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• Cooling

  Curtis Soldano • 3 days ago • 0 comments

  I added an active cooling system driven by the on board fan connector. It is a large heat sink that spans a number of the on board chips and has fins and a fan. Somehow I ended up jamming the pins and one got bent out of line so I had to try to straighten it under a microscope which went OK but I am about to do a test. Despite the pin being bent, the fan was still coming on, it just wasn't self modulating, it was just on 100%. We'll see how it goes post repair. I am hoping at a minimum the fan still spins when I test it, stay tuned.

• USB, Power and Thermal Load

  Curtis Soldano • 04/05/2026 at 20:39 • 0 comments

  As I have been integrating various peripherals, it has become clear to me that I'll have to do additional planning to mitigate heat, power and USB power draw. I really thought my power architecture was sufficient but it is looking like I may have to revisit that assumption. 

  I gutted and used a 294wh power unit with dedicated USB A and C outputs, raw DC outputs and charging inputs for line or solar. I am thinking I am going to have to create a USB switch for the individual peripherals to control how much is on the USB bus at any one time which will also impact power. 

  Thermally I always had intended to create ducted exhaust channels but I am realizing the RTL-SDR is creates a lot of heat just idle so I am thinking being able to turn devices on and off will help me manage it. I am also going to double down on oversized heat sink for both Pi and DIY something for the RTL-SDR. On the up side, I did get SDR++ installed and working and installed an ADS-B tracker as I am testing devices and such and that's been fun. :)

• PCIe connection established

  Curtis Soldano • 04/04/2026 at 20:21 • 0 comments

  I suspected pcie needs to be enabled and it does. Now that I did that, I am seeing the interface so on to testing individual USB devices.

• USB Hat Works!!

  Curtis Soldano • 04/03/2026 at 22:37 • 0 comments

  I received the HAT yesterday and got it all connected and power tested, seems to be stable from a power perspective but the USB data isn't behaving so more testing is required.

• USB Overcurrent

  Curtis Soldano • 03/24/2026 at 08:26 • 0 comments

  I connected everything for testing and even with the powered hub, once I add the USB SSD, I am getting overcurrent alerts. To solve this I am looking at a USB hat that uses pcie for data and a separate power injection so I am hoping I can split it out in a way that stabilizes the USB bus. I already owned the SSD so I was going to use that as a stepping stone until I got a nvme drive. At the moment it seems to be putting me over the edge so its either a USB HAT or a PCIE-NVME drive HAT with a drive which are quite expensive, I think I am going to try the USB HAT to start. Updates once I receive and test the HAT and USB load. Cheers!

• Initial Systems Testing

  Curtis Soldano • 03/21/2026 at 12:52 • 0 comments

  Some progress!

  I've been working on integrating and testing components before I get too far into frame design. I was concerned that I might have too many USB devices with the two touch screens and after testing I confirmed my suspicions. No matter how I try to split the load, when everything is plugged in, it crashes the USB bus. I have ordered a powered hub and have now worked that into the design. I have decided to go with flush mounted buttons instead of rockers for sub system disconnects (Pi, Audio Amp, Variable PSU, panel lights) and I am going to add a grounding lug to the front panel for quick connection grounding. Since the Pi is inaccessible I've added an SD Card slot surfaced on the front panel between the two round USB panel ports, this is an extension of the SD slot on the Pi. I am also planning to add a cooling fan in the interior directly below the exposed GPIO blowing across the PSU and the Pi, vent holes will need to be added, TBD. Finally, The power board I am repurposing has a couple of USB-A charge ports and two 12v out ports. I didn't have panel space to add more USB ports so I am considering extending a USB and 12v charge umbilical cable into and accessible through the storage area specifically for charging if the panel is full. I plan to use one of the 12v outs as power for the variable PSU and a USB-A port to power the audio amp on the lid or the panel lighting (stretch)

• Slow progress is still progress...

  Curtis Soldano • 03/18/2026 at 08:10 • 0 comments

  I promise that I really am focused on this now. :) List of components is now final, I've updated the parts list here on Hackaday and I'm sourcing a few last things like fans, cables, buttons, etc.,. Recent upgrades and the main decisions have been made so I'm starting to move onto the more mechanical related challenges like building out the internal frame and panels. The updated specs now have a Raspberry Pi 5 8G at the core, two SDR receivers, adjustable power supply, audio amp w/bluetooth, 2 touch screens, exposed USB and ethernet ports, HDMI capture, solar/line chargeable battery system with BMS. GPIO, Pi Camera and OLED status display and storage on for antennas(lid) and test devices and supporting hardware (base). 

  I'm now leaning towards more of a field ready experiment and prototype multi-use ground station

• Latest Updates

  Curtis Soldano • 02/20/2026 at 09:55 • 0 comments

  So after a lot of inactivity with some sporadic instances of occasional activity, I have come to the following design decisions and scope changes.

