Ardour Solar Powered Development

Some Ardour users and other interested readers may be intrigued to know that almost all of Ardour’s lead developer’s work on the program right now is powered by photovoltaic panels. 540W panel capacity and 510Ah of lead-acid AGM batteries generally provides enough power to keep a 4 core i7-3370US 3.10GHz system running, with occasional use of a Mac Mini. It also runs the fridge, lighting, music and pump systems in the Sprinter van that he and his wife are living in until June 2017. With the exception of the Mac Mini, all other computing equipment is 12V DC native (no power bricks), including the 40W Topping amplifier used to power a pair of Micca monitors.

It is unlikely that the solar power available in the UK during the winter (where the van will be located) will be enough to keep things running, so at some point reverting to a cable and mains power seems likely. But for now, all of Paul’s work is powered by the sun. Welcome to the future!

(ps. as a footnote, the other systems intimately involved in Ardour development, while connected to the grid, are also powered via contracts that guarantee 100% renewable energy sources.)

If you ever come through Lancashire and want to park up for the night, you’re welcome, even to top up your batteries with some more solar electricity or warm yourselves indoors on the log fire in the rough English winter weather!
Keep up the good work.

Way cool! :slight_smile:

Aloha Paul really enjoy Ardour. I use it at my off the grid farm on Maui. I’m a seller solar integrator and recently went back to school to take all the PV solar classes I could get at UHMC. When Adobe shut off my version of Audition they tried to pressure me into a $20/mo deal. I said no way Adobei. So ever since I’ve been running Linux with Ardour. I’m off the grid and am working on a rapid deployment E-Shelter concept using PV laminates from MiaSole’. The efficiency of thin film was always weak compared to glass PV until now. The CIGS PV cells are only one micron thick and efficiency is on par with heavy ugly glass PV panels. It’s a real breakthrough in PV solar! The laminates will peel and stick to steel roofing EPDM rubber and even to the top of your van if you have 8’ of flat space. The video I just completed was all produced with Ardour 4.7 and Kdenlive. You can see some of my thin film PV arrays in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpeZbiokTpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBmF2Mv-6M
I’m having trouble installing Ardour 5.4 keep getting a UTC error incorrect format or something like that can you help?
Thanks again , Franklin Russell

Franklin Russell: What a great song, please keep these coming :slight_smile: The style of the song makes me think of Steely Dan. Great stuff :slight_smile: