Project Nomad Packs a Private Internet Into a Fold-Down Cyberdeck

Photo credit: The DIY Life
You can close the lid, grab the handle, and walk away with Wikipedia, street maps, a media library, and a local language model riding in one printed case. That is the brief Michael Klements set for himself when he wrapped Crosstalk Solutions’ free Project Nomad stack in a 3D-printed rack that behaves like a travel workstation. Nearby phones, tablets, and laptops join a private network and open a normal browser. Pages load from the box in the case, not from a tower somewhere else.

Project Nomad started off as a software project. With a few Ubuntu commands, you can download the installer, set up Docker, and create a dashboard where you can choose what you want to keep on disk. Kiwix provides up a whole English Wikipedia with images, which is approximately 125 GB in size, as well as medical references, iFixit repair guides, and Project Gutenberg novels. OpenStreetMap (OSM) tiles provide street-level maps that can be panned and searched as desired. Kolibri offers Khan Academy courses, as well as optional Ollama models such as Llama 3.1, Llama 3.2, and DeepSeek R1, which can all operate on the same machine, allowing your chat to remain local rather than being sent to a corporate server. Vaultwarden, Jellyfin, MeshCore, and a variety of additional self-hosted tools can coexist alongside that library. The licensing for the project is Apache 2.0. Once the initial download is completed, the system continues to function normally, with no accounts, telemetry, or external signals.

Klements wasn’t about to let the stack sit and gather dust. His setup, on the other hand, is based on a Beelink SER9 Max, with an AMD Ryzen 7 H350, Radeon 860M graphics, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe drive, a second internal SSD slot, and 10-gigabit Ethernet. Ubuntu boots and opens the Nomad dashboard on its own. The GL.iNet Slate 7 creates a Wi-Fi 7 network for phones and tablets. A tiny QNAP switch with two 10-gigabit ports and four 2.5-gigabit ports connects Ethernet and HDMI to the front panel via keystone jacks. Jellyfin allows several users to search a map, read an article, and stream a file. Alternatively, you can talk with a local model all at once. Klements needed a shared local web so that a phone in a tent or a laptop on a workbench could access the same services without having to sit on the deck itself.

Gray and black PETG parts were created in Fusion 360 and printed over about 60 hours to make a 3U, 10″ rack with custom brackets and heat-set brass inserts. 3 x 40 mm Noctua fans mounted in an internal divider remove heat from the tiny PC, switch, and router. When the case is closed, the front panel folds back and hides the jacks, then descends down into a keyboard tray with a strap to keep the board in place during travel. The lid features an Uperfect 14″ 3K OLED panel with 120Hz technology and connects to the tiny PC via a single USB-C cable that provides video, touch, and power. Close it up, and it resembles a miniature instrument case. When you open it up, it becomes a screen, a keyboard shelf, and a rack of live ports all at once.

Power is kept purposely simple, with only one 19-volt barrel supply piped in from a wall sufficient to keep the Beelink running smoothly. A buck converter reduces that voltage down to 12 volts for the switch, which is a rather simple operation. The Slate 7 is powered by a little PC via USB-C, and because there is no battery on board, you’ll need a wall wart or a portable power station for off-grid operation. Yes, cooling is a continual worry, especially when running maps, media, and a language model on the Radeon 860M.

Crosstalk still touts Nomad as hardware-agnostic, allowing you to install the library on an old refurbished office PC if that’s what you have laying around. If you want to unlock the truly massive models and obtain fast performance from your language model, some better hardware, particularly a high-end graphics card, can help. Klements chose the upper end of that choice range, as well as a router, switch, and screen, so the finished product can be used outside of the home. Pop the case open in a cabin, vehicle, or room with no phone connection, turn on the Wi-Fi, and the dashboard is ready for you. It includes Wikipedia, a zoomable map of an entire country, your personal assistant, and a video library, all loaded from the same box you brought with you.
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