
Meet the BRCK - moubarak
http://www.brck.com
======
AmVess
Sites like this need a tl;ds (too long; didn't scroll) general info right up
front. Also...why no price and availability?

General Description: The BRCK is a rugged, cloud managed, full-featured router
with built in failover and programmable GPIO expansion. BRCK can connect to
the internet through RJ47, GSM, Wifi Bridge, as well as Ethernet Over USB via
the GPIO Breakout. It’s rugged build and cloud managed interface make it ideal
for “away teams”, monitoring systems in remote locations, and businesses with
challenging infrastructure. BRCK’s GPIO breakout provides 20 pins for digital
and alaouge Read/Write as well as I2C, SPI and UART. This, combined with
BRCK’s Arduino Profile, make it ideal for quickly connecting hardware to the
Internet of Things.

~~~
ye
Seriously, this hipster "design" insanity has to stop. It's hurting your
business.

A pretty picture of your product is not design, it's a dream of a first year
art school student who doesn't understand business, who doesn't understand how
to send the message and how to describe the product.

~~~
widdershins
Your opinion. I think it looks fine. I quite like the 'long scroll' format
that's become popular recently. All my devices (MacBook, Android phone etc.)
make scrolling simpler than finding and clicking a link. And I feel like I got
the main proposition of the product pretty quickly, without having to click
around various 'features' and 'specs' pages.

~~~
a3_nm
I quite dislike any format that does not provide me immediately with a 2 or 3
sentence general description of what the thing is about, of the sort like you
would find at the beginning of a Wikipedia article or in the parent comment
(but with a bit less detail).

Taking BRCK as an example, I see "It's the easiest, most reliable way to
connect to the Internet." and some picture suggesting that this is a hardware
device. Insufficient. If I page down it gets even more confusing.

~~~
ethana
I have to agree. Excuse my language, but I didn't know wtf it is precisely on
the main page. I have to dig into the Specs page for the description of the
device. Wasted my time with frustrated layout. Failed design fails.

~~~
tedivm
I agree, but I think it's more this specific implementation than the concept
itself. I've seen plenty of "long-scroll" (not sure what to call it) style
sites that have been absolutely amazing at dumping information into my head.

~~~
madeofpalk
For example,
[http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/](http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/)

~~~
Semaphor
Bad example imo. A good one would have been
[http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/features/](http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/features/)
which doesn't break scrolling AND gives hard facts.

~~~
tempestn
Agreed - worst thing you can do on a long scrolling page is hijack the ability
to scroll like that!

------
dmix
Scrolled all the way to the bottom (didn't hover over anything) and all I know
is it connects to the internet and mentioned being used in Africa twice.

So many product web sites are lacking a simple "how it works" section (I'd say
75%).

~~~
smacktoward
Not to mention that Africa is kind of a big place, you know? With plenty of
locations inside it that aren't untracked, howling wilderness.

I understand what they're trying to get at, but it annoys me to see them say
"used in Africa" as if that were functionally equivalent to "used on the
Moon." And I'm American! I have to think it'd sound even more tin-eared to
someone from an African country.

~~~
sidgup
Exactly! When it said "works in Africa", my first thought was woah, so how
does it work without cell coverage - satellite?, APRS?, etc. etc. Only to
realize that it is probably just a rugged 3G-Wifi bridge.

Seriously, I even looked through specs and still not sure what it does!

~~~
toomuchtodo
As someone who has done integration with Iridium and Inmarsat for the NSF, I
both love and hate this product. It looks like a ruggedized wifi hotspot, but
their claim of "works anywhere" is disingenuous.

This is a hotspot that works anywhere in Africa:
[http://www.groundcontrol.com/MCD-4800_BGAN_Terminal.htm](http://www.groundcontrol.com/MCD-4800_BGAN_Terminal.htm)

~~~
ihnorton
> As someone who has done integration with Iridium and Inmarsat for the NSF

USAP vessels?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Very close :) Weather stations, same region.

~~~
ihnorton
Ah, neato. I spent a lot of time staring at the Inmarsat signal strength down
there!

------
ceol
I don't think we have enough comments complaining about its web design. We
probably need a few hundred more!

I get that moaning about its design lets you feel smart by participating in
the discussion without actually contributing anything meaningful, but at least
just upvote a single person for it instead of posting the same damn comment
over and over again.

\----

I like that it seems as open and adaptable as they could possibly make it
while also keeping it simple. It would be interesting to see just how rugged
it is. I'd also like to see how this could be used in an environment that
requires a little less "ruggedness", like a coffee shop or a community board
room.

