Repair centers/Mar 20 2008

<mvn071> how XO's are expected in Birmingham?

• <TTown> 1000 on April 15
• <TTown> Remaining 14000 later this year.
• <mvn071> how XS are you planning the setup XS boxes?
• <mvn071> central config/install/updates with puppet or so?
• <humble-van> humble-van --> Scott from Vancouver, Canada
• <swansong> Call is beginning
• <swansong> Kim speaking
• <swansong> Birmingham next major deploy.
• <humble-van> org I work with is http://freegeekvancouver.org
• <swansong> Looking at model for getting repair centers.
• <swansong> Collecting ideas: non profits, profit-based, etc. Then, what is the best way to get them off the ground, availability of parts, etc.
• <mchua> is there a target date for when these repair centers should be able to "get off the ground"? (this may not be the right question to ask)
• <swansong> Kim speaking on issues with parts
• <swansong> getting reasonable costs for spares
• <mchua> (I am, however, asking it because it seems like a lot of repair centers are stuck at the "...but we need parts!" issue)
• <swansong> so who will warehouse
• Mar 20 14:11:37 * mchua is Mel, btw
• <swansong> working with Brightstar
• <swansong> To get started, Brightstar will sell small numbers (tens of something) instead of usual minimum (O(1000))
• <swansong> over time, they want people to have direct part purchase planning
• <mchua> what does that mean?
• <swansong> err, not planning, capability
• <mchua> as in "here, a website with a shopping cart... I want 15 antennae"?
• <swansong> eventually, quanta wants people buying from *quanta's* supplier
• <swansong> I think more that Brightstar wants to get out of the business of subwarehousing, but that is Scott's interpretation, not Kim/Adam canon
• <swansong> This is future plans, at which point D-stock and M-stock would be insufficient
• <mvn071> what is d/n stock?
• <mvn071> d-m
• <swansong> Using D-stock and M-stock to launch nonprofit repair centers is a good idea, tho
• <swansong> Adam is speaking to minimum quantity on keyboards right now
• <swansong> being taken offline
• <swansong> question asked about D- and M- stocks
• <swansong> M-stock is XOs identified at Brightstar as returns with problems usable only for parts or deep repair
• <swansong> quantity is silly (97)
• <mchua> D-stock and M-stock == returned laptops, broken laptops
• <swansong> D-stock: DOAs.
• <mchua> (what scott said)
• <swansong> Currently, O(200) [actually 138 remaining] of D-stock. These are funded, if you will, by G1G1 RMAs
• <swansong> 80,000+ total quantity of Give1Get1s, and that is now a closed stock.
• <swansong> aholt believes that the numbers will double. Kim dissents.
• <swansong> aholt believes that double is due to lag of support requests. Kim acquiesced that delay may cause up to doubling.
• <swansong> Moraine Valley Community College (SW Chicago) group speaking now (Larry Langellier & Steve Mastej)
• <swansong> ideas about campus clubs, jam sessions
• <swansong> noncredit courses at college
• <swansong> advice to other colleges who want to do that.
• <swansong> second proposal: create an actual repair center. question: where do parts come from?
• Mar 20 14:21:04 * mchua wishes to raise the issue of "certification" of repair centers - are we doing it? (personally I hope not)
• <swansong> question is for repair center, how much do you charge?
• <swansong> kim responds that people will probably not pay US$200 to repair a "US$200" G1G1 unit
• <TTown> accrediting centers would be nice - having a way of registering and getting maybe online peer reviews
• <TTown> of your repair shop
• <TTown> certification is overkill
• <swansong> larry's concept is a flat exchange
• <swansong> kim just said "certified repair centers"
• <swansong> so this is a good segue -- I will ask when can
• <swansong> wants to avoid scalping
• <swansong> no ability to buy full units, just spare parts, at this time
• <swansong> kim: OLPC wants all people to have a way to get this repaired
• <swansong> kim: much prefers online peer reviews
• <swansong> pointing people at "where to get it fixed"
• <swansong> she feels actual certification IS overkill
• <swansong> and will close things
• <swansong> might be hard to justify laptops -- if it is hard to justify them, then make it easier, and maybe a certification type thing MIGHT help with that
• <mchua> I'd rather go with peer reviews and independent groups being able to create their own certifications ("passed MVCC XO-repair test") is better than bottlenecking at OLPC
• Mar 20 14:25:29 * mchua agrees with kim
• <swansong> I think kim is in synch, mchua
• <mchua> yay!
