Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

dezeen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–149 of 149 posts

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#141

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

Contusion3532 wrote: post #137
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is approx zero chance that you can get a homeless person to do labor for 20 minutes, let alone the 2-5 hours this would actually take. And yet homeless people do labor. In fact routine living often requires much, much, much more labor when homeless, than when housed. They even have jobs. I worked when I was homeless (but was fired when they found out). That was long ago. Since then it's more difficult to find…

Wow. What was their justification for firing you because of your lack of housing?

They didn't offer one. It came out I was living in my car and was told that day I wasn't needed any longer.

When I started working there I was still living in the home I was born into. One day my mom, sister and I were suddenly given 2 weeks to vacate (it's complicated).

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#142

Post by keep_reading »

Kirby64 wrote: post #113
keep_reading wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an emergency radio / USB-C battery combo thing with like 5000mah and the math on the hand crank says I'd have to crank it continuously for like 48 hours to charge it. It's completely useless. I'd die from exertion just trying to charge it if I was stranded.

5000mAh battery at 3.7V nominal has roughly 18-20Wh of juice. Your crank would only be putting out 400mW of power if it truly took 48 hours to charge. Internet seems to think most hand cranks can output somewhere between 5-15W, which would mean you'd only take 1.3-4 hours to fully charge said pack. Plenty of juice in an emergency situation, and certainly plenty for a phone call or something. Maybe that's a big giant…

It's a tiny plastic crap one :)

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#143

Post by exabrial »

enragedcacti wrote: post #116
exabrial wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all but certain you're certain you're incorrect. I would invite you to do a ride along with your local police, local EMS / Fire Rescue if allowed, to develop a more informed opinion, as they spend a significant amount of time interacting with the homeless population.

Have you considered that people who are called specifically to emergency situations might not have the most representative sampling?

I would invite you to prove the opposite is true actually, because what I said seems far closer to reality.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#144

Post by olenczyk »

nimos wrote: post #93
rzzzt wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a video a few years ago in which a professional cyclist is connected to a generator (bike included) and their continuous power output was around 100 W which they could maintain for a few hours. But it would be unreasonable to expect this amount of exertion from an untrained person. Edit: weeeelll. I'm either thinking of a different one or completely messed up the numbers and duration: https://youtu.be/S4O5v…

Assuming my exercise bike wattage is accurate I think most decently fit people could average 100 watts for an hour with a bit of sweating but not like, full on panting. 20 watts is low enough that it's awkward to generate that little power in terms of speed/resistance.

After 6 months of training I went from 150W/h to 200W/h. For most bikes, 100W is like riding 18-20km/h.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#146

Post by averageRoyalty »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #140
mainpassathome wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even then, at least in canada the average library will have phone chargers available to borrow, i cant imagine it being that different south of the border

Most of the population in general here isn't getting to a library without a car. Under 1% live in walking distance. There's a limited bus system that reaches one library. Generally speaking, only housed folks are getting to the library. For unhoused that do make it to the library, must run a strong risk of having the police called on them.

> Most of the population in general here isn't getting to a library without a car. Under 1% live in walking distance.

Does that apply here? If you're homeless... You don't need to travel from home. You can live in walking distance?

> For unhoused that do make it to the library, must run a strong risk of having the police called on them.

For what? Using the library while undesirable?

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#147

Post by averageRoyalty »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #120
angrygoat wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, at least here in Australia there are a lot of libraries, churches and other public places where charging is available. Rather than expecting those without homes to pedal for basic access to services, access to basic infrastructure like charging should be expanded – and dare I say, be bold and actually make housing available to all people.

Having to stay there while charging would still be a hurdle. Do they typically offer e.g. code-locked charging cabinets where you can leave a phone or power bank, or power bank swaps where they would lend (or give) away standardized power banks that could then be exchanged for full ones when empty?

What is the hurdle of staying in a library whilst charging your phone or power bank?

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#148

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

averageRoyalty wrote: post #147
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to stay there while charging would still be a hurdle. Do they typically offer e.g. code-locked charging cabinets where you can leave a phone or power bank, or power bank swaps where they would lend (or give) away standardized power banks that could then be exchanged for full ones when empty?

What is the hurdle of staying in a library whilst charging your phone or power bank?

It's incompatible with getting other stuff done, like hiking to the gym for a shower then going to work then going to the food bank. Just because someone is homeless doesn't mean they don't have anything better to do than sit around for hours watching a number go up.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#149

Post by averageRoyalty »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #148
averageRoyalty wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the hurdle of staying in a library whilst charging your phone or power bank?

It's incompatible with getting other stuff done, like hiking to the gym for a shower then going to work then going to the food bank. Just because someone is homeless doesn't mean they don't have anything better to do than sit around for hours watching a number go up.

Sure, but everyone sacrifices time for necessity sometimes. In a library, you can sit and read for the 30-60 minutes you're there, use a computer, research whatever's important to you or take in some fiction to relax the high levels of stress you have. No different to people filling time commuting, picking up kids, waiting in line somewhere, etc.

I also would expect charging at the gym or work for those who have access would be a problem.

Post reply on HN