~~~
waylandsmithers
|I don't think we have enough comments complaining about its web design

I think the issue here, and we definitely saw this a ton with that Sailfish OS
or whatever phone recently (probably fitting that I can't remember what it's
called) is with some of these product launches, there is an extremely vague
title submitted to HN that gets voted up to the top. There is something
alluring about seeing that the community has voted this new thing, whatever it
is, as the most important item of the moment. And when we get to the website,
we are disappointed and/or annoyed when we can't figure out what exactly this
thing is or why it was voted to the top of HN. So we talk about our experience
on the website itself, as if it had been presented as a design critique.

~~~
ceol
It was pretty easy to figure out exactly what this was. It just wasn't handed
to you like the majority of HN wants. All of the information was there,
though. It just required you to _gasp_ click something.

The problem with all of those "design critiques" (if they could even be called
that) is they derail any discussion about the product itself. As of this
comment, three of the top four comments are complaining about the design or
structure of the website, with the fourth being mine. You have to scroll
halfway down the page to get to anyone talking about the actual product.
That's shameful.

------
ReadEvalPost
I am completely in love with the fact that this thing provides a GPIO breakout
(and Arduino compatible, no less!). That immediately takes this product from a
"neat, but I don't think I have a use for it" to a "holy crap, what can I do
with this?" for me.

So, so awesome. I hope more hardware companies start doing this.

~~~
malandrew
Would this allow a satellite internet add-on if you find yourself going
somewhere seriously remote? If so, does such a satellite internet peripheral
already exist?

~~~
unwind
I would guess it's at least _possible_ , but not sure if it would be
practical.

The first (duplex, it seems in satellite it still makes sense to offer simplex
data) modem I found was this:
[http://www.globalstar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_i...](http://www.globalstar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=81).

Of course there is no price, and I find it mildly scary that the US sales
contact is listed as "USA/Government", not just USA.

This thing has a 20-pin header which they claim includes data connections, but
there is no pin-out. There is a PDF
([http://www.globalstar.com/en/docs/gsp1720/GSP-1720%20Sell%20...](http://www.globalstar.com/en/docs/gsp1720/GSP-1720%20Sell%20Sheet_FIN.pdf))
but it's more of a brochure and doesn't provide a lot of detail.

The bandwidth for data over satellite modems is low enough (10s of
kilobits/second) so I guess it seems reasonable to do over GPIO, though.

------
whackedspinach
This was originally a Kickstarter project back in June:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your-
bac...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your-backup-
generator-for-the-internet)

~~~
aray
Looks like they planned on shipping the early bird units last month. Did they
actually ship on time?

~~~
incision
> _" Did they actually ship on time?"_

Nope. I'm an "early-bird" backer of this. The last update on shipping says
they've pushed to January.

Apparently, there were complications sourcing the 3G modems they intended to
use.

From the update:

 _" Unfortunately, we live in a world where small, African, tech companies
don't have the influence to get global component suppliers to meet our
delivery deadlines. In particular, we have been unable to secure a timely
supply of the 3G modems that are specified for the BRCK. Although it would
seem straightforward to simply switch to another modem, the implications of
this change effect mechanical design, board layout, and certification - all
things that require time to adjust. We are now working with multiple suppliers
to find a suitable alternative that we can source in sufficient supply to meet
our production demands."_

~~~
Ehersman
This is correct (and thanks for being a backer). We had some issues with the
modem supplier and had to redesign the comms board to work with the new modem.
This was after going around in circles with the original supplier and losing
valuable time. It sucks being small when dealing with some of these large
organizations, but we did eventually find a great modem and have been testing
it out this month.

I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get it
out on time...

~~~
incision
_> "I am sorry we had to delay the production, we all so badly wanted to get
it out on time..."_

No worries. I backed the project as a great idea that happens to provide a
reward, not the other way around and I have no reason to doubt your ability to
deliver.

------
rayiner
Hey, BRCK dudes. They invented this thing called the "paragraph" some thousand
years ago.[1] It lets you organize several or more sentences into coherent
blocks of text expressing complex thoughts. Paragraphs allow you to get across
multiple simpler points, expressed as individual sentences, in a succinct way
that allows your reader to avoid excessive and unnecessary scrolling.

Also, for something that apparently involves Africa,[2] the loading speed of
that page over my iPad's LTE is shameful.

[1] The paragraph was already in use in English by the time of Beowulf,
between the 8th and 11th century.

[2] Apparently. I didn't scroll all the way down.

