[HN Gopher] I turned an old phone into a NAS
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I turned an old phone into a NAS
Author : simonpure
Score : 67 points
Date : 2024-08-05 03:15 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.xda-developers.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.xda-developers.com)
| metadat wrote:
| This is a cool idea.
|
| Apparently USB-C hubs work on Android. This _greatly_ increases
| the possibilities..
|
| * Wired Ethernet
|
| * Additional attached storage
|
| * Z-Wave / Zigbee controllers for HomeAssistant or HomeSeer
|
| What else could you do with one?
|
| For some reason, I really like cheese.
| voltaireodactyl wrote:
| FWIW, usb-c hubs work on usb-c port iOS devices too.
| freitasm wrote:
| "This can also serve as a pretty decent backup system, and if you
| port forward the device you're connecting to, you can even allow
| it access to the wider internet so that you can access your files
| on the go. While I wouldn't recommend it for security reasons,
| the point is that it's a fairly robust method that can actually
| give you pretty decent results in a pinch for quick backups."
|
| No, no, no.
| fragmede wrote:
| Tailscale is easier than port forwarding, and more secure, and
| has an Android app.
| rtpg wrote:
| I remember a couple of threads where someone would come in and
| mention how phones make terrible servers because they basically
| default to overheating and just start failing terribly if you try
| to leave them on... wonder if people have found ways around this
| issue.
|
| Would actually be pretty amazing if you could just mount like 5
| or 10 garbage phones into a thing and it could smartly give you a
| super slow but reliable server setup. Reuse!
| livueta wrote:
| The biggest issue I've found while trying to do this is a very
| high rate of battery failure while plugged in 24/7 under load.
| 4/5 phones I've done this with have become spicy pillows in the
| 1-2 year timeframe. They were all Samsung or LG devices, so not
| complete bottom of the barrel garbage batteries either. IME if
| you need a cheap server, a used enterprise micro pc has a much
| lower chance of potentially burning your house down, can be
| found on ebay for literally $30, and can be easily stuffed full
| of ssds.
| saurik wrote:
| FWIW, Samsung batteries explode even if you don't use them as
| servers, and in fact it was an issue with their batteries
| being trash (I think I remember it being that they had been
| contaminated with metal filings, but I might be entirely
| misremembering the verdict).
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfM0GqsIB6c
| metadat wrote:
| Did you try direct wiring to bypass the battery?
|
| E.g. https://www.instructables.com/Power-an-Android-Phone-
| Without...
| livueta wrote:
| Nope, and that definitely would have helped, but I bet 99%
| of people looking to use an old phone as a server aren't
| going to do all that either.
| asimops wrote:
| With most new phones not being designed to have swappable
| batteries like the S4 anymore, could this be modified by
| replacing the cells with a capacitor and then powering the
| phone from USB?
| znpy wrote:
| > 4/5 phones I've done this with have become spicy pillows in
| the 1-2 year timeframe.
|
| In their defense, that kind of usage is not what they've been
| designed for and tested against.
| rtpg wrote:
| I just am thinking about how many phones you can find all
| over the place. And that tiny footprint... just so tempting.
| playa1 wrote:
| I want to respond with a Beowulf cluster joke.
|
| Then I remembered this isn't slashdot and it isn't 2001.
|
| Now I'm reminded of how old I've gotten.
| thom wrote:
| Sounds like even more phones are needed, with a control plane
| that can let them sleep regularly!
| crazygringo wrote:
| I plugged in an old iPhone SE into the Lightning port on a
| nice speaker and locked the screen to Spotify -- with auto-
| brightness it worked fantastically.
|
| Until it also turned into a spicy pillow after about a year
| and a half.
|
| Really wish there were some kind of system preference to run
| off wired power only and just not charge/discharge the
| battery at all.
| rexreed wrote:
| Which used enterprise micro PC on Ebay for $30 would you
| recommend? Trying to sort thru the trash and other options.
| Zak wrote:
| I haven't tried this for an always-on phone, but ACCA[0] grants
| fine-grained control over battery charging behavior. An ideal
| state of charge would be about 40%, with battery idle mode
| turned on so the phone draws power directly from USB without
| using the battery.
|
| Note that this requires root, but you'd probably want root for
| all but the simplest file server setups anyway.
|
| [0] https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/
| BLKNSLVR wrote:
| AccA is my first app install (after F-droid I guess) for
| rooted phones.
|
| It should be a standard feature of all phones to be able to
| control charge to maximise the useful life of the device if
| they're not going to make batteries removable.
| snthpy wrote:
| I have 14 year old Google Nexus One/HTC Bravo for nostalgia
| because it was my first smart phone. It can no longer connect to
| the Play Store and is currently not usable although it's
| perfectly capable. I struggled to find a good rom and easy
| install process for it. I would love to install LibreOS,
| PostmarketOS or something like that on it. Any recommendations?
| anotherhue wrote:
| I went down this road and your best bet is an old build of CM,
| nothing modern will work and even then you need to do funky
| things with the internal storage (Blackrose IIRC).
|
| My recommendation is flash it back to stock 2.3 (I think that's
| what it shipped with) and enjoy the nostalgia. Oh and get one
| of those charging docs while they're still on ebay.
| tomcam wrote:
| What's CM? CyanogenMod?
| ansible wrote:
| You can do this sort of thing easily with an old Chromebook as
| well. You can re-flash the BIOS from https://mrchromebox.tech,
| and then install a standard Linux distro on it. You can use an SD
| card or USB drive for additional storage.
|
| Look around and see what you've got laying around!
| blantonl wrote:
| I always get a kick out of these projects because they really do
| challenge the user to start at a disadvantage to get value out of
| things like this. Almost absurdly so...
|
| I guess it's only a matter of time before someone posts how they
| started a billion dollar business on a IBM PS/2 running OS/2 with
| a token ring card interfaced to the internet.
| autoexec wrote:
| Maybe it'd be better if you root the phone first, but I'd be
| hesitant to set up something like this on a system that is
| administrated remotely by others. Google, the phone manufacturer,
| and your carrier can make changes to your device at any time
| without your consent or without any notice to you. Even without a
| sim card, this could enable them to access/delete/modify your
| files, add new files, or make changes that break your server or
| introduce vulnerabilities.
|
| There might be some way to make this safer, but it just seems
| like a bad idea to set up servers on devices that you don't
| control and which multiple third parties have privileged access
| to.
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(page generated 2024-08-07 23:00 UTC)