Tech Bike
Inspired by
Magicbike, a potential project to create a mobile hotspot mounted on a bike.
Key Ideas
- Small form-factor, capable of mounting on rack or in pannier/basket.
- Low power: 15 watts at 12 volts seems to be a reasonable goal
- Operate in either standalone mode, uplink to existing 802.11b/g network, uplink via cell modem(?)
Current Plan
- Surplus ammo case, 11 x 6.75 x 5.5 inches
- UB14A-A2 AGM/Gel PowerSports Battery (listed below), turned on side.
- 1 linksys wrt54g[s] wireless access point running
olsrd on the
openwrt firmware - optional: 2nd linksys to act as uplink. two bikes will communicate via olsrd/wds... power requirements are such that this should not be a problem (but this is just Waldo's SWAG)
- Cut 1/2 inch thick board to 11 x 7 inches.
- Mount linksys on standoffs (take out of plastic case?)
- Mount four taller standoffs on corners of board, attach piece of plastic to this
- Mount in ammo case, plastic side out
- Put battery, on side, behind board
- mount another board (see xxxx's below) and use lower-right (diagram-referenced) corner for battery charger, excess cord, etc.
|----------|
|+L XX L+|
| L XX L |
| L XX L |
| L XX L |
| L XX L |
|+L XX L+|
|XXXXXXXXXX|
|BBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBB|
|BBBBBBBBBB|
|----------|
L = Linksys
X = Board
B = Battery
++ = Standoffs
Budget
- Case: $10
- actual purchase: $11.50 + tax
- Linksys WRT54G: $50
- Battery: $60
- Antenna: $5-10
- Antenna Cable: $22
- gland (for ethernet uplink): $5
- Charging circuit:
- Other:
Potential Enhancements
- Solar charging or using solar to complement power and extend battery life
- Some sort of rig to allow charging via bike pedalling
Useful Links
Other Community Wireless Groups
Parts
Cases
-
563-PN-1335 NEMA 4x polycarbonate/abs enclosure from mouser (for the battery) - LxWxH 10.43"x7.28"x3.74"
- $38.40
- nema 4x == waterproof, uv stable, etc. this is good.
- and for the cheap, any .50 cal ammo can (mil. surplus) will do nicely. Dimension of box: 11 in. x 5½ in. x 7 in.
-
blackburn rear rack -- Waldo intends to mount the unit in an ammo can on one of these.
Batteries/Power
UB14L-2 Gel/AGM PowerSports Battery
- LxWxH = 5.17 x 3.56 x 6.61
- 12 v
- 14 Ah
- 10.56 lbs
nCharge laptop extender battery thingy
- lighter, but heaps more expensive, and maybe not as rugged as a deep cycle battery (see above)
Computers
Antenna
Antenna Adapters
Antenna Cable
Glands
-
RJ45 Pass Thru Gland from invictus Th[is] unique design is "field installable" because it accepts a fully assembled Ethernet cable connector.
Software
Interested Parties
ThomasKula
Waldo
CategoryProjects