dhis2-users team mailing list archive

[Mark Spohr <mhspohr@xxxxxxxxx>]

As others have pointed out, the USB mobile internet would depend on
having ARM drivers.
It does work with Linux compatible WiFi adapters (I've had success
with both the Asus USB-N13 and OURLink 802.11 b/g/n adapters).
The power supply is a microUSB plug cell phone charger (700 ma or more
recommended) so that is easy.
Monitors would need their own power supply and these need about 20
watts (or more).  The Raspberry Pi only has output for HDMI or
composite video (yellow RCA jack). It does not have VGA (15 pin)
component output.
The HDMI is very good quality and the composite is rather poor quality.
Older monitors may not have HDMI capability.

As far as Chromium support, the software ecosystem is maturing quickly
so I assume that it has been fixed recently since it definitely works
now.

Also, to make a more complete workstation, I've installed Abiword
(lightweight word processor) and gnumeric (lightweight spreadsheet).
Gnumeric reads the Excel format files which DHIS outputs so can be
used for lightweight data manipulation.  Both of these programs work
well.

You could also install one of the lightweight email clients for ARM
such as Claws or Sylpheed to give it email capability.

This looks promising.

/Mark

On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 10:13 PM, Knut Staring <knutst@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks for this summary, Mark, very interesting.
>
> I assume our typical setup of getting mobile internet through a USB
> dongle would work well.
>
> I wonder about options for power supply and inexpensive monitors
> (which also requires a power supply.
>
> Not sure why they say  "None of the browsers for Raspbian “wheezy”
> support HTML5", since you had no problem running Chrome.
> http://www.raspberrypi.org/quick-start-guide
>
> Knut
>
> On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Mark Spohr <mhspohr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> I just thought you might be interested in the results of my tests of
>> the Raspberry Pi computer for DHIS.
>> It works great!
>> I used the current recommended software (Raspbian Wheezy) and
>> installed the Chrome browser (apt-get install chromium-browser).
>> I used the DHIS2.org Demo site (Sierra Leone data).
>> The site loads quickly, data entry and validation are fast. Reports
>> run well and are displayed properly.
>> I also tested offline data entry which works great.  I disconnected
>> the network and it went into offline mode; I entered some data then
>> reconnected the network; it then told me I was back online and there
>> was data to upload.   I clicked upload and all was good.
>>
>> In a way, this doesn't surprise me since DHIS is designed to do most
>> of the work on the server and has very lightweight requirements for
>> the browser, client computer and network.  Good to see that this all
>> works very well in practice.
>>
>> The Raspberry Pi is a small (credit card sized) computer based on a
>> Broadcom ARM chip.  It's similar to most tablets and smartphones.  It
>> costs just $35.00.  You need to add a keyboard and mouse plus a
>> monitor (HDMI or composite video).  It uses an SD card for program and
>> data storage (you can also add USB memory).
>>
>> This would make an ideal low cost computer for data entry.  It has
>> very low power requirements (about 3 watts).
>> Since it's Linux, you don't have to worry about malware.  This is a
>> great dedicated data entry terminal.
>>
>> The supply of these has been tight since they were released earlier
>> this year but supply seems to have caught up with demand recently and
>> they are available from distributors.
>> See their web site for more information: www.raspberrypi.org
>>
>> This computer works great for DHIS but is slow with complex web sites
>> (gmail does work but is very slow).
>> It does do a good job with video since it has a nice graphics processor.
>>
>> Anyway, nice to see there is a good inexpensive option for running DHIS!
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Mark
>>
>> --
>> Mark Spohr, MD
>> mhspohr@xxxxxxxxx
>> +1 530 554 2230
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Knut Staring
> Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo
> +4791880522
> http://dhis2.org



-- 
Mark Spohr, MD
mhspohr@xxxxxxxxx
+1 530 554 2230