A calm coastal instrument.
The Salt Light Instrument is a local-first, privacy-first, open device: a hand-built pane of glass that puts a beautiful, easy-to-read face on the data all around you and online, the weather, tides, sky, surf and the ferry. It keeps showing the last good reading even when the internet doesn't.
Set it and forget it, or tinker with it yourself.
- Local-first, works offline
- Privacy-first, no account
- Open source
Everything the coast is doing, right now
Swipe between calm screens. No apps, no feeds to scroll. Pick a view, and pick the wood your frame is finished in.
Temperature, the day's sun arc, a two-cycle tide curve, and the next twelve hours, all at a glance.
Tonight's moon phase and an overhead map showing exactly where the sun, moon and planets sit over your deck.
Surf height and framing, swell and period, water temperature with its trend, and live shark activity near the island.
An airport-style departure board for the next boat to and from Point Judith, with the next sailing counting down.
Warm golden-brown, open grain. The warm default.
Pulled from the source, the moment it changes
Live coastal feeds sync over Wi-Fi; the sun, moon, planets and tides are computed on the device itself. Everything's cached, so a dropped signal never leaves you in the dark.
- NOAA tide predictions
- Open-Meteo forecast
- Local weather stations (on-board radio)
- On-device sun, moon & planet math
- Marine swell & sea-surface temperature
- Marine vessel traffic, open feed + on-board AIS
- NWS small-craft advisories
- OCEARCH & AWSC shark tracking
- Block Island Ferry timetable
- KBID airport conditions
- Outdoor air quality, US AQI (Open-Meteo)
- NOAA SWPC aurora (planetary Kp)
The launch version is a love letter to Block Island: custom made for that coast, and fine-tuned and tested on and by the island. Work is underway to make it a device for everywhere, with more pre-tuned locations on the way.
The public feeds above are included over Wi-Fi. Non-public or commercial data feeds require self-hosting or a subscription.
It keeps its cool when the connection doesn't.
Plenty of the coast has thin Wi-Fi. The instrument computes tides, sun and ferry times on-device, and when a feed is out of range it holds the last good reading. At dusk it dims itself; at dawn it brightens. No buttons to babble at, no notifications begging for attention.
Bring the coast indoors.
The Salt Light Instrument is hand-built to order and tuned for Block Island, ready for the wall.