TechBike

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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
• sunny's in laurel, md

• 840 CRTG 5.56MM 
  BALL o M855
  10 ROUND CLIPS
  LC-04C159-051

• Linksys WRT54G: $50
• or two: $100 :]
• 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
• 11w solar panel from gallagher
• 12v 250mA from realgoods
• PowerFilm from Iowa Thin Film
• Some sort of rig to allow charging via bike pedalling
• from realgoods

Useful Links

• PtpBike
• BatteryPoweredAP
• soekris-tech on solar panel req's
• cuwin metrix kit implementation
• hearsay on soekris power reqs from irishwan
• CUWiN manual
• AntennaHowTo
• chinese cookware + usbwifi = antenna
• Steve Jackson's Nomadic Research Lab bike pages
• worldchanging entries
• http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003290.html
• http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003060.html
• http://shop.netstumbler.com/
• dailywireless: cheap long shots
• dailywireless: more solar wifi
• how to build a tin can antenna (also has cantenna calculator)
• AntennaHowTo
• power over ethernet howto

Other Community Wireless Groups

• PersonalTelco (Portland, OR)
• SeattleWireless
• http://socalfreenet.org

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

• Charger http://www.myra-simon.com/bike/charger.html

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)

• 12 volt battery backup unit Use for charging?
• http://www.ibexmfg.com/

Computers

• linksys wrt54g
• 200mhz mips cpu
• runs linux
• rp-tnc bulkhead hole needs to be 7/16 inch.
• 54g models that openwrt will work on
• Metrix Communication, LLC kit mark I
• based on Soekris net4526
• enclosed in nema 4x housing already
• 100mw a/b/g radio or 200mw b radio
• $275
• Soekris 4501 http://www.soekris.com/net4501.htm
• Cheap
• 1 low power pci, 1 mini-pci
• Soekris 4521 http://www.soekris.com/net4521.htm
• $175 (so, $25 more than 4501)
• 2 pc-card, 1 mini-pci
• Removable CF slot
• May be easier to find pc-card devices that do what we want to do than it will be to find low-power pci devices
• SoekrisNet4521
• PC Engines

Antenna

• tin can antenna (see links, above)
• 12dbi mini directional antenna from invictus $24
• 13dbi panel antenna from invictus $30.00
• Dual-band N Male from Netgate

Antenna Adapters

Antenna Cable

• a variety from hyperlinktech they have rp/tnc -> n cables, as well, cutting out the need for adapters.
• Invictus Networks 10' LMR-400 Jumper Cable n-male to n-female $15
• AntennaCable
• WaterProofingCables

Glands

• RJ45 Pass Thru Gland from invictus Th[is] unique design is "field installable" because it accepts a fully assembled Ethernet cable connector.

Software

• Champaign-Urbana community WIreless Network
• http://www.openwrt.org

Interested Parties

ThomasKula

Waldo

CategoryProjects

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