The Apoca-pi Now Is a Luggable, Rugged, EMP-Proof Raspberry Pi Portable
"If the world doesn't come to an end," its creator notes, "this will still be great to have."
Pseudonymous maker "hammerandhandmi" has put together an "end of the world" cyberdeck build, dubbed the Apoca-pi Now — and designed to withstand just about anything the world can throw at it.
"While I don't think the world is about to end, nor do I really think this will be the difference between life and death in this sort of situation," hammerandhandmi admits, "it's a fun project and premise to base it off of. The idea of a dystopian future rife with future tech and the need to hack something from my backpack… what better reason for a cyberdeck."
The device is based, as is often the case, around a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB single-board computer, connected to a Waveshare 7.9" touchscreen display. The housing is a waterproof Pelican 1170 case, chosen to mount well on an LC2 Alice ruck frame for portability, lined with conductive copper foil — "[I had] multiple reasons for doing this," hammerandhandmi notes, "but EMP [Electromagnetic Pulse] wasn't really the driving factor here."
Power is provided from a recycled battery taken from an Apple MacBook laptop, with a backup UPS Hat attached to the top of the Raspberry Pi, linked to a Tri-M Engineering HE104+DX PC104 power supply and a Voltaic MPPT solar charge controller for in-field charging from either the on-board Goal Zero Nomad 7 hidden behind the keyboard or a larger Nomad 20 transported separately.
"I still have quite a bit to do," hemmerandhandmi writes. "I plan on adding an SDR [Software Defined Radio] with external antenna hookup. A GPS unit so I can use offline maps. Possibly an RFID tag reader. I'd like to add a 12V port so I could run things like a small air compressor or something. I plan on adding an SSD or two, a bunch of redundant microSD cards, a powered USB hub, external antennas for the SDR, GPS, wireless, etc. Also [I] want to use a small audio board and mono or stereo 1W or 2W speakers.
"If the world doesn't come to an end, this will still be great to have. Great for hiking, camping, or road trips. It will have a large repository of information using Kiwix, as well as world maps with detailed maps for most of the US. Military field manuals, general survival information and how tos. Basic medical care and resources.
"Basic math, physics, and chemistry course materials. Included with the chemistry topic, how to make basic things from nature (like making acids and gunpowder from raw materials). The entire Project Gutenberg eBook library, basic computing resources and electronics info."
More details on the project are available in hammerandhandmi's Reddit thread.