Show HN: 5 Years Ago I made the Recovery Kit, I just made the RK2

[back7co]

The Recovery Kit 2 is another cyberdeck that for me is part computer, part backup device, and part functional movie prop. It's been fun to build, and the HN community has been great with ideas- especially around hosting and getting me off Squarespace. I hope you all enjoy!

[ThinkBeat]

I have discovered over time that I hate screws. No not really the concept, but there are far too fucking models.

I started collecting screws to put together for my "workshop" were I repair whatever family, friends, enemies want me to look at. I am not great at it, not even good, but I am who they bring things to, and over time I have learned a bit of skills. (Also I fail, sometimes I break stuff and sometimes I hide in my bag and take to a pro without telling anyone.)

Back to screws. I often need one. but there are entirely too many different sizes and shapes. I have spent decent time sourcing various standardized sizes from far and near. Stil I have project where I need two screws and I dont have the right one. I also keep any screw that I come across. If something is broken I harvest the once that are easikly available.

That ends up in a cubbord with lots of different tiny shelves. BUT looking through them so see if one of them is right is again time consuming.

What does this have to do with anything?

Well the design went from 1 type of screws to multiple sizes. (All of well knownm standarized types thank you)

I think it wise to design projects around as few different ones as possible. The previous model managed with one. Clearly somehow V2 could have as well.

Is there I pray an app I have not seen, where I can take a photo of a screw and the app will tell me the exact specifications of it, its name, and where to order them?

[ibash]

There’s an ancient craftsman trick. A pointy woodscrew can fit any type of hole, whether it fits or not :)

[digdugdirk]

He says, as design engineers across the world feel a shiver run down their collective spine.

[ThinkBeat]

That is a good one. I can cut the top off with my angle grinder

[jamesbfb]

AKA “self-tapping” :)

[winrid]

Screws have different thread and pitch sizes. An app won't read that correctly. You can get a tool to measure the size/thread/pitch. I have containers with lots of slots and I label each slot, so I have many dozens of types of metric/imperial screws sorted.

It's actually hundreds of screws, bolts, and nuts, I did the sorting as a relaxing week while watching some shows :D

[ThinkBeat]

I will have to check that out, thank you

[temporarely]

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=metric+socket+hea...

Someone mentioned M* screws and that got me searching to find out what it is and then ended up on the above amazon page. So I like the indexing scheme there and question OP that it can't be done by image and machine learning. Basically, all those indexes [minus material which you can just select] should be trivially recognizable and that just leaves the precision measures.

[winrid]

For sure! I think I have these [0].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/tenluno-Checker-SWTC-44-MaleFemale-Id...

[doctorhandshake]

What is this tool called?

[CapitalistCartr]

Thread checker.

[myself248]

An app would have trouble with that since it doesn't have an absolute size reference. By the time you put the screw atop a calibrated reference background tool, you'd be faster to just read the markings on the tool yourself. (If someone wanted to make an app that uses an object of precisely known size, say, a credit card, as a reference, and then calculate from there, yes I'd be all ears! But I've never heard of such a thing.)

BoltDepot has some fantastic pages (and printable reference posters) that explain how fasteners are measured and described: https://boltdepot.com/Fastener-Information/Fastener-Basics

Once you've got the terminology, it's pretty straightforward to take the measurements. Thread diameter is easy to do with a $2 plastic vernier caliper (I use mine constantly), or fit into the holes in any screw checker. https://www.amazon.com/Stainlesstown-Bolt-Thread-Gauge-Blue/...

Thread pitch is best done with a thread gauge, which is a fold-out affair sort of like a feeler gauge. I've got an inch/metric combo one like this: https://www.amazon.com/ChgImposs-Imperial-Whitworth-Industri...

And then length is easy to do with the ruler on the side of the screw checker, or the calipers themselves. (Use the jaws for the overall length of a flush-type screw, the step-shoulder part for the length of a cap screw.)

There are also combo gauges, I'm intrigued by this type and I should pick one up to see how I like it: https://www.amazon.com/WEN-ME210G-Imperial-Multi-Gauge-Carry...

[mrbombastic]

Newer iPhones are lidar enabled and do a fairly good job at measurement see: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01763-9

i don’t know if it is good enough for this use case but theoretically possible without a reference object.

