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Yeah I don't want LLMs near anything life or death, where a hallucination can kill, thank you very much.
So, I certainly see the inherited risk and problems, but mostly think about it as a means of information extraction
Please reconsider using a full text search index instead.
Wonder if that would run in a current version of Windows...
E-ink or transflective LCD or maybe the modified LED used by the Daylight Computer folks.
Agree that AI needs to go as not reliable enough for life-death situations.
The hardware component will be open sourced in a separate repo, once the prototype is tested in the field to validate the configuration. I hope to make it public in January.
Feel free to email us (hn@ycombinator.com) to discuss further.
I’ll email you separately as well.
think of it as a modular field computer inspired by Flipper Zero, but aimed at outdoors/survival/trades folks instead of security people.
Right now I'm deep in the software/OS layer - getting the core system working (Qt/QML UI, Docker services, on-device AI with Phi-3, offline maps, Meshtastic integration). Once I validate everything with field tests, I'll finalize the hardware design. It's built on Raspberry Pi 5 + ESP32-S3 doing the heavy lifting for LoRa mesh comms and always-on sensors.
The big idea is making something that's flexible like Flipper Zero but for different use cases - you could run apps for hunting, survival navigation, plant identification, whatever fits your lifestyle. The app ecosystem is key - I want developers to easily build specialized tools that work in their workflow.
Communication-first design too - Meshtastic for long-range mesh when networks are down, with graceful degradation from LTE → WiFi → LoRa → GPS beacon. The whole thing is designed to work offline-first - max functionality with zero internet dependency.
Still super early (hence the software focus first), but the goal is a rugged platform that people can actually build on and customize for their specific needs. Not trying to replace phones, just be the reliable tool that works when phones don't.
If you're out in the field, a rugged area with no reception you still need to communicate with the others in the team. Lora's very long range. There's no reason not to add a Lora based chat application.
I have experienced this on a recent rugged hike where we really could have done with local, non mobile based network communication.
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