This morning finds the BRCK team in Nanyuki, only about 3-4 hours outside of Nairobi. The same place we were supposed to be having breakfast yesterday, not today. A rather inauspicious start happened about 30 kilometers into the trip when the Land Rover decided it was going to have some cooling problems.

After two hours of working on solutions, we realized that this Land Rover just wasn’t going to make it. Too bad, as it had two tanks and better range than most. Fortunately, Fady Rostom (of Ark/Bonk) is traveling with us. He offered up his Land Rover 110, and we quickly got in touch with a mechanic in Nairobi who put a roof rack on his vehicle in about 30 minutes.

1pm found us with all equipment unloaded near Thika town, on the side of the road. 5 tires were changed from one Land Rover to the other, and we repacked the new vehicle. Finally, we were on our way (again)!

In hindsight, what was extremely disappointing at the time ended up happening about the best time we’d like to have seen a problem like that develop – in the beginning of the trip near the big city, where we could still make a change.

We got into Nanyuki in the evening, after a nice cold rain hit us, much to the chagrin of those of us on motorcycles with only mesh jackets on. Taylor had his full rain gear (who we had been making fun of earlier due to the heat), and while we froze he rode in relative comfort. Dinner was at Barnies, and then a shack that makes and sells the best cheeses that we’ve ever found in Kenya, called Silent Valley Cheese. 6 kilos of cheese later we found a house owned by a friend to sleep at for the night.

This changes the stages of our trip, and now we’re very glad that we built in a buffer day for the drive up to Lake Turkana. We’ll still arrive the day before the eclipse (Oct 2), but in the evening instead of the morning. Our route now entails an early morning offing from Nanyuki, final fill up of fuel in Isiolo, then off road around Laisamis towards Ngurunit and on to Kurungu and Soth Horr for the night.

This next section along the edge of the Matthews mountain range is one of the most scenic places in Kenya. We’ll stop along the way for some pictures, and then get into Kurungu in time to test the Wilson amplification antennas. The point of these amp antennas is to extend the range one can be from the mobile phone tower to get internet connectivity. We’ve used one before in Lamu, now we’re trying it in the bush, and with the BRCK.

We hear a lot about how the internet makes the world flat. But in practice the topography is more diverse.

While good internet access is growing all over the world, there are still 3 billion people in the world who don’t even have the opportunity to access broadband internet, let alone the financial or infrastructure means to do so. BRCK was developed, in part, to lift up the availability and quality of internet access for people all over the world. Shortening the distance between remote regions of the world and places more familiar with the internet is to everyone’s benefit. Both sides have incredible things to share and gain from better access to the web.

On November 3rd, we’ll be using a BRCK to show you something amazing from one of the most remote part of the world. We’ll be streaming a stunning Hybrid Solar Eclipse out to the world live from Lake Turkana in the far North West of Kenya. People all over the world will get to see this incredible event from their own homes. The world will get a little flatter.

In addition to being a prime location for viewing the eclipse, Lake Turkana is about as remote as it gets. You may have heard us say “If it works in Africa, it’ll work anywhere”? Well, if it works in Turkana, it’ll work in Africa. The journey will be two days from Nairobi on mostly dirt roads. We’ll be using the adventure to pressure test the BRCK ahead of production in January, and have a little for with the internet in a very remote location.

We’ll be spending the next week prepping and then heading out on the 31st.

You can keep up with us on Twitter (#brckeclipse), here on our blog, and also at our special site for the event: http://brck.com/eclipse.

Details to come next week, but just something to share with everyone over the week.

Spread the Word, share the Internet of Things love.

BRCK shirts out in the world

Here’s the lovely Chirstopher Neu of Tech Change (@neuguy) sporting his BRCK shirt. If you love your shirt(s) tweet them to @brcknet and we’ll share them on our tumblr.

Share the love, spread the Internet of Things revolution.

BRCK Prototyping, Powered by Sugru

BRCK stickers and T-Shirts ship today!

Juliana’s BRCK booted up in the lobby at the Clinton Global Initiative.

We keep saying that the BRCK Engineering team is working feverishly to meet our kickstarter deadlines and today we get to show you what some of the fuss has been about.

This is a 3D print of the final design for the BRCK’s case, careful observers will note that it’s a bit taller and the port covers don’t come all the way to the base anymore. 3D printing is an amazing tool in modern product development and it’s super fun, but it’s not perfect. The process is a constant compromise between speed, durability, and accuracy. You never get to have all three, but on the other hand, nothing else gives you the same feedback in such little time.

Most of our prints in this process have been done at Incept3D on an Objet printer. Objet prints are fairly brittle: a little too much force and they snap or even shatter. Not the sort of situation one typically thinks of when your making a device made in and for Africa. But the upside is, if you can make a rugged and durable case from an Objet Printer, then your final case will be that much the stronger for it!

You’ll notice the vertical ribbing on the inside of the main case comes up and actually locks into the top plate making it almost function as a solid block. We’re especially proud of some of the little features like that.

Now that we’ve gotten to a point were we can throw brittle prints around the room with little concern, we’re just about ready to cut our injection mold tools and make the real things!

At BRCK we love a good bag. and we know we’re not alone.

Bags are our life blood on the road, and on the road is where a lot of us are more often than not. We’ve all had bags we loved and held onto until the patches and repairs were making up more of the bag than what was left of the origional. But too often, we find that bags don’t live up to their potential, zippers fail, fabric runs, seams fall appart.

When we decided to do a release of custom bags made in Nairobi for the Kickstarter, we knew we had to make them great. Durable, handsom, functional, simple.

It’s take longer than we would have liked, but we finally have a shoulder bag and a tool bag that we’re happy with. Both bags are being finished over the over the next few weeks and will be headed into the later in October.

We’re just a few months away from shipping and our work is moving along faster than ever. Engineering is getting the last little details finalized, and we are just about happy with the case. Here are a few images of this near finished version.

See the rest of the images on Flickr.