Arkanet
Member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2026
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 14
Hi all
Joburg guy here. Over the last while I've been building something in my spare time and it's finally at the point where I can show it off and take a beating from this forum.
It started with two annoyances. First, load-shedding taking out fibre and mobile towers at the same time, so even "I have data" stops meaning "I have internet". Second, trips into the Karoo and across borders where there's no signal at all, and suddenly you can't look up anything, not even a map.
So I built Arkanet. It's a Raspberry Pi in a case that broadcasts its own Wi-Fi hotspot. You connect your phone or laptop to it like any other network, open a browser, and you get a local library that needs no internet, no SIM and no data:
You don't have to take my word for any of this. There's a live demo of the actual interface at demo.arkanet.co.za, so go break it before you comment.
Everything on it is properly licensed for redistribution (CC BY-SA, public domain, ODbL etc). That constraint shaped the whole content selection and it was honestly the hardest part of the project.
It runs off a normal USB power supply or a decent power bank, so it works during load-shedding by design.
I'm selling assembled, individually numbered units at arkanet.co.za (R3,999 for the Special Edition). It's early days, first units are out in the wild. But I'm mainly posting here because this forum will find the holes in it faster than anyone else.
So: AMA, and be brutal. What's missing? What would make this actually useful to you, or what makes it a hard pass? Happy to go into the technical weeds on the stack (Kiwix, MapLibre, PMTiles, nginx) if anyone's interested.
Photos attached.
Joburg guy here. Over the last while I've been building something in my spare time and it's finally at the point where I can show it off and take a beating from this forum.
It started with two annoyances. First, load-shedding taking out fibre and mobile towers at the same time, so even "I have data" stops meaning "I have internet". Second, trips into the Karoo and across borders where there's no signal at all, and suddenly you can't look up anything, not even a map.
So I built Arkanet. It's a Raspberry Pi in a case that broadcasts its own Wi-Fi hotspot. You connect your phone or laptop to it like any other network, open a browser, and you get a local library that needs no internet, no SIM and no data:
- Offline Wikipedia in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu and isiXhosa, plus Vikidia (the kids' encyclopedia)
- Offline maps covering South Africa and the surrounding Southern African region, with a live "you are here" GPS dot. Your phone's GPS works fine without signal, the device just serves the map tiles it normally can't download. No hunting for a new map download when you cross a border
- Load a GPX or KML route onto it, or draw one by tapping the map, and every phone on the hotspot sees the same route and waypoints. One person plans, the whole group has it
- Wikimed offline medical reference, and Wikivoyage travel guides
- A curated phrasebook in Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sepedi and Setswana, everyday and emergency phrases, human-curated rather than machine translated
- 80+ practical guides: solar and inverter setup, load-shedding management, water, off-grid living, food preservation, plus a proper collection of SA recipes
- Wikibooks and Wikiversity for students
You don't have to take my word for any of this. There's a live demo of the actual interface at demo.arkanet.co.za, so go break it before you comment.
Everything on it is properly licensed for redistribution (CC BY-SA, public domain, ODbL etc). That constraint shaped the whole content selection and it was honestly the hardest part of the project.
It runs off a normal USB power supply or a decent power bank, so it works during load-shedding by design.
I'm selling assembled, individually numbered units at arkanet.co.za (R3,999 for the Special Edition). It's early days, first units are out in the wild. But I'm mainly posting here because this forum will find the holes in it faster than anyone else.
So: AMA, and be brutal. What's missing? What would make this actually useful to you, or what makes it a hard pass? Happy to go into the technical weeds on the stack (Kiwix, MapLibre, PMTiles, nginx) if anyone's interested.
Photos attached.
