I bumped into “Rachel” and the offline content while looking at “outer net”.
While someone could simply have two separate boxes/tools… I think the potential synergy of combining these two concepts in one tool would be amazing.
(Outer net is one way / receive only Internet from satellite)
Outer net could trickle in current events, new, weather and updates (software and content)… And Rachel could provide the bulk of the stabil content.
This could be a powerful partnership with very real benefits.
Hi @Wingnut – I’ve tried a few times to get outernet running in our communities but never had success. There were technical challenges we ran into that made us trying to integrate their technology a bit of a non-starter for our groups. We failed to find a lot of good outernet users in our world, so we dropped in on our end. That being said, we did give Outernet RACHEL, and for a while they were distributing their devices with RACHEL on it. I don’t know whatever happen to that process, but I know they were rightfully frustrated with our pace of development which entailed many upgrades they didn’t keep up with. I guess that’s the best answer I can give you on this one.
Hello Rachel Friends - - I just joined the Forum, and want to talk about Outernet’s L-band system. To clarify, I’m just an interested IT person who thinks both systems are incredible education contributions to the undeserved on this planet.
To be perfectly blunt, currently Outernet lacks stability, and hasn’t delivered a well packaged device. Many of us Outernet followers have packaged our L-band terminals in containers the size of a cigar box; and power them from AC USB power cubes, LIPO battery packs or solar power arrays.
Some of us plug Rachel (32GB-EN) on a USB Flash Drive into the Outernet terminal board (called the Dreamcatcher), and accessed all the Rachel modules that way. This is a perfect match of both systems that can be done now. Updating Rachel through Outernet makes sense to us, but how to orchestrate it and technically do it escapes us.
Ken in Annapolis, MD
what were the technical issues? Im interested if they are something that can be mitigated or are they things that really are baseline? (like no devices etc) I know in the early KU-Band days there were issues getting setup, but with L-Band its quite easy…
anyway, i’d like to see where it could be improved…
Chris
Just to bump this thread, Othernet is now operational in US and Europe on small affordable devices. Africa will be coming soon.
It seems like an API is possible if the use-case is strong enough
So maybe a Rachel module could be created that queries the Othernet API (locally between offline devices)?
The current content looks like this http://71.206.20.63/ (just log in as a guest and explore the menu)
@jeremy would you be interested in testing/ reviewing the latest iteration?
Hi @sam_uk — i assume Othernet is the same group as Outernet was? I know of the project and think it’s interesting, but for our deployments where technical resources on the ground are non-existent, I don’t think it’s a good fit for us. I know there are some technical folks with more hands on deployments so I would encourage them to check it out!
The board says: Although some assistance can be found on our forums, Othernet provides no direct support for this product. If you are not a tinkerer, hobbyist, or hardware hacker, you may be disappointed with your purchase.
Yes they had to re-brand for copyright reasons
Yes this is the Alpha/ Dev release, the consumer product will have more support.
If people are interested in trying it then give me and @barbik a shout…