[vizzier]

I feel this. As an amateur 3d printed project enjoyer in Canada, getting ahold of M* screws is a real pain, even though I prefer their specifications greatly over the weird imperial sizes.

[doodlebugging]

I get my metric fasteners from BelMetric [0].

Huge selection including obscure styles and finishes. Nuts, bolts, screws, hardware, etc.

One of the best things about them is that they sell small lots including single screws if that is all you need.

Another great thing is that they ship quickly and if your order is relatively small it arrives in your mailbox instead of needing to be delivered by UPS or another shipper. They ship orders in packages appropriate to the order, unlike Amazon.

They also add products to their inventory if customers need something they don't normally carry.

Prices are also reasonable.

I found them years ago and now they are one of my main suppliers. McMaster Carr is another.

[0] https://belmetric.com/

[vizzier]

Useful suggestions, thanks. I'll dig in further next time I'm building something.

They do seem to suffer from the other part that prevented me from ordering from places like this before though; its hard for a hobby project to break the high free shipping minimum order size. This may again be a problem with being in Canada not the US though :)

[doodlebugging]

From reading thru their international shipping FAQ it appears that they do not offer free shipping on any international orders and all customs, importation, etc fees fall to the buyer.

With that in mind it probably works best for your case to stock your bins in a single order of the common sizes of screws, nuts, and specialty fasteners that you regularly need so that you can limit the fees you have to pay instead of making a new order every time you spin up a new project.

They regularly send email alerts to special pricing events. I don't know how that plays out for someone in Canada though. The shipping costs on my end are fairly low since I tend to order a few things at a time and the contents of one order easily fit into a standard USPS mailer or a small padded envelope.

Another thing that may work for you is Fastenal [0] since they operate in Canada and offer metric fasteners.

[0] https://www.fastenal.ca/product/Fasteners/Bolts?fsi=1&catego...

[eep_social]

McMaster Carr is a good place to order from but you do need to know what you need by size, thread, etc

[ChrisArchitect]

I get the cyberdeck naming, but why is this called a "Recovery Kit"? What's being recovered? Never really talks about use cases. Just a cool way to get online on the go?

[dabluecaboose]

The original article [1], from 2019, briefly explains the concept:

> Building Internet-connected things seems obvious today, but what about when there’s no Internet?

> The concept often feels like something out of a science fiction movie or a doomsday prepper’s handbook- and while this device can work in both scenarios, it’s also about understanding resiliency for your projects and being a good steward of the systems in place today.

[1] https://www.doscher.com/work-recovery-kit/

[parpfish]

From the title alone, my first guess was that it was for hangovers

[quailfarmer]

This is cool, but if you want to see the proper extension of this style of computer, check out a Panasonic CF-31 Toughbook. They can be had for pretty cheap on eBay, and are amazing. In every way the opposite of the cost-cutting and cheap material you tend to see in consumer electronics. It’s the level of quality of a MacBook, but directed towards an ideal of “rugged” instead of “sleek”. Really a testament to what modern manufacturing can do when unbridled from the constraints of cost and popular aesthetics.

[pxmpxm]

General Dynamics used to make these for the military - they're great for car diagnostics and such. The sunlight visible (transflective?) screen is a huge plus, and the whole thing is water proof:

http://www.ruggedpcreview.com/3_notebooks_itronix_gd8200.htm...

[taftster]

The CF-31 is discontinued, it seems? But other models are available.

https://na.panasonic.com/us/computers-tablets/computers/lapt...

[ThePowerOfFuet]

The CF-40 is the replacement, but a zillion CF-31s can be had on eBay, many in pristine condition.

[wigster]

wow i just got banned by panasonic - rate limited

[motoxpro]

That's nice but no where near the "coolness" of the Recovery Kit, at first glance it just looks like any other laptop.

[KennyBlanken]

I love how he has a link to "what is it for?" but never answers the question. As far as I can tell this is the technoblogger equivalent of end-of-society prepping?

In the event of something so catastrophic happening that the internet stops functioning for an extended period of time, you're not going to be hauling this enormous brick around with you. It's absurd.

