DarkPi

On this,
the darkest night,
we present to you,

Dear Reader,

the DarkPi,
(...our modular portable computer.)

After 8 years of hobby-level effort,
this cybredeck  is ready to be funded into reality.

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# Why?

Far too few end-user repairable (much less end-user buildable) devices exist.
Far too few modular, intentionally customizeable devices exist.
Far too few devices exist to facilitate, rather than captivate.

Far too many corporations fork over their userbase for a bit of advertisement revenue.
Far too many organizations push subtle toxicity.
Far too many people buy disposable tech.

Enough reasons for something new and *significantly* different, yet?

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# What's the pitch, then?
With your money, we will polish the sysadmin-usable tool that is already sitting on our desk into a base unit.

Then, based on the ongoing market polling , we'll release three modular capabilities enhancers.

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# Give us an example.
There's a puck you carry in your purse.
Your other puck plugs into the wall under the TV.

Because you bought the environmental sensing puck for your second one, you can always remotely check the temp and humidity levels in the media  room, and if you'd sprung for the weather station, you'd get outdoor environmental statistics and a Little Free Library for next to your mailbox.

You can use your pursepuck to flip through your subscribed shows, or to pull up an audio/video/text chat session.

When it's time to recharge, you can set it on one of the charge pads, or use a magnet to pop the the battery pack off, and hot-swap it with a full one.

Sure, it's no replacement for your smartphone, but it integrates well, and you mostly forget it exists, most days.

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# Give us another one.
Every day on the bus, you listen to an audio book from Scribd  on your puck.
(disclaimer: we're unaffiliated, we just think DRM-free stuff is the most user-friendly.)

You opted for the navigation module, so you can concentrate on your stories,
knowing that the internal GPS is watching the route you traced last time your schedule changed,
and the puck will fade & pause your book's narration when you arrive at your stop.

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# Okay, keep going.
You gave them to your kids for the holidays, and now talking with them is as easy as turning on the TV.

The telecom module was easy to set up, and because you scanned the QR code before wrapping the gifts, now you can keep an eye on the grandkids remotely when the parents turn on "date night mode".

---

There's one in the truck, and one under a five gallon bucket behind the house.
Because one is in the sun frequently, and the other is near an electric fence, they both passively charge, and you know that photos from the job site will survive a dropped device.

Plus, having the ability to check cached web pages from off the grid makes it easy to do research on your phone at that one truck stop that has free wifi.

Phone connects to truck, truck connects to wifi, and you get advertisement-free browsing and an offline mode that doesn't suck.

---

You haven't seen anyone in days, but the mountain near your home is almost in view.
It's a long walk, but your family rarely needs things from the outside world.
Building a digital library involved following schematics from the internet, but the solar e-ink reading screens you're carrying mean that your family can all enjoy literature translated into their preferred language, and education resources too.

---

Your second home is half a continent away, and the security system is nice, but a bit dated.
Nobody makes the mainboard for the closed circuit cameras anymore,
but at less than a tenth of the cost, and far better picture, the pluggable mesh cameras really make it easy to move on from your dead electronic eyes.

Waterproof and ruggedized, the meshcams can notify of movement in their individual view, and any physical disturbance of the device.

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# What's the difference between a base unit and a module?
The base unit is the cybredeck, and facilitates data analysis once sensors, modules, or manual override trigers a sync.

A module is an addon, something extra.
A heartbeat monitor.
A humidity sensor.
A pressure, heat, or fire sensor.

This system can be anything you want, but your want has to be specific.

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# So, what the heck is a cybredeck?

So very glad you asked.



A cybredeck is a portable computer concept,
applied loosely to most small computing devices in the maker world,
(by their creator or fans, normally).

Here's where ours is, currently:



It's a lot prettier when it turns on, but the intention is to be *useful* rather than *pretty*.

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# What do you mean "Useful"?

You may be operating under the assumption that technology allows you to be more productive, happier, and more efficient.
This might even be true, were it not for consumerist mindset of most mainstream manufactured tech.

Without a specific problem to solve, technology becomes a filler for the time gained through the use of it.
For every minute we save, there's an app, an ad, or a new post to use it on.
Technology is just another type of chain.

Don't believe me?

See what happens when the wireless internet goes out at a cafe.
Or a school.
Or work.

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# So, the internet is the problem?
Not...exactly.

The internet is more like a trap that exacerbates the problem.

The core problem is that developers of software, hardware, and marketing have a rather significant self-interest in making sure you keep using their stuff...and that when it breaks (because it was designed to break), they want you to buy a new one from them.

This cycle of purchase, get comfortable, replace has resulted in a world paradigm where consumer electronic waste is generated in excess of 44 million metric tons, and less than 20% of it was reclaimed.

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# So, consumerism is the problem?
Not...exactly.

Those numbers are there because *someone* decided to produce things that were less-repairable than what they sold you last time.
The numbers are also due to intentionally-restricted access to tools/information/parts to repair things, among other tactics.

The problem is that capitalism incentivizes consumerism, and toxic change often happens too slowly to notice.

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#So, why should we give you specifically our money?
Because if you fund this now, the first edition will be out next fall, which means you'll get one for the holidays, obviously.

On a less tongue-in-cheek note,
because this project is moving forward with or without you.

I just can't sign a contract for a finished product to ship until I've done the development of that product, and it's up to you whether it's ready for the holidays ina year, or in another ten years.

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# ...okay, what are you actually selling at the end of this?
One base model (the "Shard") and three modules (tbd, consumer base polling in progress).

Everything else is stretch goals at the moment.

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# How are you starting with money?
A private donor gave us an initial amount, and it's enough for today.

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# Why that amount?
That's about what a decent mechanical engineer makes at a dead-end job these days.

I live in a tiny house, and am given to few excesses (and much efficiency of finance).
This amount would be enough to feed my family, purchase the parts we've budgeted for, and a bit of a buffer for the unexpected.
There's also a bit for outside labour and advertising.