• <mvn071> user rating
• <mchua> yeah, I got that impression from swansong's notes of what kim said  :) just expressing my happiness
• <swansong> Moving on to Stefan Reitz
• <swansong> Birmingham, Alabama -- if you want to get involved, info is on the wiki
• <swansong> his dayjob is fixing things, so it looks like this is a serious grassroots effort
• <swansong> since there is going to be 10,000+ installbase
• <swansong> Kim ref'ing the online doc ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Repair_center_locations )
• <swansong> Labor costs in US too high compared to laptop cost
• <swansong> so make the parts non-soldered and user-replaceable (this was design theory)
• <swansong> mobo [motherboad] breaking -- example of something supplied only to repair centers doing a good job
• <swansong> Stefan is wanting to have access to parts/schematics that require solder-level work (components) -- e.g. power transistors
• <swansong> Not SOP [/*S*mall *O*utline *P*ackage, a surface mount technology]/, but sort of a "level 2" hardware
• <swansong> Kim will look into how schematics are obtained. There are Issues.
• <swansong> [if others think I misquote, PLEASE include/requote/correct]
• <swansong> Stefan: how do I get spare parts? what's the price break on parts? O(1) vs O(10)?
• <swansong> Looking for financial viability
• <swansong> Local repair centers. With 10-15K units. Bender quoted 1-2% damage rate per year.
• <swansong> He thus estimates that 150-300 per year require intervention
• <mvn071> more over the years
• <swansong> Kim: can't make a business on 10-15K units
• <swansong> there's only 80K units in all of N America, which is hard enough, and then you have shipping
• <mvn071> data recoverage / reinstall
• <swansong> 10-15K is just a drop in the bucket for the future
• <swansong> so this is just a slow start
• <swansong> so this might make sense for someone to take on the business, to see how it will grow
• <swansong> Stefan wants to see this expand to other parts of alabama
• <swansong> Kim: Birmingham sort of caught them by surprise, so cannot comment on rest of AL or US
• <swansong> Adam: 1% is an important number
• < 1% RMA 30day
• <swansong> over 5 years, kim points out, will be higher
• <swansong> she needs to look that data up
• <mchua> where is the 1% number coming from? pilots?
• <swansong> Walter
• <swansong> 1-2% per year
• <mchua> (right, but where does walter get that number from?)
• <swansong> (stefan corrected)
• <1% (hopefully) 30day rma rate - user smash! vs mfg error
• < where student ownership
• <swansong> numbers now being investigated
• <swansong> XO obviously have different numbers
• <swansong> we dont know yet
• <swansong> should probably put competitive numbers on wiki page to suss out things
• <swansong> (that from kim)
• <swansong> Also, industry starting to see 10% momentary out-of-service numbers in educational 1:1 24-hour mobil programs
• <swansong> (mobile)
• <swansong> Kim: ~300k in service already, keyboard peeloff problem wont be fixed even in the next couple hundred of thousand
• <swansong> (XOs)
• <swansong> Nikki Lee [in Cambridge, MA w/ Kim & Adam at OLPC office] is hard to hear
• <swansong> "do stuff on own, be resource to others"
• <swansong> Olin wants to pilot
• <swansong> how do things work, documentation and passing info
• <swansong> April-Hope Wareham speaking on IMSA.edu's idea to research project
• <swansong> simulate a repair center from anywhere in the world
• <olpc_wad> swansong: Actually, I'm just hanging around from yesterday's meeting. But schematics cannot be released by OLPC
• <swansong> do a student-run repair center (ages 14-18 techs)
• <swansong> piloting concept
• <swansong> Kim encouraging Olin College and IMSA to work together
• <swansong> Marten Vijn now speaking from the Netherlands
• <swansong> 5 broken units thus far (if I heard right)
• <swansong> using scavenging from brokens to repair others.
• <swansong> Interest in teaching and learning as a side project, not full time career
• <swansong> using schools for workforce as a side effect of learning cycle (or learning as side effect of workforce, might be commutative)
• <swansong> Scott Nelson, Vancouver: Freegeek! http://freegeekvancouver.org (on channel)
• <swansong> nonprofit -- no interest in competing with local for-profits. He is still waiting for his XO(s).
• <swansong> He does not know of number of units in CA or Van
• <swansong> aholt: over 5000 in Canada with "more to come soon"
• <swansong> ScottN: Very DIY. Putting themselves out there as grp that adheres to goals and ideals
• <swansong> looking to host workshops, sessions, etc
• <swansong> Adam: pls explain freegeek more
• <swansong> ScottN: accept donations of old computer hardware, volunteers sort and scavenge (they are trained by org)
• <swansong> Minimum cut for reassembly, lower stuff gets partfarmed
• <swansong> or even metalfarmed
• <swansong> the rest: people volunteer for 24 hours to work rebuilding. at end, they get their own from the rebuilds.