In an end-of-society situation you're likely on foot, maybe on bicycle (until the bike breaks down in a way you can't fix, or gets flats and you can't find tubes), and your available weight and space is going to be prioritized towards basics like food, shelter, clothing, basic health/tool items, and self defense.

How you get 90% of the way there: a USB solar panel, a bluetooth keyboard, and a smartphone with an external storage memory device. Maybe a USB to ethernet adapter and a USB hub.

Many modern phones are even water/dust proof to a pretty reasonable degree, more so if you put them in a ruggedized case.

I dare him to carry that thing 10 miles...

[brk]

Agreed, I think the doomsday prepper angle makes it seem absurd. But take a step back and this is an INCREDIBLE display of technical capabilities of a single person. It crosses a handful of domains in terms of designing, building, assembling, configuring a Thing. Plus the background detail on component selection. And the writing is tight too.

I build things that roughly resemble this (low volume, custom, solving use cases that are too niche for an industrial offering to be created), for money. I'd hire this guy in a minute to outsource things to or collaborate with, so I see the project as a kind of personal resume.

IMO he should find a specific scenario where something along these lines would be valuable. One I am personally involved in is marine electronics diagnosis. Primarily NMEA2000 networks and the devices on them, and the same devices on Ethernet. It's too much detail to go into, plus I'm on a flight after spending a week in Vegas for a trade show, but with just a little bit of reconfiguration work this could be a Thing that higher end marine electronics techs would really dig. Then I think you could also delve deeper into the considerations put into the design and component selection details.

[pugworthy]

I get the feeling it's for fun. It's a maker's project, not a preppers project.

[tivert]

> I love how he has a link to "what is it for?" but never answers the question. As far as I can tell this is the technoblogger equivalent of end-of-society prepping?

> In the event of something so catastrophic happening that the internet stops functioning for an extended period of time, you're not going to be hauling this enormous brick around with you. It's absurd.

Yeah, I've always thought these kinds of things were more of a LARP gizmo than any kind of actual "prepping." The priorities are all wrong. IMHO, if society collapses, the things you need will drastically change from your needs now. You don't need an offline Wikipedia or Youtube, even if you use them all the time today, you need something a lot more compact and practical.

IMHO, a real post-apocalyptic "recovery kit" is a cubic meter of K12 textbooks, plus university-level ones on farming, engineering, and medicine locked a away in a time-capsule for a century post-event.

[pxmpxm]

> LARP gizmo

This - I think it's really just a Fallout-aesthetic prop and bunch of text making pretend arguments that it's useful for anything.

[ansible]

> ... bluetooth keyboard, and a smartphone with an external storage memory device. ...

I'd replace this with an old Chromebook with regular Linux installed (very cheap, ~ $20 USD), and a 1TB micro-SD card. All solid-state (no hard drive), and good battery life.

[CraigJPerry]

I feel like this needs a meshtastic or lora or ham radio feature of some description but i'm definitely drawn to the concept - more as art than function

[WaxProlix]

The GPIO pins give a reasonable point of interface for a LoRa module. Or you could interface it with one of the Lilygo offerings and have a programmable LoRa/Meshtastic/disaster.radio compatible device.

(https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-echo?variant=42306295857333 or https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t3s3-v1-0 maybe?)

[dang]

Related:

Off-Grid Cyberdeck with RPI and Pelican Case - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402558 - May 2022 (91 comments)

Off-Grid Cyberdeck: Raspberry Pi Recovery Kit - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21647398 - Nov 2019 (144 comments)

[dtx1]

I always love these cool cyberdeck style builds but whenever the bug to build my own catches me, I end up realizing i'm just trying to build a really bad notebook.

[ansible]

Yes, these are cool and fun projects, but not something I'd use on a regular basis.

I've bought a few old Chromebooks off of eBay recently (for around $20 USD each), and re-flashed the BIOS so that I could install Debian on them.

The student-oriented Chromebooks are reasonably sturdy, and at that price point, I just don't care if something bad happens to it.

[sneak]

Yeah. This would be great if it could emulate usb storage, do transparent bridging via switch vlans, support serial consoles, etc, but it is just a case, battery, disk, and bad keyboard.

[fragmede]

raspberry pi's support USB gadget mode, and can thus emulate USB storage with the right connector.

TTL-level serial port pins exist as well.

