Why is that a good idea? It’s to enable an offline 93-year-old grandmother – who is never going to use a mobile phone, and doesn’t have Wi-Fi – to receive messages and pictures from her family in a form she is comfortable with. It’s a kind of social-fax, I suppose.
Basically, the way the system works – described by its maker, Guido, as a “cardboard courier” – is that a specially constructed box connects to the Internet using a SIM card from a mobile phone and receives messages on the Telegram app. A printer inside the box then prints out the communications.
It means grandma can receive news and messages in text and also see (black and white) pics in real time.
Digging around on the Internet to find more lead me to a site called OiCanadian, which references as its source the Argentinian site TN.com.
Guido is on twitter, at palmerabollo, and this is the tweet with all the data in (expand out all the replies to see more photos of elements of the kit):
No encontré un “fablab” en Valladolid para hacer una caja digna, así que tiré de fresón de Palos y sierra de marquetería (estos biceps no se cuidan solos) mientras encuento un ebanista que sepa hacer una caja con alma. @fablabuva ¿los exalumnos pueden usar vuestras instalaciones? pic.twitter.com/rXwS20M7Qu
— Guido (@palmerabollo) January 10, 2022
As he explains, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and uses a SIM7600G-H 4G HAT (B) for Raspberry Pi, for 3G/4G cellular comms.
And you can see it in action below:
Para minimizar el mantenimiento elegí esta impresora térmica https://t.co/MPKRMtiStb, sin tinta. Come rollos de hasta 10 metros de papel (unas 150 fotos por 1 euro) y parecía cómoda la conexión USB aunque al final no la usé. pic.twitter.com/2xbDRTsHjO
— Guido (@palmerabollo) January 10, 2022
Images: Guido
[Via TN.com]
