davideisinger.com/static/archive/blog-ctms-me-eg0pab.txt

[1]Dom Corriveau
[2]About [3]Bookmarks [4]RSS [5]Uses [6]Wants

Offgrid internet-in-a-box project - Part one

Posted on Jan 17, 2025

For fun, I like to invent scenarios and then build a tech setup for it. One of
the builds I think about a lot is having a completely offgrid (and obviously
offline) portable internet-in-a-box. This is the first steps in that build,
laying out the requirements and choosing the hardware.

The scenario

Let me define what is a portable internet-in-a-box.

In this scenario, I am imagining I am going to be living in an offgrid cabin
for a year. The cabin has limited power availability and zero internet access.
No home internet and no mobile data. Over the course of a year, I want to be
able to consume media (TV, movies, music, books, podcasts), access information
about topics (e.g. Wikipedia), read info technical websites (e.g.
StackExchange; AskUbuntu), and do hobby projects on a PC (install packages and
apps). After all, playing with computers is my hobby.

Even though I’m a bit of a prepper, this isn’t a prepper build (it could be
used in that scenario, too, I guess). In a prepper build, I would want life
saving information such as medical info, foraging for food, topographical maps,
etc. My offgrid scenario here will have some of this information, I will be
living in an offgrid cabin for an entire year. But, this isn’t a doomsday
build.

Project boundaries

I do have some rules for this build:

  • Cannot spend any money, not that I have any money to spend. Needs to all
    done with parts I already own.
  • It should be a finished build. Can’t “borrow” parts from something else
    just for the build and then disassemble this build to put things back.
  • The project has to be fun. Don’t get hung up on having the “perfect” setup,
    have fun building a potentially and most definitely useless PC.

Project details

The requirements for this build a low. I am not anticipating a lot of people
accessing the data and all the media is formatted to reduce storage space,
which also makes the hardware requirements lower. The things I want this build
to do is possible by any computer in the last 10-15 years.

MVP requirements

  • Play SD videos with captions
  • Listen to music and archived podcasts
  • Read eBooks
  • Run a web server
  • Use aptly on localhost as the apt packages source
  • Install archived flatpaks and Docker containers as necessary
  • Play Luanti with VoxeLibre at 45+ FPS (essentially a Minecraft clone)
  • Play selection of retro games with wired gamepad
  • View/edit markdown notes
  • View/edit doc/xls files
  • Open encrypted volumes
  • Run Kiwix locally and with Docker for multi-device access on small LAN
  • Access password and MFA databases (just in case)
  • Run for 8 hours from 170Wh power station

I am choosing this power station as the energy source because it can easily be
charged from a single solar panel. Part of the scenario is figuring out how to
keep consistent power to the build without using the limited power available to
the cabin. The build needs to be standalone.

Networking

Separately but a part of this build, is a small GL.iNet travel router. This is
part of the project so there can be a lightweight LAN. The GL.iNet travel
router uses around 1w and runs from USB power.

I imagine with this scenario I am still bringing some sort of a mobile device
and I’d like to access the data on the build from that mobile. I also doubt I
would be going without my wife, who will also want to access the data from her
mobile.

Choosing right machine

Lenovo Ideapad 110s

I picked up the [7]Ideapad 110s from the Goodwill Finds site for $20 a year ago
or so. I as looking around at used ultra-portable laptops and I figured $20
(plus shipping) was low enough to try it out. It didn’t work out for me as an
EDC laptop, but I never stopped tinkering with it.

The specs:

  • 11 inch 1366x786 screen
  • Intel Celeron N3060 (Braswell) CPU. Dual core; No hyper-threading; 1.6 -
    2.4 GHz.
  • 2 GB DDR3L soldered RAM
  • 32 GB eMMC flash storage
  • A 2280 m.2 SSD slot with a 128 GB off-brand SSD installed (my addition)

Notes on testing this laptop for the builld:

  • External USB drive works fine, mounts no issues. There is a single USB 3.0
    port, so speeds are good.
  • Video playback is fine for the standard definition quality TV shows,
    movies, and YouTube videos.
  • Is x86, so will run the flatpaks and docker containers I have in my offline
    archive.
  • Played Luanti and with some tweaks it can run between 40-60 FPS.
  • Battery constantly runs out, even when off. So, when plugging in to use,
    there is a spike of energy usage (40 watts) while it fills the battery.
    Once the battery was full, it settled around 8w. Interestingly, with the
    battery disconnected, it uses less power (5w), even when the battery is
    full.
  • When playing videos or Luanti, no noticeable spike in energy usage.
    Charging still uses the most energy. Once full, no real spike. Went up to
    10w.
  • Playing a video at full screen with brightness at max and sound on, while
    also accessing a streaming a video to another device, this laptop only used
    16w under that load.
  • Since this device has a screen, keyboard, and trackpad built it, it is an
    easier setup than using the NucBox G3 with the lapdock. Less parts, less
    cables. But, significantly less compute and performance.