• <swansong> High end stuff goes into thrift store (parts and units), which generates funds for program
• <swansong> Non-profits can apply for free hardware
• <swansong> which they set up with Ubuntu and then give to those agencies
• <swansong> Kim: Are you interested in repairing XO?
• <swansong> ScottN: we have a laptop fixit wizard who is very good. they have only been around a year. They do NOT want a warehouse. They don't want to bite off more than they can chew.
• <swansong> They also don't want to deal with post [shipping & handling].
• <swansong> So, maybe, start small - once a month XO repair jam
• <swansong> Three staff members (paid), rest are volunteer. [Sounds awesome, Scott!!]
• <swansong> Programs done being discussed/floated. Now, general questions.
• <humble-van> mirror site: http://cprost.freegeekvancouver.org (slightly out of date, but...)
• <swansong> Kim is hopeful that .edu organizations will be part of this
• <humble-van> ( primary site seems slashdotted right now  ;-) <swansong> shipping is tough problem for nonprofits. even $5.25 (bulk price) keyboard (aholt)
• <swansong> so this $5.25 is illusory, b/c fulfillment costs for kbd are greater than part cost, so who know what the final price will be
• <swansong> brightstar is going to charge/defray fulfillment costs to stay profitable itself, so kbds will by definition be substantially more than $5.
• <mchua> are there alternative parts/sources to the official ones for any components? (for instance, the charger plugs discussion)
• <swansong> a $5 kbd in china has to make it to US ($) and then be warehoused ($) and shipped to repair centers ($)
• <mchua> (charger plugs discussion == you can use these things to charge your XO instead if you lose your 'official' charger)
• <swansong> Olin has been provided with 2 units.
• <swansong> Marten looking for units
• <swansong> no, mel, that has not been brought up
• <swansong> Kim: can Marten do send-ins? or just walk-ins.
• <swansong> Marten will do shipping, but customer pays
• <swansong> Kim: Nikki and April-Hope are for training!
• <swansong> (AHW gave me a frightened look .. heh)
• <swansong> nikki: will put up place for people to leave comments for what people WANT to do
• <swansong> (err, want doc on)
• <swansong> Kim: gaping hole: there is no repair manual
• <swansong> so let's give olin/IMSA some units to figure that out
• <swansong> [Walter Bender] will be publishing 24 page deployment guide [now posted here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_Guide ]
• <ahw> we can start a pilot as soon as we get broken units, so i think thats the place Nikki and Stefan and IMSA are at right now
• <swansong> AHW: looking for units as well as simulated numbers for parameters for pilots
• <swansong> ScottN: looking for some units for parts for seeding repair jams
• <swansong> Kim: who has opened it up?
• <swansong> everyone seems to have
• <swansong> Jim Gerry: who has put it back together?
• <swansong> same answer
• <swansong> MVCC (Moraine Valley) received 12 broken units in late Feb: 8 M stock and 4 D stock. MVCC's Steve Mastej now commenting
• <swansong> Steve contends: so what if you've torn and rebuilt -- have you actually repaired it?
• <swansong> Documenting: include times
• <swansong> Steve contends it's 30 min for teardown to replace state, 1 hr to replace the really cantankerous parts
• <mchua> Documenting: include who did it (first-time XO tear-downer? 30 years of computer repair experience?)
• <mchua> (so that times/difficulty can be gauged)
• <swansong> Some DOAs are bricked, and require a surface mount ram replace
• <CanoeBerry> Skype problem?
• <TTown> something bad happening to the phone line
• <CanoeBerry> Plz hang up if you have a speakerphone!
• <swansong> 2 levels of bricked: 1 kind repairable.
• <swansong> Skype?
• <swansong> [Conference call line fixed itself 1-2min later]
• <cjb> "surface mount ram replace"?
• <swansong> 1 cannot.
• <swansong> sorry, I was transcribing a convo half there when we went into weird line noise space
• <cjb> Hm, I guess the SPI replacement fits that bill. But a *much* simpler way to fix that DOA is to hook up a serial port.
• <swansong> SPI replacement, yes
• <swansong> cjb: we're doing them backwards. From totally useless to actually reparable
• <swansong> they're starting to discuss the serial line, but stopped just short
• <swansong> marten: concern about customs clearance
• <swansong> zero value on dead units
• <swansong> Call closed.