Resumen en español al final del artículo
A team of students from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago has been working on a charging station for XO deployments in developing countries. Like the laptops themselves, the design needed to be rugged and inexpensive, but also simple enough to be reproduced in their area of deployment. Using a three-legged PVC structure, hardboard shelves, and dulled nails for support, the final cost of each charging station ended up being under $1.00 per XO when constructed in the US; and when using a simple jig, the construction time is under an hour for a station with 20 shelves.
In August 2011, the team installed a solar power system at a primary school in Lascahobas, Haiti. Upon returning in December, the site was updated with, among other things, the new charging station design. Previously, all 400 XOs had been stacked in piles of ten, which proved to be a mess (as seen in the first picture below). With the new stations installed, the children were able to easily find available charging cables and plug the XOs into the system.
An assembly guide for building these XO laptop charging stations is available in two different versions: 11x17 one-pager / multiple 8.5x11 pages.
IIT Empowering Haiti is a team of undergraduate students at the Illinois Institute of Technology who, with the support of faculty and industry advisers, are working to improve the conditions of education in Haiti. For more information you please visit the team's Web site or contact them at contact@iitempoweringhaiti.org.
Resumen en español: El equipo de IIT Empowering Haiti construyo un sistema de estaciónes para poder recargar los 400 XO en una escuela en Haiti. El costo del sistema es menos que $1 por XO y existen un guia para que cualquier otro proyecto puede replicar este sistema: una página / seis páginas.
The use of a minumum number, inexpensive and readily available parts makes this a valuable contribution.
I personally prefer vertical mounting similar to blade servers in server racks. This provides for easy access and better convection cooling which allows higher density.
I have constructed one row charging stations having a low front retaining rail and separating pins on a high rear retaining rail. They were constructed with 1/2 inch cpvc pipe and "T"'s, and 3/4 inch pipe insulation as a cushion and anti-slide on the support rails. Multiple rows would require the larger pipe size.