Thinkpads Forum

Hi my friend is a science teacher and her school started a STEM program. The kids are learning to use the Arduino with Mindstorm NXT. They are currently sharing just a couple computers. I'm putting together laptops so that 30 kids don't have to share a couple. I have a relative with company that is donating some old laptops, but security policy dictates drives were removed.

I'm looking for old small hard drives (~16gb as it only needs windows xp, the mindstorm nxt program, office and some space to save their files)
I've found a few old laptops missing wifi cards so I need some wifi cards.

Thanks

Hello,

Are you talking SATA drives and miniPCI wifi? Or USB wifi or PCIe?

Or maybe just list laptop models?


Good luck!

wackyD wrote:Hello,

Are you talking SATA drives and miniPCI wifi? Or USB wifi or PCIe?

Or maybe just list laptop models?


Good luck!

sata drives, minipcie wireless or whatever fits in an old r61 as those the the computers I'm donating. USB wireless might work too but in a school environment where a lot of people rotate in and out things like usb thumb drives and usb wifi go missing too easily.

I have the wifi cards, since they are for a good cause I'll give you as many as you want for $1 each. Shipping will be $3 for a small quantity or $6 if you want more than 5 or 6 cards.

These are all 100% working lenovo branded cards from T61 series, identical as what would ship in an R61. I think I have about 40 available.

I have some 60 and 80gb drives too if you're interested, as well as other parts you may need. Send me a PM if interested.

An idea to save on costs and maintenance. Get a central system with hard drive for data storage. Have the individual systems boot up a "live" linux system from CD/DVDrom. All the student's files could reside on the central server. The laptops would connect via wireless or wired ethernet. using a live system, the kids could experiment as much as they want with the laptops and no permanent changes or harm would come.

For inexpensive parts you could also try to find local Ecyclers. I would imagine that California would have a large selection. I can not imagine the numbers of perfectly decent equipment getting scrapped out in a state as large as Cali.

Looks like Tuus may have wireless cards for you. But wanted to chip in that I have 6-8 T60/61 wireless cards sitting around that would work for you. Looks like FRU #'s are 48T0873(3 wire) and 42T0853(2 wire)

DRobinson wrote:An idea to save on costs and maintenance.

I too have an idea: just use a bunch of desktop computers and monitors, which can often be found for free. Laptops not only cost more but also break easily, especially when they are used by a bunch of kids. Schools and offices are discarding Pentium 4, Pentium D and even early Core Duo desktops all the time -- the loading dock in my building has a mountain of them -- and of course free CRT monitors can be found even more easily.

Thanks for the tips guys, I've dug through my old thinkpads and pulled some old wifi cards out, blew out all the dust of the old r61s. I have them working and have donated them. I've cloned a main drive should anything go bad it'll take me a few minutes to clone 16gb. and I'll be loading a logmein on them, in case they need trivial support. The school is pretty backed up and IT is down to 1 guy and the rest is remote. It's a lot of paper work and hassle so I didn't even bother with tax deductions. I only hope it's not a lot of support, as these things always come to bite me in the [censored] when I do things for nothing. All my mom's friend's think I'm 24/7 free emergency tech...

I think as the program expands I may revisit this. I would go with the Live CD option but it needs to run Lego Mindstorm NXT software. I actually have a bunch of old desktops but they didn't have the space for it.

jedisurfer1 wrote:I actually have a bunch of old desktops but they didn't have the space for it.

Did they realize that desktops can be (and in fact should be) put under the desk, on the floor? But if they only have CRT monitors, then space can indeed be an issue.