On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Mark Willis wrote: > The thing that has to be happening here is huge inductive surges on > power-up. BAD news for computer hardware! I've seen XT/286/386/486 > class machines run off a 12V golf cart battery with some voltage > regulation and DC-DC voltage converters, for robotics and/or car MP3 > usage (You might look around for the MP3 players, to give that a > thought. If you cannot find some, ask & I'll pass you URLs, I'm good > with search engines.) Can you get Golf Cart batteries, or other deep > cycle lead-acid batteries, in Ghana for reasonable prices? (Marine > Trolling motors are the same thing, only lots more pricey than Golf Cart > batteries, you would want deep-cycle batteries, definitely, here.) Or > could get them here & ship there. > Deep-cycle batteries are available in Ghana -- that is not a problem. Based on my experience in Ghana, simplicity is the key to success with computer technology. So: if we could build computers that use electricity from deep-cycle batteries charged with wall power -- that would be the simplist, most cost-effective solution. > > Is there an amateur radio service in Ghana? Could do some kind of > amateur satellite, we're talking lots of money here though, I think? Don't know -- though I can find out. > > > Maybe we could begin by working on the specs for the computers to be > > built. I saw an earlier post indicating that using a Linux interface might > > be an alternative to Win95. I think that Linux would be fine, as long as > > we can make it easy for the children to use (Staroffice instead of MS > > Office, computer games, etc). > > That could be a good answer. Need a list of components, and to know > what way you want to proceed, what the needed resources for each > computer are, etc.? What sort of way makes the most sense - you know > what is needed better than we do! I'd suggest coming up with a simple computer design that uses minimal electricity from a deep-cycle battery. Each computer should have vga and i/o for mouse,kbd,floppy,hd. Hd's can be in an external box. Ram not <16MB per computer. > Spare components and "clusters" of identical machines are good, here; > What else is needed? Tie a Linux guru to each machine or something? > <G> (I've been joking about "kidnapping" one local guy to help me with > a Linux problem, inside joke I guess. I'll get him to go willingly > <G>) I'd guess voltmeters are available at that school, crimp tools for > Coax for Ethernet (or for 10BaseT?), spare hubs might be good, etc.? The school has a 16-port hub, and another 8 porter on the way. They have crimping tools and a spool of Cat5. I can get spare hubs, etc. None of that is an issue. The key here is designing the hardware so that components can easily be swapped-out, and so that machines are identical. Regarding Linux: based on my own experience with RedHat, they may not need a Linux guru if it is solid enough. Or, we could go with Win95 as the lab tech on-site is experienced with that, has training/books, etc. > A good question for me to ask, too: What's Ghanan power set for? > 110VAC, 220VAC? 50Hz, 60 Hz? <G> 230VAC, 50Hz > > Would it help if they can e-mail someone in the US who can answer > questions, and/or hunt down spares and ship them there, as needed, > perhaps? I'm not super rich now, but can try to help somewhat. They do have email. I'm currently providing support, but we could certainly form a support listserv they could send their questions to. So: I would say that we should begin by speccing-out the computer design. I'm not familiar with PC104/sbc options, best practices, etc. Any thoughts? Sincerely, Brian Rankin -- Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org
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