~~~
devindotcom
Hey, commenter dude. This footnoting shit is getting way out of hand.

------
pyrocat
Another shitty parallax product site. It detracts from the message when your
presentation has yellow on yellow text depending on where your scroll bar is.

~~~
jcutrell
Perhaps this is nit-picky, but this isn't at all parallax. It's fixed elements
mixed with non-fixed elements. For it to be simulated "parallax", it must have
elements that move at different speeds that mimic the effect that real-life
parallax would have.

------
OoTheNigerian
The BRCK is a beautiful device which deserves much more attention and debate
than the website.

The overdosing of criticism on the website might have been somewhat justified
if the BRCK was a web product. Yes, a simpler single screen presentation would
have been much better. We do not need more than 4 comments saying it.

I am really excited about the BRCK's (badass name)fail over technology and
wonder and hope it could be deployed to POS and other devices like tablet and
phones. Reliability of POSs are really hindering cashless systems here in
Nigeria.

Erik, have you spoken to the TECNO chaps or Huawei about licensing this
technology? A minibrck* will not be a bad idea for urban areas that prioritize
reliability over backup power.

Good stuff guys, I am excited that a pure technical play is coming out from
these parts.

*Not sure you saw what I did there. we'll have the BRCK and the brck.

~~~
knowitall
So what is the special technology it provides, perhaps you could give us a
quick summary? Any advantage to using my phone as an access point?

~~~
darklajid
Your phone doesn't have the same ways to interface with the world, (probably)
isn't happy with water/dust, cannot charge other devices and won't last for 8
hours straight (or more, acc. to the specs page, if you're using anything but
the 'full power' mode). This looks a cross between an arduino, a d-link sortof
appliance with multi-band support for mobile data, a decently sized flash
storage device and a huge battery - in a rugged hull.

Your phone isn't even close. If you just want to hop online for a short while:
No advantage over using your phone, I guess.

~~~
andor
Put your phone in a Ziploc bag and it's water resistant. Add a cheap external
10.000 mAh battery and you'll have lots of battery life. You won't need a
large battery, though: the BRCK only lasts for 8 hours, while an LTE iPad can
last about 24 hours in hotspot mode.

~~~
d23
Sure: and why do I need a fancy iPod when I have this perfectly good casette
tape player? Your iPod can hold 10,000 songs? I can put hundreds of cassettes
in my backpack. You can recharge your batteries and get 30 hours of battery
life? I can carry around a box of double AAs and I _never_ have to recharge
them.

------
TrainedMonkey
Hello cellphone in a stick. Every single thinkpad I owned (grand total of 2)
has a sim card slot. I guess macs don't?

~~~
kennywinker
Nope. It's actually fairly puzzling that there hasn't been a 3g/lte MacBook
Air by now.

~~~
Jtsummers
I think, in the US at least, part of the problem would have been
Verizon/Sprint. Now with everyone going to LTE and using SIM cards for that it
seems more viable (fewer network restrictions).

~~~
jonknee
Why is that a problem? Apple ships millions of 3G/LTE devices a quarter, they
can certainly figure it out in the laptop form factor. Worst case and it
doesn't support every network--still way better than not supporting _any_
network.

The bigger issue is probably not having OS X architected to play nice when
you're paying by the byte.

~~~
Jtsummers
They shipped different models to handle different carriers and only recently
are they shipping unified models for multiple carriers. As I said in another
reply, that's bad UX for a device that's not quite at commodity level prices.
You could always get a dongle or pair it up (still options), which prevents
the computer from becoming obsoleted by changing network affiliations or
protocols.

~~~
jonknee
> which prevents the computer from becoming obsoleted by changing network
> affiliations or protocols.

Which would never be the case... Right now no Macs come with any mobile data
and I somehow still manage to find them useful. If my MacBook had come with 3G
it wouldn't be obsolete now that LTE is the rage, the worst thing that could
happen is I would tether with another device like I do now.

