Patrons Only- Forward Field Station (August 11, 2023)

Thank you to my supporters who have donated - this is an exclusive post for the group. Besides just making a table, the Forward Field Station (FFS) will be embedded with a few tech options. One of them naturally is some kind of cyberdeck or compute unit. While I have some specific goals in mind, I try to keep the design flexible for people to repurpose later- there are always cool things I hadn't thought of. Plus, the people who send in photos of their decks based on my design really make my day when I see them.

So far the sketch for the table is that it'll have 4 tiles, each with a different function. Here's the latest sketch:

I need to consider mounting hardware or ports on all sides- top and bottom for mounting to the larger base structure, as well as on the sides for the other tiles. In addition, I also need the various ports and cables for different kinds of connections. This may mean an extra little cavity for a spooled cable, a recessed port, or locking ports.

If I can pull it off, there will be connections between the tiles for power and data. This will likely be limited by off-the-shelf connectors, even if they are expensive mil-spec. There are too many details to design my own connectors, but who know where this rabbit hole leads.

Lastly for this week, here are the tiles I have in mind:

• Soldering station including soldering iron, mounting rack, power supply, solder, and flux.
• Compute unit including USB accessory bays, power controls, USB and Ethernet ports, etc.
• Radio charging dock - at least charging caddies but maybe bays for radios too.
• Keyboard and screen tile - just that, a recessed screen and keyboard.

Next week I'll be doing a free post for everyone covering my new workbench setup- most of the parts are in, and I'm getting closer to starting prototyping on new projects. It will still go a bit slow- the goal is to have physical stuff to share before Winter. Thank you for your support!