Hi,
The Nohana school is using a setup as you describe. However, the
configuration includes an inverter. The first thing the teachers do in
the morning is plug in their cell phones (the inverter is connected to
an array of powerstrips some of which are used to charge laptops),
An interesting point is that usb cables with the mini plug are becoming
more readily available. With these, an XO charged from a solar system
can charge a cell phone via a usb port.
Tony
On 06/10/2013 06:59 PM, David Farning wrote:
On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 9:38 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_ander...@usa.net
<mailto:tony_ander...@usa.net>> wrote:
Hi,
The Trim-slice model H (with room for a 2.5" hard drive) looks like
a good candidate for a low power school server (e.g. for running
from a 12v battery). The Trim-slice AC adapter delivers 12v@1.5 - a
good sign.
Agreed. The ability to power these things from a 'car battery' is
critical. I used the term car battery loosely to mean any locally
sourced 12v power source. In my limited experience, the cell phone has
been a game changer in developing nations. Because of the need/desire to
recharge cell phones. Local entrepreneurs have sprung up everywhere to
provide the ability to recharge those phones.
Most of those solutions involve some sort of 12V battery or bank or
batteries plus charging system.
Things like UPSs give me pause because they are not as widely available
or widely under.
The Trim-slice also has a SD card slot. This could be valuable because
it would let the device be booted from the SD card and install the XS
via a USB port (USB drive or hard drive) from a tar ball, for example.
Currently I do the install in two steps: XS and XC.
The XS install loads XS (or XSCE).
The XC install (using the usbmount script) installs the
content (e.g. Moodle courses, Learn courses, library, internet in a
box).
This is also a way to install packages not included in XS such as
Django and Mediawiki.
The first is typically done with a USB drive and the second with an
external USB hard drive (content currently exceeds 64GB and should
grow significantly this summer).
Tony
Using the SD card could give several benefits:
SD card supports SSH allowing (finally) for headless (in the field)
install
Install XS to hard drive as image eliminating issues with making
bootable USB drive
Install update without repartitioning system and destroying content
It might also be possible to use the SD card as a 'rescue disk'.
Most common case is DHCP does
not init and so no network connection to school server is
possible.This would at least allow look at logs to see what went wrong.
Thanks for the use scenarios.
Dave
Checking this out is one of my summer projects.
Tony
--
David Farning
Activity Central: http://www.activitycentral.com
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