Brett Smith's Backcountry Beacon Is a Smart ESP32-S3-Powered Tool for Off-the-Grid Navigation

Mechatronics engineer and software developer Brett Smith has designed a device that aims to deliver off-grid electronic navigation wherever you need it — complete with topographic maps and whatever documentation you'd like to access.

"Picture this: you've just arrived at the trailhead, miles from civilization, and your phone's map app decides it's time for a little 'offline mode' tantrum. App Status? Offloaded. Updates? Forget it. Storage? Full," Smith writes of the inspiration behind the project. "Welcome to the outdoors, where your phone is more lost than you are. Enter Backcountry Beacon, the open-source gadget that laughs in the face of Wi-Fi dependency."

The Backcountry Beacon is a multi-functional, pocket-sized gadget powered by any USB power supply — from a battery pack to a solar panel. A small display on one side provides a QR code that, when scanned, connects your smartphone to the gadget's built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, which is when the fun begins.

A microSD Card contains offline copies of USGS topographical maps, accessible in your smartphone's browser. These tie in to the GNSS receiver, dropping a pin at your precise location — whether or not your smartphone has any signal of its own. The same storage can be used to host copies of any documentation you'd like to access on your adventures — from travel tickets and bird-spotting guides to tutorials on emergency first aid.

There are limitations to the device's capabilities, of course. Smith warns that the web server caps out at around 1MB/s, meaning patience is required when accessing larger files — and attempts to share the gadget between multiple simultaneous users may fail.

More details on the project are available on Hackaday.io; at the time of writing Smith had not released design files or source code, though his description of the Backcountry Beacon as being an "open-source gadget" suggests these will follow in due course.