Testing: Packaging focus groups in Kenya

“The [kerosene] lamp emits smoke little by little and it fills the house and so it becomes a problem because children can have chest problems. Therefore it is not good. It does not have any advantage, just that one doesn’t have a choice that is why we use it… If I get something like this [GravityLight], I will not go back to using kerosene. This is because it cannot make someone sick, it will make one to have good health because it does not emit anything…”

— Lawrence Gatimu Mbuthia

It’s been an intense few months for the team and critical deadlines met! We have a lot to update you on…

As injection moulding tools were being commissioned and life testing continued on components such as the motors and gears to map their performance over time, we were also designing GravityLight’s packaging and instruction guides.

In December, Caroline took the first SLA prototype along with these packaging and instruction guides out to Kenya to gather feedback from 40 men and women living with little, if any electricity around Nairobi county.

Supported by the brilliant market research team from Burn cookstoves and several local NGO’s, she met with women and men, in the slums of Dandora and Githogoro and more rural area of Gatanga.

4 focus groups were segmented by gender and income level, to see if there were any differences in the type of feedback as well as the level of understanding for the setup instructions and packaging.

The team shared mock-ups of packaging and instructions to get their feedback. Conscious that GravityLight will be shipped around the world – as well as Kenya – and that many people using GravityLight may not be literate, we’re keen to ensure these can be understood pictorially, before we add any text. To keep costs low, these instructions were also in black and white, to be printed on the inner box.

Through this process, we had some interesting feedback!

We discovered that the weight symbol and kg were understood by many and the ! triangle was a familiar road sign – people understood it was warning of a hazard.

English was widely spoken and learnt by those who went to school, and so, rather than relying only on diagrams, we also added instructions in English.

Here's how the instruction guide has evolved:

Before feedback

After feedback

On the packaging design we had an image of how GravityLight might be used in a home.

With the main GravityLight unit hanging just above the stove, several people thought GravityLight powered a (rather fancy) cookstove, as well as light. So now we’ve lit the woman cooking with a SatLight, to avoid any confusion!

Before feedback

After feedback

After gathering feedback on the packaging and setup instructions, we showed each focus group how GravityLight worked in reality.  One of the biggest challenges was finding a dark space in the middle of the day – creating makeshift shades and setting up in a shipping container - to show GravityLight to full effect!

Having demonstrated GravityLight to these groups, we interviewed several individuals to find out what they currently used for light, what they thought of GravityLight and whether they would us it at home - with some very encouraging feedback.

We’ll be sharing video highlights and translated feedback in our next update. In the meantime, here’s what Elizabeth Wakarendi from Gatanga said after seeing GravityLight in action:

“[For light] We use that lamp that uses kerosene. It is very costly because you see I have children who use it for reading. Some of them they have to wake up at 2.00 am like the one in secondary school. You see all that requires kerosene and maybe they went to bed at 10:00 pm.
This [Gravity]Light, I see if one gets it, life will be easy because when you extend it to the sitting room, in the bedroom, anywhere life will be easy and it does not have any costs.
The life of my people will change because the money that I use to buy kerosene, you know I use about 50 shillings every day. So that money I can be able to save and buy something or do something for my children with that money… You are also able to stay up for long hours because you will not worry about the kerosene lamp going off because of little kerosene.”

— Elizabeth Wakarendi

CNC Machining, Injection Moulding and Modern Day Wizards

Christmas has come early on Scala Street this year!

Having spent a considerable amount of time in recent months identifying suppliers that are up to the task of manufacturing the intricate components that will eventually come to make up the inner workings of GL02, Jim and Rob are now enthusiastically palming their way through several rather large boxes of injection moulded sample components.

Jim's Christmas present just arrived... 30kg of plastic gears! He'll be playing with those for a while. #festivefun pic.twitter.com/jC4DlaCIWo

— GravityLight (@GravityLight) December 9, 2015

The difference between these new arrivals and the components that the team have been working with until now lies in the manufacturing process. The GL02 prototypes that have formed the core of our testing regime to date are made up of components manufactured using computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining. 

CNC machining is an incredibly important part of the product design process as it provides design engineers with the opportunity to bring to life their computer aided design (CAD) and test it in real world settings. An example of this real world testing is the accelerated life testing regime that we described in a previous post. 

CNC machining of individual parts is a viable and affordable prototyping option as it does not come with the upfront costs associated with setting up the bespoke steel moulds required for injection moulding. 

However, unlike injection moulding, CNC machining is not feasible for commercially producing GravityLight as it offers no significant economies of scale as production volume grows. An injection mould can churn out parts by the thousand, but setting up the moulds to produce that first part can take weeks or months and cost thousands of pounds. This is why the team needed to be incredibly confident that the components that they have designed work before they give GravityLight’s injection moulding partners the go ahead to do their thing. 

