Lamp Update 11/15

Hey guys,
Here's a summary of tonight's meeting and assignments between now and next week (sorry about the length, pay special attention to the "Assignments" section, it may include things I didn't mention tonight at the meeting).

Tonight Selvan came to his first M-HEAL lamp meeting and he met the team. After introducing him to everyone the engineers left for the Wilson center. Steve, Mustafa, and Naroo brought Selvan up to speed on what we've done for the lamp and what our general goals are. They then discussed the main points that need to be made when approaching Freeplay and similar organizations (demonstrated need via Selvan's experience in Uganda, $40 proven pricepoint from Abigail, advantages of a surgical light over general lighting solutions (lower power consumption due to more focused light, frees up manpower, stability)).
Selvan told us we might be able to field test the lamp in Kumi, Uganda from which he recently returned. One of the problems for the hospital in Kumi is that the generator generates more electricity than is needed and therefore wastes fuel. Due to fuel prices the generator is underutilized and the hospital is frequently without power. The hospital has 350 beds but averages 500 patients at any given time (and up to 750 during malaria season).

Carl, Phil, Mike, and Ling went to the Wilson center and worked on the base. We now have a cage in the Wilson center to put our stuff in. Currently there is still some SF3L stuff in there that allegedly will be removed. Until it is gone please tag anything you put in there with a piece of tape with "M-HEAL" written on it, so it doesn't get thrown away.

Next week the engineers will meet at the Wilson center at 7:30 and the MBAs plus Mustafa will meet at 8:15 in the LBME project room.

Assignments:
Mustafa: Work on NCIIA grant; send me a summary of things we need for the NCIIA grant
Naroo: Work on penta-chart and blurb for clearlyso.com and lightingafrica.com; find out if a MAP project is going to Uganda and contact info for that group
Selvan: Work on penta-chart and blurb for clearlyso.com and lightingafrica.com; contact people in Kumi about testing there
Anita: Talk to Mustafa to see how you can help him on the NCIIA grant

Carl: Continue working on stability calculations with the assistance of Ling ; go to the hardware store with Mike
Ling: Work on stability calculations with Carl
Mike: Write down a drill list for everything except for the up-and-down joint (including the rotation). You'll probably need some sketches and you might have to drop by the Wilson center sometime this week to check what's done (unless you remember it all); go to the hardware store with Carl
Phil: Write down a drill list for the up-and-down joint . Include a sketch to show where the holes are. You might have to drop by the Wilson center sometime this week to check what's done (unless you remember it all). The current sketch you have up looks pretty good except you forgot the "noodle" to change the direction of the cable as it enters the tube.

Elliot: Start preliminary electrical calculations. Look in the lockers in the project room for the packaging for the flashlights we're using. The packaging should tell you the voltage and power consumption. Figure out how long our lamp head should last when connected to a typical motorcycle battery and a typical car battery. Look up general info on handcrank generators and estimate the relationship between crank time and light time.

Please post the results of your assignments to the blog.

If you have any questions or run into any problems, don't hesitate to email me, I'm here to help you.

Steve