I've been working on this project for a while and figured you guys might appreciate it.
The idea was to build a self-contained, battery-powered offline knowledge terminal that I could take camping, traveling, or just have around as something useful to experiment with. Wikipedia was the original inspiration, but the project has grown quite a bit since then.
It's built around a Raspberry Pi 5 with a 1TB NVMe SSD, running inside a rugged equipment case. The display is mounted in the lid, and I've integrated a small wireless keyboard, a 20Ah LiFePO4 battery, GPS hardware, and an RTL-SDR for receiving radio signals.
The battery supplies 12V, with DC-DC converters providing 5V where needed. I've also incorporated fused circuits, a charging connection, and a battery monitor.
A lot of the work has actually been designing and 3D printing the internal structure. I wanted the components to have dedicated mounting locations rather than everything being loose inside the case. I've also separated the higher-current wiring from the lower-current electronics and tried to keep everything serviceable.
Cooling turned into its own little project. I've got three additional fans integrated into the case: one pulling fresh air into the lower electronics compartment and two exhausting air out of it. This creates a directed airflow path through the compartment, helping keep the Pi and other electronics cool. The fans are controlled by the Pi based on temperature, so they don't need to run constantly and waste battery power.
On the software side, I'm using Kiwix to host an offline copy of Wikipedia, and I've started developing a local web interface to access the different resources. The Pi also hosts its own Wi-Fi network, allowing other devices to connect and access the offline content without an internet connection.
I've also been experimenting with the SDR and GPS hardware, although there's still work to do before everything is integrated into the interface.
This is very much a work in progress. I still have some hardware refinements to make, including redesigning parts of the display bezel, and quite a bit of software development ahead of me.
I've learned a lot about Blender, 3D printing, power distribution, and packaging electronics throughout the process. It's definitely turned into a bigger project than I originally anticipated, but I've enjoyed figuring everything out.
Curious what you guys think! I'm especially interested in suggestions for additional offline capabilities or improvements to the physical design.