[pests]

This is how the PiKVM works. It pretends to be a hub with an attached mouse/keyboard (and optionally a flash drive/storage)

Then optionally you can connect your motherboards power/reset pins so you can reboot or turn off remotely.

Video is a third party HDMI capture card that plugs into the Pis camera port.

[andrewaylett]

There's nothing particularly stopping you implementing at least most of that in software if you want. Stick a suitably-programmable switch in and you could do the rest too.

[sneak]

Exactly my point - this project seems of limited usefulness because it could have done a lot more but didn’t add much utility that a pi+screen+keyboard doesn’t already have.

[Havoc]

> I wanted a rugged computer enclosure for my Raspberry Pi,

Is this intended towards like a prepper type scenario? Or what is the envisioned use case of a rugged pi?

Or just cool factor?

[ThrowawayR2]

It's pretty but not really ruggedized. It's not designed for water/moisture, dust or other environmental resistance, extended temperature range, impact or vibration resistance (I doubt it would survive as checked-in luggage on a flight, for example), longevity, etc. All you get is whatever protection that the Pelican case gives you. It's better than nothing but a prepper would probably be better off with an intentionally ruggedized computer.

[brk]

I think portability is the #1 factor. It is sort of a Rpi laptop, with the primary benefit being that it is highly customizable for an intended use case.

The reality is that any scenario that has people relying on this type of thing as a "device of last resort" would also most likely obliterate this thing itself. We are talking about a pretty extreme situation, ruggedized laptops would be more practical. And even if the rugged laptop was $10,000, that's a small price to pay for saving the world.

[anarcat]

I had a short moment where i felt "omg i can fit a framework board in there", but alas the 1300 is only 9" wide. Still, I really like this idea, and I wonder if i might not just make exactly such a thing but with a larger pelican case. Then you can cram a lot of data in there with a bunch of modern 3.5" spinning disks (which, hopefully, the pelican will keep from rusting too much).

Beautiful idea, would love to see open specs, but really nice to be sharing!

(Update: the framework board is so close. The first daughtboard in the schematics <https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/Framework-Laptop-13/blo...> is actually 9.071 inches (115 + 115.4mm, so 230.4mm if i read it right) wide! But alas the mainboard is 274mm (10.8 inches), and that is without the expansion cards added. With the cards, we're talking about 11.7 inches (297mm) and then you still need to plug in things in there! Still there's something there, i think.)

[back7co]

The framework just about fits well with a 13" display in the Pelican iM2200. The challenge with the framework is the USB display, and the all-USBC nature of their board- all solvable problems though. I almost made one and may yet, but these builds take months!

[justinlloyd]

I love functional prop projects like this and reading through the build log.

How far are you going for the rugged vs prop aesthetic? Have you considered alternative form factor screens? Have you considered something else than an RPi that could work with a GPT/LLM such as an NVidia Jetson (yes, I know, expensive) or a separate compute module? Do you store just things like Wikipedia or a bunch of PDFs such as "Where there is no doctor?" and "Wilderness Survival Guide?" along with other disaster recovery books?

I missed this project the first couple of times it was posted so glad to see if pop up today.

[gaudystead]

I haven't maintained it like I told myself I would, but regarding an offline repository of useful data, I made a school project a while back that aimed to fill that very niche. It was composed entirely of open source, public domain, and creative commons software, documentation (including survival guides and whatnot), and blueprints (eg buildings, greenhouses, farm equipment, tools, etc) for somebody with no internet connection, and it all fit on 16GB. Originally I distributed it under the Other -> Other category of PirateBay mostly for kicks because it was all free to share and I enjoy the distributed nature of torrents.

I've been tempted to go back and do it better, but then a career and life hit me.

It can be found at signalbundle.com for anyone interested, though I warn you that it's pretty long in the tooth at this point, and I eventually opted to host it on Google Drive for availability reasons, but it's still there if anyone's curious and/or has feedback. :)

[ChrisMarshallNY]

This is very cool. Reminds me a bit of my first engineering project.

> (Amazon may be faster but is almost always a scalper or reseller, so beware)

Yeesh. That's a burn (probably correct, though).

[pugworthy]

Jay, your work really sold me on using press nuts with 3d printing. Also the hex infill with no top or bottom layer trick. Really stylish design and engineering.

