.In September-ish 2008, RussellSenior bought a couple Alix boards (from PC Engines) to play with. One got turned into an AlixStumbler and the other got used as a router at OneWebDay2008. Having played with the Alix.2d3, he found it has some nice properties and would make a decent router/gateway device. He also began to consider the downsides of the current NuCab infrastructure as it remains deployed in about 25 nodes around town.

In December, he put out a call to raise the funds necessary to make a bulk purchase of 30 of these devices to completely replace the existing NuCabs. As of the end of 2008, the drive has raised over $1800. The total cost of 30 devices would be approximately $5200. We additionally have some cash in our checking account to help fund the purchase. In order to leave ourselves with a cushion of cash, we minimally still need to raise another $700 or so. More, of course, would be better.

The AlixCab can accommodate the following features:

The Alix.2d3 is about twice as capable, CPU-wise, as the standard NuCab. It uses much less electricity, between 4 and 6 Watts, compared to about 60 for the NuCab (a savings for the node host of nearly $40 per year in electricity). It has no moving parts to wear out. It occupies much less space (about 6 x 6 x 1 inch).

Anywho, that's the general idea. Input, technical and financial assistance are welcome. Contact RussellSenior or post to the mailing list. Thanks!

Purchasing

On March 26, 2009 after repeatedly receiving the Board go-ahead, RussellSenior made initial phase of hardware purchase.

From PCENGINES.CH:

This is the first 10 of the planned 30, with a few one-off accessories (the FreeDOS flash card, 10 PoE injector adapters, and the POST code adapter). We may ultimately get creditted some of the shipping and handling back (I got about half back on my September order about three months later, not really sure why);

From NETGATE.COM:

I requested the Community Wireless Networking discount in a comment on the order, and today received an email from Netgate that we'd be creditted $22 of our purchase back to our debit card. For these, I chose to get all 30 in one whack in order to save on the shipping overhead.

Excluding the one-off purchases, this works out to a rate of $157.70 for each device, with an estimated total project cost of $4772.28.

Placing an order for the second batch of 10 Alix boards with PCENGINES.CH:

The prices have dropped somewhat since the last batch. If the last batch is obtainable at the same price, the estimated total project cost is now $4381.36.

The first few AlixCab's have been deployed:

Nodes where AlixCab's to go in:

This should maybe get reorganized, but there are three nodes that want to become SoekrisCab's:

AlixCab (last edited 2010-01-01 04:36:53 by RussellSenior)