GMK NucBox G3 + UPerfect Lapdock

This is a minuscule x86 [8]mini PC my wife got me for my birthday last year. It
performs surprisingly well for how small of a package it is.

The specs:

  • Intel Alder Lake N97 CPU. Quad core, no hyper-threading; 3.6 GHz clock
    speed
  • 12 GB soldered DDR5 RAM
  • 256 GB 2242 m.2 NVMe SSD

Although this setup has much more compute, the NucBox doesn’t have a screen or
any peripherals. Building with this PC requires significant more work and much
more complicated than an all-in-one device. Additionally, it uses more power
than the Lenovo laptop. I have to weigh out if the increased power usage and
setup complexity are worth the extra compute.

Testing results:

  • Lapdock uses 11w while charging (and screen on) and 17w charging screen off
    (weird).
  • NucBox + lapdock power on surge to 25w
  • Interesting thought: NucBox surges up to 28w while under load installing
    Debian. I think it can peak around 40w. With the battery removed from the
    Lenovo, it can never peak this high.
  • Luanti gameplay locked at 60 FPS at default settings (no tweaks), but using
    34w.
  • Idles at 24w when screen is off. That’s weird. With no display, it must be
    raising the CPU usage.
  • 28w with external drive connected and watching movie.
  • Something I’m discounting here is the lapdock charging. The lapdock is
    using 11w to charge. Take 11w off of my totals and the usage is way lower.
  • So, uses 23w with the lapdock fully charged, while playing a movie at max
    brightness and sound on. The Lenovo in the same scenario uses 14w.

RPI + UPerfect Lapdock

This is the RPI 2 Model B. Threw it in, expecting it to use less power, but
unsure how it will perform. My expectations were low going into the testing.

  • The desktop performs surprisingly well.
  • Like the NucBox, it does not have a screen or any peripherals. All this has
    to be added to the build and increases complexity.
  • CPU and RAM usage is low when playing video, another surprise.
  • Video playback was missing a lot of frames, so won’t work for my use case.
    It absolutely has to play all content smoothly.
  • It was using 18.5w altogether, with external drive and lapdock. This is
    roughly the same, if not higher, than the Lenovo, but being an unsupported
    arm32 chipset and still needs the lapdock. It is only about 5w less than
    the GMK.

Hardware choice

After all my testing, I decided to go with the Lenovo Ideapad 110s laptop. The
main reason is it has significantly less complexity in the setup and I think I
can work around the lower compute performance. In addition to have the screen,
keyboard, and trackpad all build it, it also has an SD card slot, a headphone
jack, and its own battery.

The NucBox would perform better, but is essentially useless without any
peripherals. In my scenario I might regret not having more compute. But, if the
lapdock dies or a keyboard fails, I have no way of using it. This is the same
scenario for the Pi. Plus, they both use more energy, which would cut down on
runtime from a small power station.

The next posts will be about what data I will be accessing, how I organized
that data, and what I’m using to access or serve that data.

- - - - -

Thank you for reading! If you would like to comment on this post you can start
a conversation on the Fediverse. Message me on Mastodon at [9]
@cinimodev@masto.ctms.me. Or, you may email me at [10]
blog.discourse904@8alias.com. This is an intentionally masked email address
that will be forwarded to the correct inbox.

  • [11]offgrid
  • [12]offline
  • [13]projects
  • [14]prepper

[15] [16] [17] [18]
2025 © Dom Corriveau | [19]Never Monetize | [20]A.I. policy

References:

[1] https://blog.ctms.me/
[2] https://blog.ctms.me/about
[3] https://feed.ctms.me/
[4] https://blog.ctms.me/index.xml
[5] https://blog.ctms.me/uses/
[6] https://blog.ctms.me/wants/
[7] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-IdeaPad-110S-N3060-32-GB-Subnotebook-Review.257770.0.html
[8] https://www.gmktec.com/products/intel-alder-lake-n97-mini-pc-nucbox-g5
[9] https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev
[10] mailto:blog.discourse904@8alias.com
[11] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/offgrid
[12] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/offline
[13] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/projects
[14] https://blog.ctms.me/tags/prepper
[15] https://github.com/cinimodev
[16] https://masto.ctms.me/@cinimodev
[17] https://www.youtube.com/dominiccorriveau
[18] https://blog.ctms.me/index.xml
[19] https://www.nevermonetize.com/
[20] https://blog.ctms.me/ai-usage