And that brings us back to Jim and Rob’s Christmas presents! Following meticulous testing of the CNC machined GL02 prototypes, the injection moulds for each of GravityLight’s components were commissioned and are now fully operational. This in turn allowed our manufacturing partners to produce the first batch of beautiful, injection moulded, GL02 components. 

This sample batch will be evaluated by Jim and Rob against a stringent set of criteria, ensuring that the injection moulds have produced components that accurately adhere to the dimensions and specifications that are detailed in the CAD. The components will also be put through the same rigorous testing regimes that their CNC machined cousins were subjected to. 

On the subject of the inner workings of GravityLight, we recently welcomed a rather enthusiastic Destin Sandlin to GravityLight HQ.

Destin runs the incredibly informative Smarter Every Day, a project that is dedicated to understanding the world through a scientific lens.

Destin putting Andy (Development Manager at GravityLight) through his paces. 

Destin has produced a fantastic video that sheds light on much of the science that brings GravityLight to life. The video does a great job of explaining the inner workings of GravityLight in an informative, yet entertaining way. 

And the comments left on YouTube have been almost as entertaining as the video itself!

Here are a few of our favourites: 

It seems like Jim has made quite the impression on Destin's viewers...

...We like you too, Jim.

GravityLight at AidEx 2015!

Another busy few weeks here at GravityLight! The technical team rarely come up for air since accelerated life testing of GL02 started. This is a continuous, real time process, that requires Jim and Rob’s full attention. 

Designs are constantly being tweaked for maximum optimisation and durability, with a constant flow of new materials arriving at the workshop - we are certainly keeping the local postman busy!

Due to Jim and Rob’s considerable efforts, the rest of the team have been able to take the latest workshop produced GL02 units and promote them to audiences in a wide variety of different contexts.

Since winning the AidEx: Aid Innovation Challenge in 2013, the AidEx conference and exhibition has been a fixture of the GravityLight calendar.

AidEx provides us with a valuable platform from which to engage with senior members of the international aid and development community. This years conference was very aptly themed around the topic of collaboration in the sector - and the event didn't disappoint.

Fadi Dada (Communications & Operations Manager) and Andy Smith (Development Manager) attended this years event in Brussels. 

“Myself and Andy were delighted with the quality of the conversations that we engaged in over the course of the two days. Tapping into the vast array of experience and knowledge present at gatherings like this is vitally important for a young and fast growing organisation like ours”

— Fadi

As with previous AidEx gatherings, our latest GravityLight model was on display at the event and - as those of you that follow us on twitter will know - it was joined by the latest edition of our beautiful SatLights, in their first public outing.

#AidEx2015 EXCLUSIVE: Our new model SatLight's are on public display for the first time ever! Stand G14 pic.twitter.com/vttrGGzIqD

— GravityLight (@GravityLight) November 18, 2015

Throughout the conference, we met representatives from all points of the international aid and development spectrum. From large organisations like MSF, Oxfam and UNHCR to small, niche NGO’s, dedicated to a specific area or problem around the world. We were also delighted to see a growing contingent of fellow innovative tech enterprises - a special mention goes to our neighbours at Aidex this year, ReciproBoo, who won the 2015 Aid Innovation Challenge.

Many of those that came to see GL02 in action remembered our stand from the previous year, which featured our very first prototype, GL01.

The new and improved model received overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly from the large contingent of logisticians who came to view it.

Something that was especially striking about the feedback we received throughout the event was the popularity of the new pulley system that has been incorporated into the design since GL01.

“The range of people visiting our stand was pretty diverse, everyone from academics to NGO field staff - it was brilliant to receive feedback from such a broad range of specialities and perspectives. The new pulley system in particular enjoyed a lot of very positive feedback. Not only has it made interacting with the weight much easier since GL01, where the user had to physically lift the weight themselves, it has also introduced the prospect of using GL02 continuously for extended periods of time - as it is rechargeable even whilst the light is on.”

— Andy

Now that the event is over, the next phase begins - following up with the organisations that we met at the event, with a view to discussing potential partnerships and future areas of collaboration.

In the meantime, the GL02 is now on the next leg of it's global tour, accompanying Caroline Angus (Commercial Director) on her latest visit to Kenya. Keep an eye on this blog for a write up of Caroline's visit. 

This week we've been asking some wonderful women what @GravityLight would mean for them & their families. #Kenya pic.twitter.com/AQvtVthL0D

— GravityLight (@GravityLight) November 29, 2015

An Update from the Workshop: Accelerated Life Testing

Enabled by the fantastic support that we have received through our Indiegogo ‘Made in Africa’ campaign, the research and development activity around the next incarnation of our solution, the GL02, has ramped up to the next level...

