Portable e-NABLE Lab Proposal

The proposal is now decoupled from the Rwanda trip. I can attest from our experience sending Fricis and Ed to Sierra Leone, and my experience with the Honduran team. that the logistics of transporting 3D-printers are genuinely burdernsome. @bobrieger

I like the idea however why is a portable printer needed? WIll it be moving from site to site around Rwanda or will is this more from bringing a printer from the USA to a single site in Rwanda? I work in Colombia where transport from site to site is not necessary as we use our budget to pay for the recipienet to viist our workshop twice...once for measurements and the 2nd time for delivery, training and rehab. My other question is are funds available for workers/volunteers to develop projects? We have one full time local employee here but have many more part time volunteers that i would love to pay to give us more stability. Projects that we are in the final stages of development and ready to launch to the enable community include a bionic mio electric arm (fully documented) , Ultrasonic Arm for blind people (fully documented) , Assitive eating devices and rehabilitation resources. All of these could be brought to life much quicker if funding for volunteers is available. Is this a valid use of funds?

@adamarmfield The portable e-NABLE lab proposal is now fully decoupled from the Rwanda internship proposal. I envision the portable e-NABLE lab used for both purposes you mentioned. In my mind the take-away is this: easy transport of all equipment and materials necessary to make the most popular e-NABLE hands, whether traveling to a local school/convention or to a remote location halfway around the world!

I'll defer to others in the community regarding your additional funding questions.

Thanks for your thoughts Adam.

My interpretation of past votes is that the community wants to use the EnableFund to support projects that will benefit the entire community. Those sound like great and appropriate projects.

See this recent article: https://wikifactory.com/+e-NABLE/stories/e-nable-has-funds-you-have-projects

Excellent news. I voted to approve the project. We have had the need to attend many stands at universities and fund raising events and i know how difficult it can be. Great to hear there are more funds available...i missed that last enable has funds post. We will submit something this week. :)

@adamarmfield and spread the word. You might fear competition, but I think there is more funding to be had as we we prove we can do this well....

Thanks Jon. Will do. I thrive on competition ;)

@lelandgreen Thank you for your vote and I will make those calculations soon. We have an Ender-3 Pro in the Rochester e-NABLE lab, and I intend to directly measure its current draw under various conditions (with or without bed heating, etc.) I'll compare the current and amp-hours necessary to print an e-NABLE hand with the capacities of different batteries and solar options, and report those figures for your (and the community's) review.

Perfect! That's really the perfect way to calculate it. :sunglasses:
Thank you.

@sandradermisek Thank you for your feedback Sandra. I agree with you that individual chapters should purchase equipment for their individual needs. As you mentioned, many chapters might benefit from the proposed portable e-NABLE lab. The intention of the proposal is to fund the research and development (and prototype) of a portable e-NABLE lab so that all chapters can benefit from the well-documented open-source plans. I have some innovative ideas to test and share, but I need the community's input and support. Thanks again for engaging.