I also have a Chromebook and I have to say it's nice not to even think about
it--you're just online.

------
trustfundbaby
> IF IT WORKS IN AFRICA, IT'LL WORK ANYWHERE

Nice little insult there. Way to start out on the wrong foot with Africans.

PS: Yes I'm actually African, and that pissed me off.

~~~
jcutrell
I think this is kind of like an air conditioning company saying, "If it can
cool you off in the tropics, it can cool you off anywhere!"

The facts are simple: there are significant parts of Africa that are very
sparsely connected to what is commonly available in many (or most) other
countries of the world.

I get how this can be somewhat offensive, but I also think the point comes
across and isn't directed at the African people.

If it works in Africa, then, objectively, it works in sparsely populated and
sparsely connected areas.

~~~
derleth
> If it works in Africa, then, objectively, it works in sparsely populated and
> sparsely connected areas.

If it works in a really nice hotel in Johannesburg, it's working in Africa.

Your point is invalid.

~~~
jcutrell
My point isn't invalid. Communication is messy, and this is an example of
that.

"I was in the middle of the ocean!"

Did you think I was in water? You're wrong. I was on an island that is in the
middle of an ocean.

"I stayed in a hotel in New York."

Did you think I rented a hotel room? No, I simply stood in the lobby.

You can't say that because someone says something without constraining it with
every detail, that the communicated point is incomplete. Communication is a
loose protocol.

------
Aloha
It's buzzword compliant for sure.

------
chris_mahan
Price / availability? If it's Summer 2015 and $300 USD, that is different than
January 2014 and $89.

Or is this still too soon?

~~~
hughes
The kickstarter mentioned below had a price of $150 for backers, and delivery
in Nov 2013. There has been no shipping update.

~~~
chris_mahan
Well, I'm not a kickstarter backer. I want to order from amazon.com. So when
and how much?

~~~
ics
The levels on Kickstarter were $150 for the first 50 backers and $200+ "v2". A
comment above says they've pushed early-bird shipping to January. Given that
knowledge you're probably looking at a _minimum_ 1 year wait for $200-250
retail.

I'd love to know the exact details too but it's unlikely even they will know
until at least after the first round of production.

------
jwheeler79
A bit of interesting trivia - I knew I recognized the COO Philip Walton who
has his picture near the bottom of the page. He's been on TV and in the news
because his wife is a survivor of the Westgate mall massacre. Small world...

[http://hawaiitribune-
herald.com/sections/news/world/kenyan-t...](http://hawaiitribune-
herald.com/sections/news/world/kenyan-troops-caused-collapse.html)

------
vertis
I love the concept.

It would be cool to see some form of mesh networking added to this as well.

~~~
regorton
We are on it, it won't be in the first release, but it we are working on a
software upgrade (to the original hardware) that will support this.

------
jcutrell
So many of the comments here can be answered with the specs page.
[http://www.brck.com/specifications/](http://www.brck.com/specifications/)

The design is intended, as most marketing pages are, to capture attention and
interest. Scrolling storytelling is a very effective way to do that.

HN readers, in general, are very critical of emotional-impact-based decisions.
The truth is, many people respond to things that are 90% aesthetic and 10%
functional. Note: Jabberwocky[0]. If you want to dive in deep, you are a part
of the crowd that doesn't make impulsive decisions based on marketing.
Congratulations - click on the specs link to see an easily readable, fairly
cold page.

If you want to make an impact on the majority of people, consider that most
people are less concerned with technical details or even descriptive language,
and more concerned with how they feel.

[0][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnwBHVQJWJs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnwBHVQJWJs)

------
samstave
Not necessarily a revolutionary device, in that sim-hotspot devices are not
rare...

But - with shared onboard storage, that's cool... what would be interesting is
having a device with, say, 4 radios and sim slots - and people could add in
their sim to allow the device to aggregate data use from multiple sims in a
torrented manner.

~~~
BuildTheRobots
With the right SIMs you could have a local [2g|3g] network so people can use
their own handsets.

------
Aardwolf
Does it support satellite internet access?

Would it work on open sea?

How useful would it be in a European country with expensive mobile data?

Where can one buy it?