[back7co]

Thank you!

[serf]

I think that the inside should match the motif that the outsides set.

what I mean by that : the outside sets a tone of professional heavy-duty post-apocalyptic computing, yet the insides are filled with fragile wire connects, fragile routes, multiple boards and new (read: unproven) non-redundant technologies.

I would expect something that exudes that aesthetic to be wired like a NASA project [0], use radiation hardened components, redundancy, SOMETHING that speaks to the durability.

[0]: https://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/sectio...

[haswell]

The reason NASA invests so much in hardened components and redundancy is that their hardware has to continue functioning in an environment where humans cannot intervene.

The availability of commodity hardware is one of the reasons projects like the Recovery Kit can exist. Redundancy and durability can be measured in multiple ways, and I suspect it's cheaper to keep on hand a stack of backup components that can easily be swapped out than to invest the time, energy and money on a more bespoke hardened solution that can't easily be replicated and would put this project out of reach for many people trying to replicate it.

The goal of "Ruggedized Raspberry Pi" seems to have been met quite well, IMO.

[tomatohs]

I made a mini Arduino-powered smart home that was used for demos at tradeshows [1]. It had to be shipped first to San Fran, then it went to Vegas for CES and a few more places.

I had the same thought at first, "I should really solder these wires."

But then I realized that wires coming loose was inevitable given the hell this project was going to endure being handled by airlines, rolled across different terrain, and poked and proded by trade show attendees.

So I opted to use color coded jumper cables and include extra. In the manual, I included a simple wiring diagram to show how to hook everything up. No solder needed.

In the hands of a consumer, yes, everything should be soldered because there's a higher force needed to break the connection, but repair is also harder. Consumers typically do not repair, so the trade off leans toward solder. I suspect this is the perspective that inspires this comment.

In the hands of a hacker looking for durability, it's actually better for things to be replaceable. Because the hacker can repair, the advantage gained by soldering isn't worth the the friction added repair.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWcm1S_wAz0

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Just a friendly note: soldering wires causes them to become brittle and more likely to break at the end of the solder joint. If you're going to solder wire, and the item is subject to movement or vibration, be sure that the section protruding from the joint is held rigid with zip ties, tape or even hot glue.

[andrewaylett]

Maybe, but on the other hand this is what the author made and they seem quite happy with it. You're more than welcome to make something else if you don't like what they've done!

[ctxc]

They start with "I think..." and it isn't very negative, just an opinion. Why the defensive tone? :)

[jraph]

Yep, I interpreted their message as friendly feedback, not a request or negative criticism. The author is free to take this feedback and act upon it the way they see fit (which can be doing nothing).

It's somewhat how a Show HN post works, you should expect such feedback and might even be coming for it. Especially when it's not your first one, you know a bit better what to expect.

[outworlder]

While that would be neat, the drawback is a much higher barrier of entry for anyone building this (and a higher price).

[rig666]

I like the cyber deck in theory but a project I've always wanted to take on that I felt would yield more value is to restore and upgrade an old ruggedized laptop. I planned a project to restore an old getec v110 gen3 from eBay. They are often sold there with no hard drive or extra batteries but best part is most of the hardware is backwards compatible. Seemed like a ~$500 project. I then found a new gen6 model on eBay for $1400 so I just got that instead. (Some pawn shop massively undervalued it)

[rcarmo]

I like it, but the trouble with ortho keyboards is that they are quite expensive and hard to come by. I've resigned myself to "mainstream" QMK keyboards like the K7 Max (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2024/04/06/1830), but keep wondering if there's something more compact.

[matthew-wegner]

> The big downer is that we can't charge and use this battery at the same time- so that "hotwiring" of a USB-C port really helps here.

This is the battery bank I carry on trips. It can power downstream devices while it's charging, but only at >50% battery capacity.

[criddell]

A 25,600 mAh is a pretty big battery. It’s more than 5 iPhone Max batteries. This thing should be able to run for days.

[wlindley]

After a few more revisions, you can make an RK05 ! (for the youth: That's a DEC joke)

[Uptrenda]

Congrats, you've reinvented the laptop.

[croes]

Wow, 2019 is already 5 years ago.