Three New KOC Labs in Uganda

Three New KOC Labs in Uganda

This post is from KOC Director and VP, Randy Tate, who just returned from a trip in Uganda where we worked with the Mwebaza Foundation to set up three new labs. Randy and his nephew were in Uganda in July. Randy wrote this before he left – the post describes the technical set up of each lab. Many thanks to those who donated equipment via our Amazon wishlist to make these labs happen!

Packing for the trip!

The plan is for each lab to have: 
– 15 Raspberry Pi student workstations, with headphones (x2)
– HDMI monitors
– 1 Internet in a Box media server (256GB)
– Projector
– A few digital cameras
– Several USB flash drives

Notes on how Raspbian was installed and customized, as well as some basic info on the IIAB setup for Uganda are documented in our Github.

There are also a few PDF files ready to go for intro training sessions.

The PDFs, as well as a backup image of the KoC/Mwebaza Raspbian image, are on each of the 3 IIAB media servers. They are also in 3 16GB USB drives … one for each school. I also bought one 256GB flash drive that has all of those backups, plus a huge .img file of the customized IIAB install and notes on how to restore one of the media servers if needed.

I also found a few spare moments this week to crack open the remaining box of HP Touchpad tablets that I had in my basement from like 5 years ago. It took 24 hrs of charging to bring most of them back to life so far (2 are still on life support). The ones that are alive now have had WebOS removed and CyanogenMod 11 installed! So with direction from Mwebaza Foundation, I intend to distribute 6 tablets to the schools as appropriate.

The HDMI monitors were already purchased in Uganda (I think), and most of the other equipment (Pis, keyboards, mice, headphones, USB drives, projectors, etc.) were shipped in the container or taken by other Mwebaza Foundation volunteers. I’ve just got the 3 media servers, 6 tablets, and backup USB flash drives to pack in luggage.

Thanks to everyone in this organization for support, donations, advice, and lessons learned from current labs and past travel experiences. And, special thanks to Adam (IIAB) and Stormy (equipment logistics) for extra help in the past couple of months. At this point, I feel more prepared for this trip than I have on my previous KoC trips, and am hopeful for a successful outcome (plz don’t say “jinx”). As we all know things don’t always end up as we expect they will once we step off the plane, but here’s to getting all of my positive vibes documented now!

 

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