Custom Cyberdeck For (Legal) Satellite Hacking

After doing a number of satellite and radio astronomy experiments, I finally got tired of my old briefcase full of tangled radio gear. I dug through my collection of broken computers, old wires, spare parts, and other junk, and assembled an all-in-one space cyberdeck!

This system combines most of my satellite and software-defined-radio gear into one portable platform. The hardware includes:

- Touchscreen computer
- RTL-SDR radio
- Various filter / amp modules
- Various WiFi modules
- Satellite Meter / digital video player
- PTZ control for my older dish pointers
- LNB power injector
- King-Dome / Vuqube control
- Panel-mount port interfaces

Software includes:
- Q4OS (simple, low-resource Linux)
- GQRX (standard SDR software)
- Gpredict for satellite tracking
- GOEStools, WXtoIMG, etc for weather satellites

The system is fairly modular and expandable, with most major components simply stuck in with velcro tape. If I want to swap modules for a different experiment, I can just pop them out and replace with something else.

Some of the parts I used include:
- Datalux Tracer computer (found for $1.00 at a police auction).
- Old Dell PCMCIA wifi card
- Old Broadcom Mini-PCI wifi card
- King-Dome remote
(None of these were sponsored products and I bought all of this myself)

I'm planning to do a variety of projects and experiments with this system and my various 2nd-hand satellite antennas in the future. Stay tuned to see what I come up with!

*Please note that my use of the term "hacking" refers to using hardware and software for unintended or experimental purposes, not anything unauthorized! I am not breaking, pirating, or transmitting anything. I'm simply poking around at old satellite hardware to see what can be freely and legally done with it!

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[thesaurusrex]

They weren’t lying when they said you can learn anything on YouTube

[ydnftbhdy]

"I just hooked it to a car battery" I might be in love with you, sir.

[SectorfiveYT]

this guy would survive in a post apocalyptic world

[henryevery]

I can’t even study math for an hour. You are genius.

[provenancemachining]

This is probably the most bootleg shit, cobbled together, hacked up cyberdeck I've ever seen and I absolutely love it. I'd love to see more on satellite & radio astronomy for beginners.

[吴起-xv]

This video again inspired me enthusiasm to communication tech since I’ve been sucked into annoying working projects for quite a longtime and forget it’s used to be so interesting for me 😢

[KiraSlith]

The most cyberpunk'd entropic cyberdeck ever. brilliant. 10/10

[cancan-wqun]

Dude. How do you do all of this? Even just thinking about all the problems and hours spent troubleshooting them makes my head hurt. You got yourself a subscriber.

[lemonblazer]

This is a quintessential Save It For Parts video. It's got junk, it's got technical problems, it's got eclectic hardware, and it's got custom made parts! Probably one of my favorite videos on a long list of my favorite SIFP videos. Great stuff!

[madjiggie]

An excellent display of the skills of a grandmaster IT wizard

[DominicNJ]

This guy is the kid from any 80's neighborhood that could jerry rig the cable connection to get the Disney Channel for free. I absolutely loved watching this, reminded me of several guys I knew from my childhood.

[SimDeck]

I love that there are people like you in the world. Curious minds full of enthusiasm. I have no idea what you are doing but I know I like it. You make the world a better place because you provide something different.

[chromefan]

I love this guy. There are so many radio hobbies that require you to shell out stacks just for some decent equipment.

Then this guy pulls a “ummmm actually 🤓” and fabricates an entire setup for less than like $50.

An absolute legend.

[AgoraSage]

Love it when you have to re-flash different linux os's just to see which one actually works with the hardware you are using.

[OneTopic]

This was really enjoyable! Fun edit and really interesting project.

[rjlx]

Your hardware knowledge (and stash) is truly impressive. This is by far the most jerryrigged cyberdeck I’ve ever seen. You inspired me to look at my rats nest of old hardware to see if I can use anything. I can’t wait to see the next project you work on! 🤝

[ammarahmedkhan]

I wonder how did he get all the knowledge, I mean he knows everything about IT and stuff. Respect !

[VIDEOdugo]

"Setting up a used laptop with Linux for satellite hacking!"

[first three minutes of the video covers installing video drivers for the monitor]

giving me inspiration for my old tech though, cool stuff guy!

[artem.boldariev]

That is a real cyberdeck - not these often useless toys people build. In my opinion, a cyberdeck is an utilitarian custom computer for specialised purposes (just remember the "heroes" of these cyberpunk novels and what they were doing). And this device ticks all these boxes.

Thank you! It is very inspirational.

[ECONOMY_WRS]

Coolest thing I've ever seen in YouTube made out of unused parts, Absolutely love it