4 ms·

I think the biggest failure (ignoring politics, markets, etc) was its complexity. Tech with moving parts tends to break. You also can't easily build something t

by bArray 7y ago

I think the biggest failure (ignoring politics, markets, etc) was its complexity. Tech with moving parts tends to break. You also can't easily build something that is all things to all people, it's better to do a simple thing well than a lot of things awfully. If I were to set out with this challenge today, I would build a basic version of the Pi Top [1]. Literally just a keyboard, touch screen, Raspberry Pi, battery and battery circuit (input 5-24V DC, output 5V DC). A lot of people in hard-up areas still have phones and therefore some kind of DC power, but worse case a car battery can usually be come across. Put the Pi behind the display (avoid bending the display cable) and expose the inputs/outputs. Put the battery in the keyboard area to weight it down. Have everything just plug into normal ports (including the display) with visible cables on the back. That way it's simple, easy(ier) to fix and upgrade. Parts can be hacked and re-used for other projects. There's tonnes of documentation and online support. People could feasibly take to broken devices to create a working one. As for the meshing stuff, it's overly complicated. I think you would just preload the machine with a bunch of learning resources (software, books, etc) and make it easy for the device to become a hotspot for file sharing. [1] https://accounts.pi-top.com/products/pi-top/ https://accounts.pi-top.com/products/pi-top/

avhon1 7y ago
What you've described is nearly exactly the design of the OLPC. A one-piece impermeable keyboard, battery behind the keyboard to weight it down, all of the sophisticated electronics behind the screen to minimize cable bending. The charging circuitry will charge the battery if given anywhere between 11 and 18 volts (there are user reports of slowly charging with 9V), and will not be damaged if exposed to higher, or negative, voltage. I've charged mine from my 12V lithium motorcycle battery plenty of times. The OLPC XO-1 is quite easy to disassemble and repair. You only need one philips #1 screwdriver, and it doesn't have a ridiculous number of teeny-tiny screws, or any glue, holding it together. The wiki has detailed instructions on disassembling the top[0] and bottom[1] of the laptop, and also guides on replacing specific components. People took advantage of the easy-to-disassemble and thoroughly-documented hardware to develop community hacks. A popular one was to replace the membrane keyboard with a particular USB keyboard, which could be cut up to fit the chassis, and internally wired to one of the USB ports. I've seen a tutorial on how to solder an extra 256 MB of memory in. The G1G1 laptops came with a preinstalled collection[3] of educational material, mostly from Wikipedia. The wiki has instructions on how to create custom collections to be distributed with a deployment of laptops. OLPC also created the School Server[4], a distro intended to provide a central network resource for communication and stored learning material. [0] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_top http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_top [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_bottom http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_bottom [3] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#G1G1 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#G1G1 [4] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server
- bArray 7y ago
  Firstly, thank you for taking the time to reply. In your opinion, specifically regarding the hardware, do you believe there are improvements that could be made (in terms of design)? > What you've described is nearly exactly the design of the > OLPC. A one-piece impermeable keyboard, battery behind the > keyboard to weight it down, all of the sophisticated > electronics behind the screen to minimize cable bending. Kind of, but it has speakers, daughter extension boards, swivel display, custom "motherboard" PCB, etc. I do appreciate that it was a different time though and I have the arm chair privilege of looking at this through a modern lens. > The charging circuitry will charge the battery if given > anywhere between 11 and 18 volts (there are user reports > of slowly charging with 9V), and will not be damaged if > exposed to higher, or negative, voltage. I've charged mine > from my 12V lithium motorcycle battery plenty of times. These days (modern lens) I think it would be appropriate to accept an input down to 5V (i.e. USB). Supporting AC wouldn't be incredibly difficult either (many phone wall changes are quite small), but of course would increase size and/or complexity. Also I think it's good to keep kids away from high voltage/current AC. > The OLPC XO-1 is quite easy to disassemble and repair. You > only need one philips #1 screwdriver, and it doesn't have > a ridiculous number of teeny-tiny screws, or any glue, > holding it together. The wiki has detailed instructions on > disassembling the top[0] and bottom[1] of the laptop, and > also guides on replacing specific components. It's certainly much better than I thought in terms of repair-ability, but I still believe it's overly complex. The display for example should get a display signal via a HDMI cable (which is shielded) and send the touchscreen data via USB, as well as providing power for the display. If the cable breaks, sourcing a replacement is relatively easy given the standardization. If the display breaks, an external one may be used. > People took advantage of the easy-to-disassemble and > thoroughly-documented hardware to develop community hacks. > A popular one was to replace the membrane keyboard with a > particular USB keyboard, which could be cut up to fit the > chassis, and internally wired to one of the USB ports. > I've seen a tutorial on how to solder an extra 256 MB of > memory in. That's awesome, but it should have come with an off-the-shelf drop-in removable USB keyboard anyway. The keyboard should be a valuable item, even if the rest of the laptop is completely destroyed. > The G1G1 laptops came with a preinstalled collection[3] of > educational material, mostly from Wikipedia. The wiki has > instructions on how to create custom collections to be > distributed with a deployment of laptops. OLPC also > created the School Server[4], a distro intended to provide > a central network resource for communication and stored > learning material. The preinstalled collections are pretty cool. The school server I highly doubt would have worked correctly in many cases as it relies on too much to work correctly (server setup correctly, networking, stable electricity supply, etc). These days I would make all the books stand-alone, probably distributed as markdown as you can read them raw or compile them into some more pleasing format. I think requiring some non-standard program to open .xol files was probably a move in the wrong direction.

