I like the idea of using old phones for infrastructure-lite applications, taking advantage of their low power requirements and built-in UPS (which, yes, has its own drawbacks which can only be mitigated to a certain degree).
I have a number of old android devices that I'd like to use for ...something cool like this, but my existing homelab infra could just add an extra VM or container to do this without any likely additional power draw. It's still cool and I want to do it though.
My only query about this cool project is why not wifi? Whilst I'm sure there's a good reason for the author (and I can understand having esoteric specific requirements because I have my own "things"), but it would negate the need for a docking->Ethernet device, which feels to me like unnecessary addition of a device that requires power. Also, bandwidth / throughput probably isn't much of a limitation given the device that's being used. I think I'm mainly interested in the author's specific reason for this requirement (I'm a BA, these questions are my bread and butter).
Comment to author: Gotta add the Pixel 5 to your homelab inventory! Also, nice site, layout and information.
hamdingers · 1h ago
Pedantry: A _reused_ Google Pixel 5. It was not broken down and reconstituted.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is in order of environmental impact, so reusing is an upgrade!
chneu · 12m ago
Anyone else find it kinda funny to have a "fully offgrid" website? That's an oxymoron, right? How can it be off grid if it's literally connected to the grid?
I understand they're using grid to mean electrical grid, but still funny.
judge123 · 1h ago
Is a phone plugged in 24/7 actually more power-efficient than a slice of a mega-optimized cloud server?
chneu · 16m ago
Idk about power efficient but it's definitely more resource efficient. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Let's really stop fixating on the last one.
BLKNSLVR · 34m ago
It is when it's plugged into a battery which is charged from a solar panel.
mcny · 1h ago
My number one concern is how do I avoid the spicy pillow problem... If I could have phones run off of USB without a battery, I would love to do that.
You can also buy dummy batteries for certain models online.
mbasho · 19m ago
Also impressive: two simultaneous front page posts on HN!
indigodaddy · 1m ago
Oh wow, that is indeed rare I think
Havoc · 1h ago
Pretty wild how readily available compute has become. Sure not AI level compute but between modern consumer hardware and the mountain of free tier stuff out there I’ve always got more than ability to use it effectively
treesknees · 57m ago
I had a web server running on my jailbroken iPod touch back in 2009/2010. It’s neat but not entirely novel, or practical.
watusername · 1h ago
Title needs "(2024)". It's been over a year and whether the blog is still running on a recycled Pixel 5 is unclear.
No comments yet
indigodaddy · 1h ago
Question might be is it still hosted on a phone... DNS resolves to a residential ISP range, and the site seems to be holding up quite well still, so not sure
BLKNSLVR · 1h ago
Blog was Posted on Aug 29, 2024
I don't think it would suddenly be hosted on something else in the very few days since.
Edited to add: I don't think it's hosted via a phone with a SIM, it would appear that the device is connected to their home network.
Also: Haha, ooops, 2024 (not 2025!)
indigodaddy · 1h ago
Right, connected to the home lan would make sense, especially considering they detailed that it's fronted by nginx on another machine. curl -v does reveal nginx serving. I guess I was thinking maybe a phone wouldn't handle the HN load, but probably a mistaken assumption as it is after all a static site (believe it's Hugo generated html) and Pixel 5 likely has decent CPU and RAM (or at least plenty for static requests probably).
smithza · 1h ago
USB ethernet tether might be the “how” here. Or some sort of VPN (tailscale) to the home LAN that the phone is hooked up to. Not quite “off-grid”.
kovac · 1h ago
Impressive. The page loaded very quickly for me here in Singapore. Is it still running on the Pixel?
sciencesama · 1h ago
Can you stresstest it ? How many simultaneous connections can it handle ?
indigodaddy · 1h ago
I'd argue that's happening right now. But we don't know if it's still running on a phone as the post is from September 2024.
chneu · 15m ago
I'd hope this is proxied thru cloudflare's CDN, lol.
daft_pink · 1h ago
I clicked just so I could experience this! This is awesome!
I have a number of old android devices that I'd like to use for ...something cool like this, but my existing homelab infra could just add an extra VM or container to do this without any likely additional power draw. It's still cool and I want to do it though.
My only query about this cool project is why not wifi? Whilst I'm sure there's a good reason for the author (and I can understand having esoteric specific requirements because I have my own "things"), but it would negate the need for a docking->Ethernet device, which feels to me like unnecessary addition of a device that requires power. Also, bandwidth / throughput probably isn't much of a limitation given the device that's being used. I think I'm mainly interested in the author's specific reason for this requirement (I'm a BA, these questions are my bread and butter).
Comment to author: Gotta add the Pixel 5 to your homelab inventory! Also, nice site, layout and information.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is in order of environmental impact, so reusing is an upgrade!
I understand they're using grid to mean electrical grid, but still funny.
You can also buy dummy batteries for certain models online.
No comments yet
I don't think it would suddenly be hosted on something else in the very few days since.
Edited to add: I don't think it's hosted via a phone with a SIM, it would appear that the device is connected to their home network.
Also: Haha, ooops, 2024 (not 2025!)