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Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek)Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek)Posted Dec 16, 2005 17:25 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (subscriber, #10767)Parent article: Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek)
When I first heard about the hand crank generator on these things I thought it was an error. But the idea persists. Do these things really have a hand crank? Is that even reasonably practical? How long do you have to crank to fully charge the batteries? Hours?
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Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek) Posted Dec 16, 2005 19:56 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link] Yes, there's a hand crank. It's an important part of the requirements,given that electricity isn't available in a significant amount of the locations these are targeted at, and while batteries are available almost everywhere these would be placed, batteries cost real money! Keep in mind that these are relatively low power units. The designers are shooting for 1:10 ratio on the cranking. Crank for two minutes to fill the batteries, use it for 20. As I mentioned in another post, and I just mentioned here about the lack of electricity, some articles have mentioned that the preliminary units they've already made and placed in places like Cambodia, can, due to the lack of electricity, sometimes be the primary and brightest light source in the home as well as the only computer. So, these do dual duty. Imagine someone setting it to all-white screen and cranking it a couple minutes three times an hour (well, perhaps four times an hour, when it's set all-white), to be used as their light source! Duncan
$.30 here, $.30 there... Posted Dec 19, 2005 17:25 UTC (Mon) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link] Pretty soon, you're talking about real money.(No :-)
$.30 here, $.30 there... Posted Dec 20, 2005 8:40 UTC (Tue) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link] Costs add up, absolutely. However, the hand-crank was part of the projectdefinition, because these things must be usable where electricity isn't available. As for batteries, they may be fairly cheap, but when cash income may be less than a dollar a day, and that may be for a family of 10, and batteries aren't for barter, only cash... Duncan (who grew up in Kenya, East Africa, in the 70s, and knows a bit about such things, tho only as a missionary kid, thankfully!)
Hand cranking makes sense Posted Dec 22, 2005 23:10 UTC (Thu) by copsewood (subscriber, #199) [Link] For people living on a dollar a day, batteries are simply too expensive. A UK inventor came up with an idea for a hand cranked radio a couple of decades ago, but couldn't get finance to develop the idea in London because the people in control of the money thought the idea was stupid. However, he got the finance in South Africa, and I gather hand cranked radio sets have really taken off in southern Africa. I guess this is the inspiration behind the idea of hand cranked $100 laptops.
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