDeck/comments/ulvl19/a_terminal_po...
- walrus01 4y ago> a laptop into a protective container? the pelican laptop cases exist, the 1495 is a great product, albeit huge and heavy. you can actually fit 3 modern laptops, a satellite phone, a usb battery pack and a shitload of accessories into one.
- jancsika 4y agoThis web site's slideshow widget hijacks my Command-LeftArrow shortcut for the back button in Safari. I had to scroll all the way back up to the top, at which point the default binding magically returned. I didn't appreciate that at all. P.S. if you did appreciate having a back-button shortcut for that slide show, reply here and let's talk about it in a two-hour podcast.
- KleerKut 4y agoHarbor Freight has nearly identical cases to the Pelican that are a lot cheaper. I recently used one mounted on the front of a bike that I converted to electric, with the battery and motor controller jammed inside. They occasionally go on sale, and I wiped out their inventory the last two times I went as they don't seem to carry a lot at once. Hopefully I'll get around to making a cyberdeck out of one.
- walrus01 4y agoI sure wouldn't use the harbor freight pelican knockoffs if I need a big case, they're too cheap and flimsy, but for a small case they're okay. You still need to pay the real pelican price if you are buying something bigger like a 1510, 1535, 1620, 1637. The smallest one was recently on sale for $11.99 with foam and is great for small fragile things.
- bernardv 4y agoVery cool - worthy of the best ham radio go-boxes, which have a real following ‘cause you never know when all hell will break loose!
- adg001 4y agoI may try to build something similar just out of fun, replacing the Pelican case with the strongbox that came with my COROS Vertix adventure watch, as it is now laying around with no other use. As already pointed out by others, Mil-spec GPIO female connectors would probably be more versatile and easier to use than male ones in the present design. More durable storage and e-ink display would be also nice.
- meibo 4y agoWould be cool to build a few of these and spec them with a LoRa mesh messenger network. You could even build solar powered relay boxes to "connect" settlements. In the end it's all just a toy anyways, but it feels nice to come up with these things. Makes me feel a little less helpless, maybe I should just go to the gym more often though.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThat sort of non-ESD foam will destroy exposed electronics when given the opportunity.
- Karrot_Kream 4y agoInteresting, I didn't know that thanks. Is this a problem with all foam products that aren't ESD rated?
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoAll plastics without a conductive or dissipative treatment.
- tlhunter 4y agoIsn't this from 2015 or so?