We now have a set of working GL02 prototypes that are currently being put through their paces in the GravityLight workshop!

As you can imagine, the arrival of these prototypes has kicked off a hectic period of workshop activity here at GravityLight! They bring to life long hours of computer animated design work, giving us a real world opportunity to put our concepts through some rigorous trials. 

At this moment in time we are investigating the prototype's durability. We have developed a bespoke Accelerated Life Testing rig, designed to establish the lifespan of these shiny new prototypes. 

Families using kerosene lamps typically use them for four hours a day. GravityLight should pay for itself within months of switching from kerosene lamps, saving families money thereafter. By creating this rig, we’re able to condense one year of use - four hours times by 365 days – into two months of non-stop running.

Accelerated Life Testing can be a long and arduous process - with every identified issue, the process must be rebooted - but it is vitally important for a product that is designed to be a long term solution for low income families.

We’ve put together a little video for you all, using R&D footage from the workshop, to demonstrate this exciting phase of development.  

We hope that you enjoy the video. Keep an eye on this section of the website for further updates from the workshop.

GL02 R&D;: Brighter & Bluer?

Rob talks diodes...

Light emitting diodes – LEDs. Small devices that turn electricity into light. Since their commercial introduction in the 1960’s LEDs have been squeezing ever more light from each bit of electricity that passes through them. The rate of improvement has been astronomical; their efficiency has been increasing exponentially since the '60s – a trend referred to as Haitz’s Law.

LEDs are now approx. one million times more efficient than they were in the '60s.

To put that into context, if the bottom of the range Ford motor car were to have improved its efficiency (miles per gallon) at the same rate, since 1960, you would now be able to achieve 33 million miles per gallon. That’s to the moon and back over 1000 times, on a single tank! 

Despite these gains, it took developers over 30 years to design a successful white LED; the very first LEDs in the '60s were expensive and most could only achieve an infrared light –useful in some transmission devices but not visible to the human eye. The '70s saw mainstream introduction of LEDs in the visible light spectrum, in various reds and yellows. At around 5 cents per unit these were the first to be commercially viable. In ’94 the Nichia Corporation finally demonstrated a blue coloured LED, with a novel design for which the developers won the Nobel Prize in physics. By coating this blue LED with a special phosphor, the first white LED soon followed. 

LEDs are fast becoming the best way we have of creating light. They are brighter, less power hungry and live for much, much longer than traditional solutions. It is what has made GravityLight - delivering just a tenth of a watt - feasible

GravityLight and its LED

LED testing and selection has formed a large part of our recent development work at The GravityLight Foundation. When trying to select GravityLight’s LED, there were a number of physical properties that were important to consider. One such property was its ‘forward voltage’. It’s not necessarily the focus for most developers, but for us it dictates our dynamo’s speed. The larger the LED’s forward voltage, the faster the dynamo spins. The faster the dynamo spins, the faster the bag descends to the ground. We have been searching for the LED with the lowest forward voltage on the market, with the aim of maximising drop time. 

A second, more subjective aspect of LED selection has been honing in on what tone of white we should choose. It’s something like trying out various, but very similar, shades of white paint for your walls.

Most LED models will have a vast range of subtly different ‘colour temperature’ options. The differences between them in terms of cost and efficiency are trivial, so it’s up to us to discern what feels best. We’ve been doing this in a ‘dark room’ in our basement, adjacent to the workshop. Here, we to-and-fro between the various options. Superseding our own preferences are those of the end users in our target markets – primarily sub-Saharan Africa and India at launch. 

It’s only in recent times that cultural variations in colour temperature preferences have been examined. As such, they’re not yet fully understood. It is believed that a culture’s aesthetic judgement is influenced by a wide range of drivers such as local geography, landscape and architecture. Some suspect a predominant factor to be climate, with light colour temperature being influenced specifically by night-time climate.

In India for example, the temperatures remain extremely hot throughout the night. Subsequently, a cooler, bluer light is preferred in the evenings. In contrast to this temperatures in sub-Saharan Africa, although sweltering throughout the day, can plummet at night, with people there preferring a warmer light with more of an orange hue.  In time, with several regional assembly hubs, it may possible to vary the LED’s colour in accordance with local preferences. 

Thanks to the relentless improvements in LED technology, GL02 is able to employ an LED which is over twice as efficient as that used in GL01. Meaning we have achieved a doubling of the light output simply by updating the LED!

It’s unclear where development will go in the future. What is clear is that as LEDs improve, so will the products that use them. Commentators have warned that the rate of advancement will soon plateau out as we approach some theoretical physical barriers. They have been saying the same thing for 50 years now.