Durable Laptop Batteries
RI-WINS in a Box
RI-WINS in a Box
Image by bjepson
This is the configuration I’m using to set up my project for the RI statewide wireless network. When it’s done, it will just be the computer in the Voom PC case, the XPower 300W power pack, the solar cell, and of course the WiMax card.
For now, it’s going to have to run Windows, because I can’t get the Navini PC Card to work under Linux (ndiswrapper doesn’t seem to know what to do with it). A future configuration will use the external Navinia network adapters, which have an Ethernet port an router built in.
Once the CD-ROM drive, keyboard, mouse, and display are out of the picture, I’m hoping that the solar panel will charge the battery faster than the computer can drain it, but who knows?
Classmate_PC_2nd-Gen
Image by ENTsForest
Intel introduced the 2nd generation Intel-powered classmate PC platform – an affordable, fully functional, rugged Internet-centric computer platform with different choices for manufacturers to tailor laptop models for a variety of education needs. These PCs have wireless capability, longer battery life, water resistant keyboards and are more shock resistant if dropped.
www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/classmatePC/
Didja Try Rebootin?
Image by tab2space
Our steed for the trip home. Same as the trip down here.
Boarding proceeded with only the usual stupid hassle of screeners who didn’t know what to look for, what was allowed, and what wasn’t. One guy insisted that I was carrying too many alkaline batteries, confusing them for lithium ion, and demanded I give them up. Uh huh. Still, these guys best the TSA when it comes to initiative.
Later we taxied out onto the runway. Where the pilot proceeded to shut down the engines.
He eventually announced over the intercom that they were having computer trouble, and were in consultation with tech support back in Denver.
Sure enough, about 10 minutes later he was back on the intercom. He wanted to inform us that the plane was going to go completely dark, with even the airflow ceasing for a couple minutes, because tech support suggested they reboot the aircraft.
Um, guys, this is an Airbus. You’re supposed to reboot it back at the gate as a matter of course.
At least now I know it takes about 4 minutes for an Airbus to boot to the state where the engines can be started.
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An additional way to lower the power requirements of the computer would be to underclock the CPU. For a solar application, it takes massive amounts of power to generate the kind of heat that a CPU loses. You don’t need the high performance processing speed, so I suggest running it slow and cold
Thanks, Justin! I chose the slowest MII CPU I could find, but even that uses plenty of juice (according to this site, it idles at 12W, peaks at 16W), and I haven’t even considered the power consumption of the WiMax card itself.
Fortunately, this project is primarily a proof of concept and will lead to a reference design. So even if it doesn’t last into the evening hours when I put it on a roof, I’ll at least be able to come up with some specs for how large a solar panel and reserve battery would be needed for a real-world deployment.
BTW, here’s where I got my solar kit: store.sundancesolar.com/plsoensy.html
I went for the 24 Watt Solar Energy System with Xantrex XPower 300 ($370).
I was tempted to just assemble my own kit with an inverter and deep cycle battery, but I really like the idea of these Xantrex power packs (and the batteries inside them are replaceable/recyclable), so I figured I’d give it a go in the name of research.
Where did you get the Ripwave cards, bjepson? I would love to do this for my neck of the woods!
Oh, and PS: Does your PCMCIA ripwave card allow you to be the "base station"? When looking at their website, it looks like in order to be a "base station" for their WiMax stuff you have to buy the super-duper antenna array and rackmount equipment.
yellowbkpk,
I received the card from the provider (the RI-WINS network). I don’t know about unlicensed WiMax, but licensed WiMax, such as the RI-WINS network, requires that the cards be provisioned/activated to work on the network.
I don’t know if there are any companies who sell WiMax equipment for setting up your own unlicensed network, but I believe Navini only sells direct to providers. But I suppose if you bought one of those antenna arrays, hooked it up to the network, and put it on a tower, you’d basically be a provider!
You can see a slideshow of the RI-WINS installation here: businessinnovationfactory.com/features/riwins/
What’s that motherboard? It’s quite tiny!
It’s the EPIA MII6000E, which is pretty nice except for some reason, the Navini diagnostics refuse to run correctly on this board.
Didn’t that incident cause at least some butterflies in your stomach to flutter around??
Nah, no butterflies. Just amused annoyance that they didn’t get it done before leaving the gate.
Still, I do like Boeing’s software better. I’ve more friends that work there than work for Airbus.