Welcome to the PiBox Page

This page will give you a quick overview of the porject as well as links to relevant RaspberryPi SD Card images.

The ability to create and deploy networking technologies able to deliver relevant content over multiple platforms has until very recently depended on access to costly technology, infrastructure and expertise. This project aims to provide a quick start to run own cost effective digital projects based on open source tools and Raspberry Pi hardware.

Quick Start Instructions

1. Download the RaspberryPi .img file - It’s a large download ~8GB

2. Download either the Windows / Mac OS / Linux version of Etcher - You will use this to write the .img file to an SD card to get your Raspberry Pi setup up and running.

3. Follow the 1-2-3 process as displayed on the Etcher website.

4. Once your image has been written to the SD card you can pop it into your Raspberry Pi Model 3 B and you should be ready to go.

5. Once started, you should see the SolarPi hotspot and will be able to connect to the open hotspot and access the WordPress server at http: // 172.24.1.1

Plase Note:

This image and WIFI hotspot setup was build on a Raspberry Pi Model 3 B but it should work on other Raspberry Pi Setups, however on other setups the Wifi hotspot may need to be configured to each invividual system.

A list of all changes, including password for the setup, that was made to the original Raspbian Jessy installation can be found here.

Solar Panel and Battery Setup

• 2 x 7.2 Amp hour lead acid batteries
• 2 x Buck converters
  • The first buck converter to manage charging of the batteries by regulating the incoming voltage to 13 volts
  • The second to regulate outgoing voltage to the Pi by limiting it to 5v
• 1 x 30watt solar panel
• Lastly cables to link it all up

Special thanks to the following sites and guides that made this setup possible

• LAMP Web Server with WordPress
• USING YOUR NEW RASPBERRY PI 3 AS A WIFI ACCESS POINT WITH HOSTAPD
• RPI-Wireless-Hotspot

Want to collaborate or get in touch?

If you would like to collaborate or chat about this project kindly get in touch via github / the following gitter channel

Licencing

This website is shared under the MIT LICENSE the project related files, such as the Raspberry Pi .img is shared under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors and collaborators on this project

Andre Goodrich - Social Anthropology - North-West University

Gustaff Templehof - Graphic Designer

Juan Steyn - Digital Humanities - North-West Unversity