Off grid power
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NOTE: The contents of this page are not set in stone, and are subject to change! This page is a draft in active flux ... |
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This page is an overview and discussion of a project in progress. As such, it's virtually guaranteed to contain incomplete, rapidly changing, and possibly inaccurate information that's in the process of being revised. Keep in mind that most of the volunteers on this project are just that - volunteers - with no official connection to OLPC, just a desire to help out and a tendency to ask lots of questions of people in the OLPC office. Don't take anything on this page as fact about what OLPC the organization is doing unless you verify it with the folks who are actually employed there!
Introduction
Summary and motivations/goals of this project coming soon - if you're adding the project summary, make sure that you give enough detail for others to add their suggestions and edits, and note where in the summary more detail/revision is needed.
Many of the areas that OLPC is interested in deploying into do not have a power grid to use to charge the laptop and run the school server. These sites provide interesting challenges for a successful deployment.
The primary option for most of these places is to use some sort of enviroment powered renewable energy source.
Human power options exist but they are "literally" a lot of work. Recharging one of the batteries requires between 15-20 Watthours of power depending on the depth of discharge. 20Wh may not seem like much (its only 17 calories) but in practice its a suprising amount of work when coming from a human powered source.
To provide consistent power things like the school server or VSAT equipment OLPC needs to look at options like solar, wind, water or even really creative stuff like Cow Power.
How to help
This project is a collaboratively organized undertaking, so the best way to get started is to just dive in and introduce yourself. Since the physical lab is likely to be based at IMSA, discussion occasionally takes place on the #olpc-imsa IRC channel.
Help wanted
If you are interested in helping, you can help! We need people from all disciplines and experiences. If, after reading this page, you're still unsure of how to get involved, contact User:ScottSwanson or User:Ahw - both IMSA community members and non-IMSAns are welcome!
If you want help with your part of this project, you can post specific tasks below. Please detail what kind of help you are looking for here, a timeframe or expiration date for the posting, along with contact information or how people who are interested should get involved.
Improve this page!
We are looking for volunteers to help improve this project page and keep it up to date. If you see how you can make something more coherent or organized, please jump in and edit; if there's a resource you think would be useful to this project, please add it. If there's something about the project itself you have ideas about, you can add it to this page directly, or start a discussion on the talk page. You do not need to contact anyone about this job - just do it! This posting never expires.
Events
Upcoming
If you have an upcoming event (meeting, hackathon, etc.) related to this project, please list it here along with details of how to participate. Once an event is over, please move it to the Past Events section, below.
Past
Activities related to this project that have already occurred, for archival purposes.