This Rugged Cyberdeck Dates All the Way Back to 1953
When Hansj66 came across an electronics enclosure made for the USASC in 1953, he knew he had to turn it into this hacker-friendly cyberdeck.
The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) dates all the way back to 1860, meaning it predated the American Civil War, as well as the invention of radio communication by decades. But the USASC became particularly important during the WWII, as they were responsible for the development and implementation of a great deal of communication technology, as well as systems like radar. In some ways, USASC personnel were some of the first hackers in history. So, when Hans Jørgen Grimstad (AKA hansj66) came across an old electronics storage enclosure made for the USASC in 1953, he knew he had to turn it into a hacker-friendly cyberdeck.
The enclosure in question is just a glorified storage box originally meant to contain spare parts, like fuses and vacuum tubes. But it was made for the USASC and it has a very cool WWII military style. And more importantly, it was a size perfect for a cyberdeck. After getting the box into his hands, Grimstad pulled out the original interior padding and got to work filling the space with modern electronic components.
The heart of the build is a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB RAM model) single-board computer. For storage, Grimstad added a Pimoroni NVMe Base with a 500GB NVMe SSD. That should be much more robust and reliable than the typical microSD card. An aluminum heatsink and fan help keep the Raspberry Pi cool, while a secondary fan moves hot air out of the enclosure. The Raspberry Pi sends a video signal to a small 7” LCD screen via one of the HDMI connections. Finally, a small keyboard sits in the bottom half of the enclosure. Power comes from an external supply.
Grimstad laser-cut FR4 panels to hold the keyboard, monitor, and other components in place. They also gave Grimstad a place to attach external USB and Ethernet ports. There was even enough room for some fun decorative details, like a label printed on a typewriter.
The final touch was a small “self-destruct” button. Grimstad says that it doesn’t do anything yet, but there are many possibilities. He may make the button trigger an animation or something fun like that. But in recognition of the inspiration, we think he should make that button wipe and destroy to the SSD to keep valuable intelligence data from falling into enemy hands.