------
RayLau135
It doesn't connect to the Internet, it is the Internet (The IT Crowd)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg)

------
hkmurakami
Would be nice to be able to perceive the form factor right away. It looked
like a credit card sized device to me at first, and only after I scrolled all
the way down to the picture of the device in use in Africa did I find out that
the thing is quite big (which is what you'd expect from the features the thing
has, but it's strange why the site starts out with a top down view of the
thing that makes it seem like it's 1/10 the size it really is)

~~~
Ehersman
It's interesting that you thought it was so small at first. I've been talking
to a number of people about the size over the last few months, and the most
common reaction is, "I thought it was bigger". For some reason our early
photography left the impression that this was the size of a shoe box or car
battery. In reality, it's about the size of 3 stacked iPhones.

We've got some pictures with it next to computers and on top, or near, other
"stuff". That was the idea we were going for in that top header image on the
site anyway.

------
omgtehlion
Scrolled really long promo page. Still no info.

Look like this is a ruggedized GSM/WiFi/Copper hotspot. Like those you buy
from china for $20. No satellite access, thats stupid.

------
tomesch1982
Wow. They did never load their site in Firefox. There is at least one JS Error
and some features of the site simply do not work. Neither in Africa nor in
Europe.

------
istvanp
One key thing left out in the hardware specs: how much does it weigh? Does it
weigh just as much as its name says?

If I am to lug this around it better be as light as possible.

------
kalleboo
So this my cheap Huawei 3G/4G router plus an RJ45 jack glued together with a
mobile battery?

The Huawei is already glued together so it's as rugged as you'll get, and it
has a microSD slot for disk storage. "Cloud" \- every consumer router I've
seen has a WAN configure option...

------
hipsters_unite
Kinda cool actually. One thing: the 'features' overlays don't appear to work
on Firefox.

~~~
thu
You have to mouse-over the icons.

~~~
Ehersman
Good point. I'll see what we can do to make that more visible, the features
are too hidden right now.

------
justplay
if i am not wrong it takes SIM network. What if the network is not available ?
Moreover, why someone will take extra device with them if they can use mobile
"wifi-hotspot" feature to connect.

------
ilitirit
I get that people don't like the site's layout (I don't either), but is it
really that hard to click on "Specs"?

------
ds9
What's the code licence? I didn't find any mention of it on the site.

If it's closed-source, can it be flashed with something open?

~~~
regorton
The device is a bit of a hybrid, its closed source for some of the main
firmware, but all the GPIO and sensor connectivity is open source (and open
hardware). We are working to open more and more of it up!

------
kassner
I thought it was an Iridium for web-access. Sadly I'm wrong, I'll have to
continue use my 184Kbps EDGE connection.

------
smegel
And how reliable/widespread is the 3G/4G network in Africa that this device
presumably relies upon?

~~~
Ehersman
It's actually very wide spread, especially in major towns and cities. Network
maps are hard to come by, especially up-to-date ones, but you can get a decent
idea on a lot of the countries from the GSMA data site here:

[https://gsmaintelligence.com/](https://gsmaintelligence.com/)

------
jmotion
Spent over a minute on this stupid site scanning up and down and still have no
idea what it actually does.

------
gnu8
I tried to scroll but I didn't see anything that told what the fucking thing
is within 1.5 seconds.

------
shayanbahal
The design reminds me of "The Internet"'s desing from "The IT Crowd".

------
gambiting
512MB of memory seems rather small? Or will people finally learn to use GB and
Gb properly?

------
kumarski
What about yourkarma.com

~~~
Ehersman
I'm one of the BRCK team and I use the Karma when in the US traveling around.
I initially bought it for testing and think it's a really well done device.
What you should know about it is that it's only really good in US cities, as
it uses WiMax backhaul. It's got decent battery as well. Their social
mechanism for getting others to signup and get you free Mb really works (pro
tip: Keep it on in the airport).

The BRCK was designed for a different use case. It's designed to allow more
connections and to have failovers for poor power and internet connectivity. It
also allows you to extend it with both hardware and software of your own
making.

~~~
allsystemsgo
I was thinking about getting the Karma actually. The 14 dollars for 1GB is
cheaper than tethering.

~~~
Cieplak
If you buy in batch, it ends up costing $10/GB. I'm connected via a karma
device right now; as soon as Comcast asked me for my social security number to
sign up in my apartment, I said f that and bought the karma. If I have to
download large files, I generally download them to an amazon instance and sync
locally when I have an unmetered connection.

