microSD card corruption -- UPS Power Supply

an e-mail in from Rob of Rafiki foundation

hi Jeremy,

I just sent out a few more Rachel’s… I do go through them to change passwords and to delete a few modules (we don’t use the file sharing, we remove the Windows tools as our computers are modern, etc).

I notice the new ones are Model B’s - that’s cool. I notice you no longer include the UPS boards. Surely that will help the reliability, I wonder are you recommending that users use an external UPS, on the logic that a single well behaved on/off once in a while is better than many odd transients, etc. Have you had any reports of SD card corruption when using unprotected power?

ALSO I notice you were in Tanzania in recent months. If you travelled the road between Moshi & Arusha, you passed the front gate of our Rafiki village (about halfway between). We have a hundred orphans, more than a hundred day students, and a national worker staff of probably 50 there. And 6 missionaries (one family raising their kids there).

Overall, we have several Rachel’s in each of our schools and in our post-secondary education programs across Africa these days. Everybody loves ‘em!

take care,

Rob

Hi Rob - great to hear you’re still chugging along with RACHEL!

We do get sporadic SD card reports…

This one in the forums: Rachel Pi system not booting correctly

Lasted almost four years. I’m not sure how often it was turned on or off.

We couldn’t get reliability with the Pi based UPS and came out with RACHEL-Plus, which filled our need for better wifi, storage, and battery. If you haven’t checked one out lately, I’d highly recommend it!

best,
jeremy