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There's been a lot of interest in a comms feature, and Meshtastic integration is genuinely on my list. Being upfront: nothing built yet, current product ships properly first. But it's the direction I'm leaning.Now link it to a decent multi band radio to enable talking to, and exchanging updates with other preppers…
Looks like you are having good fun
what compression did you use ARJ? RAR? ZIP? ACE?
I suggest you make it available at additional cost if that helps.
Going to need middle-out compression for this one
Who needs compression? You got a whopping 1.44mb there, more than enough.
You would just have to find a way to lock it down otherwise anyone with the full package can clone the USB and hand it to a pal.
Fair on both. You can, and for city driving Google offline is genuinely good. The differences: you have to download each region in advance while you still have data, the downloads expire after a few weeks unless refreshed, and it's per-phone. Arkanet has the whole of Southern Africa on it permanently, no downloading, no expiry, and a route one person plans shows on every phone in the group, plus GPX files for the 4x4 routes Google doesn't have. Cross a border, nothing to fetch.
Totally fair, if you're running NAS drives you're exactly the person who'd build this rather than buy it, and that's great. On the bandwidth point though, the pitch was never data cost, it's data absence.
My man, there's so many cheap things out there that can be made to run Linux and provide these same services. Raspberry Pi is expensive, there's always been cheaper boards for a start.
Kiwix is an app. You just just download it off the app store for free.. Yes you can run it on dedicated hardware too, but downloading a free app on your phone for the same functionality is just easier - just without a dedicated wifi hotspot device that this box offers.
Phones tend to be so blase, I like to build things that can run from 12V DC
Sure, in this case then... this box is for you.
You're right, and I'd go further: if you know what Kiwix is, you're probably not who this is for, genuinely, go build it, it's a great project. The box is for everyone who never will. What you can't get from Kiwix on a phone though is the maps side: live GPS on offline Southern Africa tiles, draw or import GPX routes, and every phone on the hotspot sees the same route, which is most of the point for the bush. Plus it serves the whole family at once instead of one screen, and the curated SA guides and phrasebook aren't in any ZIM you can download. Yes, you could build this with some effort. I'm selling the removal of the effort, plus the parts you can't download.
You could also fall from a ridge as you climb, breaking the phone and a leg. Then hopefully the wife can just hotspot to a box such as this and figure out where to get help.