by bArray 7y ago

avhon1 7y ago

What you've described is nearly exactly the design of the OLPC. A one-piece impermeable keyboard, battery behind the keyboard to weight it down, all of the sophisticated electronics behind the screen to minimize cable bending. The charging circuitry will charge the battery if given anywhere between 11 and 18 volts (there are user reports of slowly charging with 9V), and will not be damaged if exposed to higher, or negative, voltage. I've charged mine from my 12V lithium motorcycle battery plenty of times. The OLPC XO-1 is quite easy to disassemble and repair. You only need one philips #1 screwdriver, and it doesn't have a ridiculous number of teeny-tiny screws, or any glue, holding it together. The wiki has detailed instructions on disassembling the top[0] and bottom[1] of the laptop, and also guides on replacing specific components. People took advantage of the easy-to-disassemble and thoroughly-documented hardware to develop community hacks. A popular one was to replace the membrane keyboard with a particular USB keyboard, which could be cut up to fit the chassis, and internally wired to one of the USB ports. I've seen a tutorial on how to solder an extra 256 MB of memory in. The G1G1 laptops came with a preinstalled collection[3] of educational material, mostly from Wikipedia. The wiki has instructions on how to create custom collections to be distributed with a deployment of laptops. OLPC also created the School Server[4], a distro intended to provide a central network resource for communication and stored learning material. [0] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_top http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_top [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_bottom http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Disassembly_bottom [3] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#G1G1 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collections#G1G1 [4] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server http://wiki.laptop.org/go/School_server

bArray 7y ago
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to reply. In your opinion, specifically regarding the hardware, do you believe there are improvements that could be made (in terms of design)? > What you've described is nearly exactly the design of the > OLPC. A one-piece impermeable keyboard, battery behind the > keyboard to weight it down, all of the sophisticated > electronics behind the screen to minimize cable bending. Kind of, but it has speakers, daughter extension boards, swivel display, custom "motherboard" PCB, etc. I do appreciate that it was a different time though and I have the arm chair privilege of looking at this through a modern lens. > The charging circuitry will charge the battery if given > anywhere between 11 and 18 volts (there are user reports > of slowly charging with 9V), and will not be damaged if > exposed to higher, or negative, voltage. I've charged mine > from my 12V lithium motorcycle battery plenty of times. These days (modern lens) I think it would be appropriate to accept an input down to 5V (i.e. USB). Supporting AC wouldn't be incredibly difficult either (many phone wall changes are quite small), but of course would increase size and/or complexity. Also I think it's good to keep kids away from high voltage/current AC. > The OLPC XO-1 is quite easy to disassemble and repair. You > only need one philips #1 screwdriver, and it doesn't have > a ridiculous number of teeny-tiny screws, or any glue, > holding it together. The wiki has detailed instructions on > disassembling the top[0] and bottom[1] of the laptop, and > also guides on replacing specific components. It's certainly much better than I thought in terms of repair-ability, but I still believe it's overly complex. The display for example should get a display signal via a HDMI cable (which is shielded) and send the touchscreen data via USB, as well as providing power for the display. If the cable breaks, sourcing a replacement is relatively easy given the standardization. If the display breaks, an external one may be used. > People took advantage of the easy-to-disassemble and > thoroughly-documented hardware to develop community hacks. > A popular one was to replace the membrane keyboard with a > particular USB keyboard, which could be cut up to fit the > chassis, and internally wired to one of the USB ports. > I've seen a tutorial on how to solder an extra 256 MB of > memory in. That's awesome, but it should have come with an off-the-shelf drop-in removable USB keyboard anyway. The keyboard should be a valuable item, even if the rest of the laptop is completely destroyed. > The G1G1 laptops came with a preinstalled collection[3] of > educational material, mostly from Wikipedia. The wiki has > instructions on how to create custom collections to be > distributed with a deployment of laptops. OLPC also > created the School Server[4], a distro intended to provide > a central network resource for communication and stored > learning material. The preinstalled collections are pretty cool. The school server I highly doubt would have worked correctly in many cases as it relies on too much to work correctly (server setup correctly, networking, stable electricity supply, etc). These days I would make all the books stand-alone, probably distributed as markdown as you can read them raw or compile them into some more pleasing format. I think requiring some non-standard program to open .xol files was probably a move in the wrong direction.