Hack?

yeeah...

Some of the more critical parts used for the sewing machine mobile phone charger include the cap from a bottle of WD40 and my elastic hair band, both used to turn the motor.

We finally made the voltage regulation circuit by buying a Rs50 car charger off the street and ripping it apart. Hawkers accost us every day, when we are stuck in traffic, trying to sell us these Nokia car chargers.... who knew they would ever be useful!

So it seems like one of these things could be hackable out of parts available even in relatively small villages...

The hack is a success!

Finally, today, we were able to charge a mobile phone with the sewing machine hack that we threw together this week.

We'll post more pictures, but using about $5-$10 worth of electronics and parts we bought off the street, we were able to convert a footpowered sewing machine into a dynamo that generates a 6Volt 250 Milliamp charge--appropriate for charging mobile phones.

We don't know if this will ever get out of the lab, but we do know that there is a footpowered sewing machine in nearly every village in India, that there is a lot of unmet demand for electricity, people can charge Rs5 per charge, and that the poverty line in India is Rs10.

And not that I'm advocating child labor, but it is a reality, and with this, a kid could make Rs5 per hour while reading a book or doing homework. Just an idea.

Power Issues

The power issue is a huge bottleneck when talking about the economic growth of this country. In fact, the problem isn't getting better - it is getting worse! As the country grows in population, the demand for energy is even greater. In the state of Maharashtra, routine power outages occur almost on a daily basis in some parts of the state. Also, the state electricity board charges exorbitant prices for energy to offset the losses from free-loaders who just tap into their neighbors' electrical lines. Also, load sharing causes power outages for hours at a time - some are as long as 12 hours. Derek and I stumbled across the existence of UPS devices that are supposed to power a television, a fan, a refrigerator and other household items for a few hours. This is a great idea, but the prices of the UPS devices (which rely on Lead-Acid cells) are very high. We were quoted a price of 8000 Rps. (200$) for one of these devices.

This is obviously not a reasonable solution to the scheduled power outages. Another solution for load-sharing outages is the use of Petrol-Kerosene generators that are used by farmers. Of course, these aren't cheap as well, but they provide electricity when needed. Typical generators are run on a combination of Petrol and Kerosene which are usually used to power the irrigation pumps. Solar power is available, as the equatorial sun passes over India for long stretches of the year. This solution has been studied, but the cost of manufacturing solar cells for mass distribution in India isn't economically feasible yet.

Lately, the team has been looking into alternative energy solutions. Human powered solutions have been looked at and considered, and several potential products are being developed that may help many people stranded without electricity. It's interesting to note that even though the power infrastructure is unreliable, the mobile base stations that cell phones connect to are backed up through generators. Telecommunications in the Dark Ages!

Slideshow Link is here