I had no difficulties in getting the Riccochet GS working in either Linux or OpenBSD (2.8) via USB. Admittedly though, it was a little more work in Linux (it just worked right out of the box in OBSD with the GENERIC kernel, once PPPD was set to use the right device).
I needed USB support in my kernel (2.4, or later 2.2), and I needed to make sure that ACM modem support was compiled in. Once that was done, I had to make sure that a couple of device nodes got created, modprobe, and away I went. Couldn't give you exact instructions at this point, but Google is your friend -- There's at least one page out there with some pretty comprehensive instructions (you might start here)
I've met the guy behind this (while working for a fuel cell startup a year or two ago). Can't remember his name, but he's pretty cool IIRC.
It's a great idea, and the powerballs he was using at the time were pure sodium, about a ping-pong ball's worth. Lotsa fun to cut 'em open and watch the sodium oxidize a bit before you throw them in a bucket of water...:)
Cutting them open underwater isn't difficult, it's just noisy as hell -- I forget the feed mechanism, but a piston rams the powerball thru a little set of blades (kinda like those tomato cutters in restaurants), where it's surrounded by water and the reaction begins immediately. Between whizz of the feed, ka-CHUNK of the ram, and the hissing of the gas being produced, this is not something you're going to sleep around.
Not sure if he ever took off -- this sort of system is great for remote or industrial locations where noise isn't a problem, but again, it's a little noisy for home or business environs.
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I had no difficulties in getting the Riccochet GS working in either Linux or OpenBSD (2.8) via USB. Admittedly though, it was a little more work in Linux (it just worked right out of the box in OBSD with the GENERIC kernel, once PPPD was set to use the right device).
I needed USB support in my kernel (2.4, or later 2.2), and I needed to make sure that ACM modem support was compiled in. Once that was done, I had to make sure that a couple of device nodes got created, modprobe, and away I went. Couldn't give you exact instructions at this point, but Google is your friend -- There's at least one page out there with some pretty comprehensive instructions (you might start here)
I've met the guy behind this (while working for a fuel cell startup a year or two ago). Can't remember his name, but he's pretty cool IIRC.
It's a great idea, and the powerballs he was using at the time were pure sodium, about a ping-pong ball's worth. Lotsa fun to cut 'em open and watch the sodium oxidize a bit before you throw them in a bucket of water... :)
Cutting them open underwater isn't difficult, it's just noisy as hell -- I forget the feed mechanism, but a piston rams the powerball thru a little set of blades (kinda like those tomato cutters in restaurants), where it's surrounded by water and the reaction begins immediately. Between whizz of the feed, ka-CHUNK of the ram, and the hissing of the gas being produced, this is not something you're going to sleep around.
Not sure if he ever took off -- this sort of system is great for remote or industrial locations where noise isn't a problem, but again, it's a little noisy for home or business environs.