Junk phones -> Desktop Computers

They're ubiquitous and littered around our modern world

A question I get asked frequently up here is “what computer do I need to use VAULT-SYS?” I am so busy trying to finish up the first version here that I cannot go into much detail for them. It is nevertheless a question important enough to warrant an entire book after the user’s manual. Chapters on how to turn nearly any computer you find into a component of some sort on your internal network.

Imagine discovering the best computer companion in the post apocalyptic environment was already in your hand to begin with.

I had a look before writing this article and found two SAMSUNG retired GALAXY phones and three cloneware phones from Asia. All of them still boot up the last time I checked. Biggest problem would likely be the rechargeable battery but plugged into an external source of USB power, most mobile phones will run anyway.

There are two functional slots in the VAULT-SYS network system for which a computer system of some kind is needed:

1. Server.

2. Browser.

The server runs VAULT-SYS. It actually runs the HTTP, MQTT, Modbus and SNTP services.

A browser terminal is not to be underestimated. It can do anything you could do in front of the server computer with the authorizations. If they are cheap and easy to acquire you can put stations all over your network. One decent 20 year old laptop for the server and 10 workstations to consult it anywhere, anytime over Ethernet. Do a price comparison between my plan (~freeish) and your average government shelter. About a ten million dollar difference minimum. The phones are very low current draw, chargeable over USB and can be configured many different ways to get them hooked up to a closed IP4 Ethernet network.

In 2005 when I got my first version running as a networked application, the cheapest junk computers in the world were thin clients left over from corporations phasing them out for other solutions. Companies were dumping them in boxes on EBay for $1.00 each in quantity. I bought lots of them. A stroll through a big city would often feature skip bins filled with them in addition to IPX desk phones. (Another rich subject for discussion one of these days as internal phone system in the shelter)

So my strategy hovered around discarded computers like these for server and client, in the hopes I would keep it so simple somebody with $5 or good scavenging skills could set up a VAULT-SYS network.

Things have changed. Mobile phones are about a thousandfold increase in computer power over a WYSE thin client with 64K RAM in 2005. Why not make use of them, since they are even more disposable than the thin clients ever were?

Most importantly if nothing else they run modern browsers with little difficulty including streaming cameras, SVG vector graphics and good support for voice synthesis, recognition and general audio. This means a lot of client code I have in VAULT-SYS is redundant for fallback to IE6 browsers but I am going to leave it in there anyway because it isn’t hurting anything.

“High-Definition Mobile Screen Amplifier with Foldable Stand - 10/12 Inch Desktop Video Magnifying Glass” … $5.97 on Temu

Have seen this one in a thrift store down the block from me. They cost a lot less than a desktop LCD monitor and technically use no power, just optics and light.

The bigger screen requirement can be solved in a lot of ways that are dirt cheap and require little or no money to fix.

You can cobble together DIY screens with a $1 magnifier sheet from the Family Dollar Store

If you can scavenge up a dock or make your own with a USB3 extender, you can create a full fledged desktop machine with a mouse and keyboard. That’s pretty amazing for a junk computer you had in a drawer that you forgot about years ago.

Samsung and now other phone companies can wrap an enterprise around it, even giving you a new software OS to install which is oriented toward desktop computer functionality.

Samsung Dex, a complete mini desktop for your old mobile phone

Tablet devices on Android are also supported, which starts to make this an attractive option for a lot of old computers you have laying around you thought had seen their better days. Turns out you got a supercomputer in your sock drawer that would stun people in 1992 if they saw it running. Maybe their best days are still ahead of them if you can switch them over to network monitors for VAULT-SYS.

Most people go to this trouble to set their old phones up as media machines so they can watch movies or listen to podcasts. Those alternate applications might be useful in the shelter as well. I would advise you to split duties between two old phones - one can be devoted to entertainment, the other a standalone browser for the internal network. This way one will be reserved for shelter use only and nobody will tamper with its configuration.

There are one million complementary, cheap gadgets to complement a phone desktop system. The market is glutted with them. External speakers, plugs for serial devices, adjustable mounts, radiation sensors, temperature and humidity dongles and who knows what else. To add to the fun, there are a million free applications you can install and run on your phone that may be of use to you, in fact you may already be using them now. You should not have a connection to the internet (unless intermittently) but most free apps are designed to run offline anyway.

The reason we have not covered their possible use as a server is because I have not ported it from C code yet to the Android platform. That would be a great project when I have more time on my hands and I fully intend to either do it or farm it out to somebody else to do. Like other platforms it would be great when it is running but WIN 32 continues to be the most useful target for version one.

If you look with new eyes, you would find our modern world is a gigantic landfill of old computers with processing power that would make MIT technology professors in 1985 turn blue and pass out from shock. They are more than adequate in most cases to run our modest application. I have designed it from the beginning not to require threads or multiprocessors or any fancy features at all. It is capable of being ported to a thousand existing systems with a little work. It will still be amazing on all of them.

You know your platform is modest when if needed, it can be emulated on the new target machine. This is also an option I have yet to investigate. Running the server on an android phone would be absolutely perfect. A good approach for researching soon.

A gigantic topic omitted here is protecting electronic devices from EMP. A faraday bag or a faraday cage with ground is a good start but there are a million details. One of the most important is to remember to never connect to the external internet for any reason directly. Particularly before an EMP event.

Right now I am targeting the end of November and focused on it every single day. I hope with a new President I will be able to get it out finally. My thanks to all the supporters of this project, it has really helped motivate me to complete the first version. I spent this entire week straightening out some of the functionality associated with the installation and update patching of the SQL database and it appears to be working relatively good now. Another detail that took some time but anticipated future expansion as the system receives regular update installers.

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• Regards, Tex