Need expert advice please. We are interested in using Thin Clients for our resource center in Papua New Guinea because they are easy to deploy, energy and cost efficient. https://www.ncomputing.com/products/L-series/L300# .
I contacted NComputing and raised the question if we can upload RACHEL plus content to the host pc, They say that we can give access and remove access from vspace software installed but it may be difficult to run 25 users and may need a stronger host pc to configure. I was also wondering if the HP ProDesk 400 G3 SFF i7 8GB 1TB DVD W7P/10P VGA DP will do the job? https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c04884992
We don’t mind so much that the Thin Client may only allow 20 users because the RACHEL Plus that we have already will reach an additional 50 users. I am not tech savvy but this is how I see it.:).
I am reaching out to the community and the RACHEL team for your thoughts and guidance if whether this approach is viable.
Have you considered using a Raspberry Pi for the extra users? There are RACHEL-Pi images available at this post. that you can try out if you’re interested. The user count varies depending on the hardware you use and the latest Raspberry Pi 4b comes with RAM options up to 4GB. The 3B+ and other models have USB boot support which means you can run it from a larger hard drive or SSD over USB. That will be coming to the Pi 4b soon. There’s also the option of using a Raspberry Pi with a proper wifi router which can significantly increase user count and is recommended if you’re trying to get more users connected.
Installing RACHEL properly onto new hardware requires tailoring an installation specifically to that device and it can get pretty complicated. It’s easier with Linux than Windows as everything with RACHEL is already set up for Linux and I’ve recently written an updated Ubuntu installer. While you can just download modules from oer2go.org and place them on the storage device, some require services that come with RACHEL when it’s installed like Wikipedia modules. The only ones that would work properly are the static ones like en-KAOS or en-wikipedia-for-schools-static that are designed to be used from a USB stick. I hope that makes sense.
Hi James, since this thread started I’ve been in touch with a UK disc cloning company, they would copy 20Gb to Msata for £40 and post them anywhere in the world.
Maybe we could build a Pinet/ Rachel image for a device such as the Qotom Mini PC
Then users could just order the pre written image and plug and play?
Personally think tablets are probably more cost effective, but there probably is a case for thin client in some circumstances.
Are you looking at these devices to run as servers or just as desktop PCs that connect to a server? Tablets are okay as devices to read content provided by a RACHEL server but they’re not really meant to be the server. Mini PCs as regular desktops to read content are also probably fine but there are too many issues with turning them into RACHEL servers. It requires a lot of time and they’re on the higher end in terms of cost. I don’t see an advantage of a Mini PC as a server over a RACHEL-Pi with a router and if you get into the higher range of user count that RACHEL-Plus is the best choice.
I don’t really understand PiNet. It just looks like a way to create users and connect to them using standard VNC software? If that’s the case I know some people already do that with Raspberry Pis as Desktop computers and a RACHEL-Pi server with a router. RACHEL-Pi and RACHEL-Plus also come with Kolibri which lets you create user and teacher accounts and the teacher can create classes.
If you take as your premise that you want a thin client-server architecture then I was just suggesting a route that looks more affordable than the n-computing stuff.
I think you’re right to question the premise of thin clients, and standalone/ serverless Pi’s is certainly one solution, although with the cost of a screen my feeling is it’s probably going to be more expensive than using a tablet per student.
The Rachel-Plus is a great wifi hotspot, but my understanding is that it does not provide a thin client solution.
The secondary issue is to what extent classroom management software is useful, but that’s a separate issue in some ways.
@sam_uk I was just looking at it from the perspective of providing RACHEL to users and the hurdles of installing it to new hardware. I wasn’t trying to say any one way is better than the other in terms of thin client vs standalone, just that using a RACHEL-Pi with a router and having clients connect directly to it is known to work as an option for that many users. They could also try connecting a RACHEL-Pi to the vspace server hardware they choose and see if they can provide RACHEL that way, but it’s not tested.
We have tried the pi top ceed. I thought it was a little too delicate for our schools. The monitor is a big issue for us. The low cost ones seem too fragile and the more robust ones tend to require too much energy. A pi with a vesa case would be good if I could find a good monitor.
Hi Symone,
All you need to do is set your NComputing clients so they can talk to each other on the network. Then tunnel in your Rachel device into the same network so your thin clients can have access to its content. I have done this in in 5 school labs including one lab with all NComputing machines. However you will need good background knowledge in Networking. Rachel content is running off a web server platform so it can be accessible to any machine connected in a network environment. I am based here in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. There is also a school in Port Moresby running RACHEL. You might want visit the site so you can get a clear picture of my explanation. I can facilitate your visit.
Hope this will help.
Regards
Andrew Kikman Bilson
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Hi Andrew,
Thank you, yes it does. Unfortunately I live in overseas but I can organise for someone to meet with you. Please send me your email and we can go from there.
Thanks again.
Regards,
Symone