[RIPE Atlas Ambassadors] power supplies

I have been purchasing power supplies for all of the RIPE Atlas nodes I
have distributed in the Pacific Islands. I find that if I do not, the
probes will not be installed or powered.

For the last month I have had four probes stuck in Fiji Customs because of
the power supplies I purchased in New Zealand and included in the shipment.
Fiji Customs has assessed them for taxes as they're commercial, off the
shelf items that could be re-sold. I am not permitted to directly pay the
tax and my recipient was not expecting to pay around $50 USD for their
probes.

My vote is for including power supplies with (or inside) future probes.
Exchangeable plugs are a common thing these days.

-JB


On 25 December 2015 at 23:50, Geert Jan de Groot <GeertJan.deGroot at xs4all.nl
> wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Dec 2015 12:24:24 +0330 "M. Tajbakhsh" wrote:
> > I was writing on behalf of my probe hosts. I doubt e-bay delivers to
> Iran.
>
> My last set of handouts fortunately did have the power supplies included.
> While I understand why RIPE would remove the power supplies -
> weight and volume - as someone who has muled probes a few times
> on his trips I prefer to have the power supplies included
> so it is a set that is known to be working well,
> instead of some of the supplies you'd find on the street.
>
> (I actually had an "asia-special" power supply explode in the
> AfNOG-NOC a few years ago. The explosion fortunately ejected
> the smoldering remains from the power socket, leaving just
> the charger power pins in the socket. The charger did not
> have a fuse but had very thin wires that acted as fuse;
> the wall socket fuse did not pop.
> But I can tell you that such an explosion just 3 meter away
> definitely does wake you up!. Anyway...)
>
> At the AIS meeting in Tunis there were probes available with
> and without power supply. The ones with supply were definitely
> preferred by the to-be-host, and I understand why.
>
> Perhaps we can ask RIPE whether or not to include the supplies
> when a set of ambassador-probes is prepared, making the inclusion
> of the supplies an ambassador option?
> I'm perfectly happy to take the additional weight/volume hit,
> but I'd understand if not everyone can do this.
>
> This does leave the problem that the power supply and micro-USB cable
> can also be used to charge mobiles, which means that the probe would
> be disconnected after all. One just can't win..
>
> Season's greetings to all,
>
> Geert Jan
>
>
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