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Stardate: 20210516.2248 | |
Location: The Lab | |
Input Device: daimos | |
Audio: Tracy Chapman | |
Visual: bright screen glow, ambient multi-colored LEDs | |
Emotional: Sunday night, meh. | |
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I have been revisiting an air-gapped, table top, mini Raspberry Pi | |
lab in my computing lab at home. It was called to my attention when | |
I read this article, "Creating Your Own Digital Fortess of Solitude." | |
[1] The author basically writes about cloud computing, | |
offline/partially online computing, and stuff you can do to not rely | |
on the cloud so much. Good article and lots of helpful tips! | |
The table top mini Pi lab is basically a collection of Raspberry Pi | |
projects that I have assembled and tinkered with over the years. | |
Included in the bottom of this phost is a link to a picture I took | |
this evening of the lab devices.[2] | |
These devices have not been updated since I put them together since | |
they are not on a public network, but they still function as | |
intended. I have been thinking of updating them or maybe even | |
disassembling them and repurpose the parts for other projects. I'm | |
not sure why, especially if the mini lab is air-gapped and the | |
projects are complete. Well, I don't think I will make any hard | |
decisions tonight. | |
Regarding the picture, what I have here from left to right is the | |
following: | |
1. Raspberry Pi 2b NAS, running Open Media Vault, with 3 USB drives | |
(60GB, 375GB, and 500GB.) The case is repurposed jewelry box | |
from a thrift store. | |
2. 4-node Raspberry Pi 2b Hadoop Cluster with wifi router, | |
5-port ethernet switch, and 5-port USB hub for power. The case | |
is a repurposed football display case that I mounted on a | |
swiveling platform. I fabricated a door from acrylic sheet and | |
added USB fans for cooling. The cluster can run on a 12 volt | |
battery. | |
3. Raspberry Pi 2b with 3-watt speakers running RaspPiOS (recently | |
upgraded.) Used for remote terminal applications and streaming | |
music from the NAS. The case is also a repurposed jewelry box | |
that matches the NAS. On top is a DVD burner. | |
4. Raspberry Pi 3b in a Retroflag NESPi case. The monitor is a 7" | |
LCD with speakers. All of this attached to a repurposed broken | |
clock with clock face removed. The back has a door that provides | |
storage for the power adapters and controllers. The Pi3 runs | |
RetroPie with a handful of old gaming console emulators. | |
5. In the middle is an Arduino Esplora game controller on an oriental | |
rug mouse pad. Underneath is a cutting mat to give perspective | |
of size. | |
My main concern right now is the Hadoop Cluster. I have not done | |
any tinkering with it for over a year and I'm not sure what to do | |
with it. I'd like to keep it as a cluster, but I could also | |
separate the functionality of each node. Maybe I could just keep | |
the microSD cards as is and swap out for different cards when I'm | |
not cluster computing. Not sure what the state of pi clustering is | |
these days, especially for Pi 2b. Perhaps I should do some | |
research. | |
The nice thing about this lab is that it does not take too much to | |
power. If I used old PC's, I'm sure it would take quite a bit of | |
power. Perhaps I should run some power tests and take some readings. | |
Maybe I should put up something in my Projects section of my gopher | |
hole regarding pi projects. I do have some old notes. At least it | |
would help motivate me to organize and document stuff I've worked on. | |
[1] Building Your Own Digital Fortress of Solitude | |
[2] Air-gapped, table top Raspberry Pi Lab | |
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