Hey guys, since I got into hosting my own servers, any electronic device I see I wonder - can it become a server?
This is probably not a crazy and new idea with android phones, but I had to share it with you. If you don’t know, there’s this thing called postmarket OS, full linux experience on an android phone.
Of course, not all phones are supported, but a phone like Galaxy Note 9 is a great candidate - it supports LAN over usb, postmarket OS fully supports it (the Exinos version) and setting up a phone as a selfhosted server has it’s real perks. Pis got really expensive, not to mention they don’t have a built-in UPS (phones have batteries), they use slow SD cards, while phones have faster UFS memory, phones draw way less power.
What do you guys think? I will for sure get a used Galaxy Note 9 and explore this idea, and if all goes well, I might even buy more of them and create a cluster.
bad idea IMO. i did this once, the device has to be permanently plugged in, which strains the battery. after a few weeks the battery inflated. that stuff can explode and set your house on fire.
better buy a raspberry pi. last time i checked they were $20 each.
I have 3 pi 4s that where maybe 45 dollars each when I bought them, last time unchecked they where 600 dollars. I thought about selling them, but completely forgot if I want a pi again, and go to buy one, by then they might be 400 each.
You can buy x86 mini PCs for less now with only a minor hit to power consumption (they use slightly more power). I used to love Pis for home labbing, but I have switched to mini PCs for it.
I have two spare 8th gen Intel PCs I saved from the garbage bin, and a old gaming desktop that I now use as the server. So if I need a spare server I’m probably going to use one of those. I can get USB to gpio so been thinking of trying trying that route more considering how often people get rid of old pcs. I have a stack of windows vista-7 era laptops I was going to take apart for scrap too which could be used.
I bought the pis a long time ago, each time a found a project for one I was sad I didn’t have one to play with and kept buying more. They aren’t really even in use now. Ones built in to my work station and occasionally I boot into it and use raspberry pi imager to flash ubuntu or something on a USB. Its useful to have just ready on occasion. I have a hard time getting rid of them because of use cases like that, and in have a lot of hats/accessories for them like the ai camera. Even though I’m not really going to use them like I used to anymore.
I love reusing old tech like this. People toss / sell at a loss a lot of stuff that has quite a bit of use left in it.
If you already make a recycling run to the scrap yard its worth doing. I got 120 bucks last run just off old PCs and it wasn’t even that much, you just get more when you separate it. Aluminium cases, ram, motherboard, hard drives, CPUs. The older they are often the more they are worth, and if you are into eBay selling im sure you could make a killing. I heard even DDR 3 is coming back so who knows anymore.
Only thing you shouldn’t take is TVs you have to pay to get rid of them. Maybe don’t take appliance too. some people do, for example fridges have a few valuable components but I would not reccomend it. You end up with plastics and other junk sometimes and have to pay to get a dump run.
A lot of it only makes sense if you can store a pile until it gets big enough to be worth a trip out.
$20? Hundreds of $$ now with ramflation
use this
Very few people want the old models. So used ones are often found for 20 zorkminds again.
I saw one post where a guy was using a phone as a torrent share server thing. They had an app that cycled the battery between 10% and 80%. Setting that sort of thing up would take care of the battery issue.
Not in perpetuity though
Of course not. I didn’t mean to say that would solve the issue completely. Theres plenty of other reasons why having a phone as a server is not the best idea, the battery is just the most flammable reason.
That’s a very important point to consider. Unless you remove the battery, you shouldn’t use it as a server. If you still do, store it in a metal bowl or so and put it somewhere where the heat of the bowl itself cannot start a fire. And make sure that your smoke detectors are still working and not expired. Then, be aware that if the battery explodes, your apartment fills with biting toxic smoke within minutes, and that can happen in the middle of the night. So keep some clothes ready at the door that you can wear when fleeing the apartment.
or just buy a minipc for $130 from Ebay.
It is frustrating though, I have several old phones that are in good shape. It would be nice to give them a job. There might be one or two that boot without a battery.
I looked at using my old Galaxy S10e to host some things and ran into this same issue. It depends on the device, but I found a video of a guy revmoving the battery and soldering in a special resistor or something to trick the phone into a) thinking the battery is installed and b) that the battery is not discharging and will stay powered on.
It’s been a minute since I’ve seen the video, but I think he gave an explanation of how it all works. Still on my to-do list for when I need a weekend project.