[HN Gopher] Off-Grid Cyberdeck with RPI and Pelican Case
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Off-Grid Cyberdeck with RPI and Pelican Case
Author : klaussilveira
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-05-16 20:03 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (back7.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (back7.co)
| zwieback wrote:
| Nice 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.
| user3939382 wrote:
| Sweet! We need to acquire these and configure them to connect to
| an international network of self-launched store-and-forward
| cubesats.
| erva wrote:
| I 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).
| no_time wrote:
| Got that classic "I want to get shot by airport security" design.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| Surely airport security would recognize it as a single board
| computer! /s
| tablespoon wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| > 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
| Terry_Roll wrote:
| > 3. I'm not under the impression that Raspberry Pi's are
| especially durable
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31404012
| sleepymoose wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Same, 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 wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| From 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 wrote:
| And raspberrypi's will probably know where the nuclear
| explosion has taken place.
|
| 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 wrote:
| I think it is this that has been making the rounds.
| https://defconwarningsystem.com/digest/wp-
| content/uploads/20...
|
| I'll post it new in case more people want to panic ;)
| Syonyk wrote:
| Ah, 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.
| jensenbox wrote:
| Is it EMP or EMF/EMI?
|
| I can certainly imagine magnetic pulses getting through the
| copper and inducing higher than expected voltage spikes in the
| internals.
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(page generated 2022-05-16 23:00 UTC)