  I've reimagined the this build as a Self Contained Field Ready Compute Resource & Ground Station. Since the focus has slightly shifted, the features have as well. Some of those tweaks include:

  1. Integrated Faraday cage descoped - my approach for addressing this scope item was just too difficult to execute effectively and affects the rest of the build. I have found some great faraday cage solutions and have resolved to build a separate purpose built faraday storage container which will store this and other sensitive devices offloading that requirement from the deck to a separate support element.
  2. Larger Plastic Hard Case - I decided to go with a larger Olympia case I found cheap, new outer dimensions are L10.47”xW9.68”xH6.87”
  3. Battery Pack . I had a rarely used 294Wh Solar generator (power pack) for camping which has a BMS, In/out ports and controller with a Lithium battery.  I am going to repurpose that hardware and battery for this build.
  4. My primary screen is now a 10.5 In Touch Screen, up from the previous 7In
  5. I have decided on a more modularized approach opting for more internal storage to House a Flipper Zero, M5 Stack Cardputer and a Finrisi Component identifier/tester/Oscilloscope/Function Generator as stand alone test gear as a starting point. Storage will also hold antennas, adapters, cables and other items TBD.
  6. I have added an analog FPV RF Video Receiver to the RF feature set
  7. The ethernet port shall be placed on the front panel primarily to allow for offline LLM Coprocessing with a helper x86 machine but also for wired connectivity when needed/available
  8. The GPIO will be exposed on the front panel and HATS in the internal storage to be swapped out as needed, this minimizes the potential for simultaneous HAT collisions
     1. Sense HAT
     2. GPIO Breakout with status LEDs
     3. Adafruit Crickit Robotics interface
  9. SD Card Slot will be extended from the internal housed Raspberry Pi and surfaced on the front panel providing persistent SD card access. This will allow for quick, on the fly swap out/replacement of the OS SD depending on the need
  10. Internal physical storage for multiple pre-configured SD's (and copies) with loadouts supporting both operational diversity and recovery/redundancy.
      1. Software Dev loadout (Debian)
      2. Drone Ground Station loadout (iNav)
      3. Robotics & Prototyping Loadout
      4. RF Bench Loadout (SDR, ADS)
      5. Offline/Survival Loadout (Kiwix)
      6. Entertainment Loadout (RetroPie)
      7. Offline LLM Loadout

  I'll update the log with my updated (target) feature list in a few days and start to update the panel layouts next week. I'm also thinking about supporting a second screen either as a peripheral or integrated into the case since the Pi4 has native multi screen.

  See you soon!

• Resistance is futile

  Curtis Soldano • 05/03/2024 at 20:06 • 0 comments

  Howdy All,

  As the lack of updates probably suggests, I have not made much progress on this build. I'm trying to proritize this in my daily scheme...I've pulled that project in from the outside work area to inside my house so its closer to "work on" in my free moments.

  One of the last things I completed was the laser cutting of the EMF cloth which didnt go as planned, I might be able to use some of it but I'm going to have to manually trim the pieces to fit which is a bummer beacuase I was aiming for one contiguous piece of material. If I have to cut pieces

  I've seen a few projects since I've started that have inspired a few changes/adoptions. I plan to integrate an electronic component tester/identifier. I'm also considering potentially building the internal frame out of wood or a wood/3D printed hybrid but I like the idea of using basic materials in an item that might need to be repaied in the field and I imagine that wood is available post apocalypse, 3D printers maybe not...also I've seen a few builds that are super feature/hardware dense and at the risk of extending things out, I am tempted to assimilate some of those ideas.

  Thanks for following my project. I'm shooting to have it done August timeframe assuming that's then the next cyberdeck challenge will be. I'm open to feedback, let me know what you think.

  Curtis-

• Getting tricky...

  Curtis Soldano • 09/16/2023 at 17:10 • 0 comments

  As I have been thinking through how to execute on the shield fabric application, I've put a bit more thought into it and decided to get a little tricky with this part. I am going to leverage some of my specialized design and CNC tools to customize the fitting with precision.

  My goal is once I have a line pattern, I can use my laser cutter to cut the cloth. The shielding cloth is polyester based and the early research I've done suggests this is OK to laser cut. I happen to have a 700x900mm laser cutter so I can easily fit this entire piece into my cutter.

  I have already hand cut a proof of concept pattern but realized I could do a much more precise cut with my fabrication and design skills. I was already planning to use my laser cutter to cut the front panel I just hadn't thought far enough ahead to realize I could laser cut this as well.
  

  And as a further thought, this material is more effective in layers, I 'm now thinking of cutting multiple layers and bonding them together into a thicker shielding then applying that thicker shielding to the interior of the case. 

  I'll provide more updates on the shielding as I get further along.

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