This is my second dive into this, and I’ve been thinking about…for literally a full year. Full redesign, adding other functions. The original brief was to make something fully off-grid. Then I got to thinking about the point, the whole point was to bring in enough features to replicate a lot of what we take for granted because it’s convenient while learning more about these things.
Constraints#
Of course I added extra stuff on top of the original brief. It was almost 36" wide and 18" deep. It was as much JB Weld as it was PLA. So the new set of requirements. The system must fit inside of an 11"x17" piece of legal paper with more functionality. Pack everything into a smaller form factor. What could possibly go wrong?
Functionality#
It goes with the territory here that I’m going to add functionality. I want to build this entire system once, exactly once. Then riff on it with modules. I like modules, with that I’m building out a cartridge like system that’s not power hungry and each piece will be purpose built around a feature. The cards will be pluggable and in theory seamless, fully self contained. Plug-in the GPS module and it has its own topographical maps already loaded for display and location.
Longer battery life. The old setup had about 5-6 hours worth of function which was drastically reduced with media. I’m fixing that. I’ll also call out that watching a movie or tv show on a 5" screen is a sub optimal experience. So I’m moving this to a 10.1" screen and figure out the power stuff as we go.
More Solar Panels….kind of goes with the territory right? More power = more to recharge = more panels to recharge it. The solar panels were never meant to power the whole system, they’re meant to slow the bleed of electricity and extend the runtime but never fully run off of solar. TerminalDawn was never meant to be a 24/7 like we have now. It’s meant to be knowledge repository not a machine you sit in front of for hours.
What’s Next#
The redesign is in progress. I’ll post some pictures of the CAD drawings in the next post. I will say I moved from a rectangular form factor to a more ovoid shape, and I’ve moved from aircraft plugs to running wiring hidden in the chassis or hopefully cleverly hidden plugs. Should be interesting to see where I land on it…I don’t even know yet.
Links#
Software Mentioned