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We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

meshtastic.org

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Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#11

Post by superkuh »

jkoberg wrote: post #8
punkgeek wrote: post #2

Hi ya'll, so we've spent a few weeks making device software and an android app to convert a $30 chinese gps/radio into a long range mesh radio for hikers. It is working fairly well now (though still an alpha) and we'd love more people to try it and/or have fun coding on it. We got about 30 users (and some devs from this hackaday article) but we'd love more users and devs to join this happy-happy project: https://hack…

What frequency band are you using? ISM is the only one that permits store-and-forward / automatic operation, as the gotenna people found. You say a few miles per node - I am having trouble seeing how that's possible without elevating all the nodes

He's gotta be assuming the nodes have clear line of sight and fresnel zone. The maximum distance for the link budget in a perfect situation. In practice it probably cuts off at the nearest rise in the ground or depression.

But they're still cool and I still want some for non-hiking applications. With the very low power idle and low cost they could be set up with solar panels in the tops of trees or in similar high height above terrain positions.

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#12

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

I guess my only advice is make sure the software keeps to the duty cycle limits of the license free band. And note that different countries may have different regulations on what is allowed on the frequency LoRa uses, if using it is even allowed.

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#13

Post by ajot »

kpierce wrote: post #4

Maybe resubmit this post so the link works. I would love this for music festivals. They have some solutions but they are hundreds of dollars. If people in the group could put this on a backpack it would be a game-changer. Music festivals also have a big problem with internet access. If they could put host a few powerful repeaters in the middle with electrical and have 5% of attendees (staff) with these they could pro…

Off-topic, but once I stumbled upon an open source WiFi tower designed for an engineering thesis, and the use-case was a music festival; comparing to cellphone networks that are deployed with a truck, this was way cheaper and configurable.

https://github.com/servalproject/foss-comms-tower

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#14

Post by whalesalad »

Looks like you have already written a lot of low-level code for your device already (https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32) but have y'all considered taking a look at the Nerves project (https://nerves-project.org)?

You might uncover some really cool stuff in the Erlang/Elixir ecosystem for doing mesh communications.

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#15

Post by zumzumzum »

How is it offering 'private' communications on the 33cm band? Does this band even offer good performance in hilly or mountainous terrain? These would be short range line of sight only type devices, correct? I'm still fairly new to amateur radio so I could be off. I don't see the advantage of this over something like APRS on 2M, with the exception that you don't need a license.

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#17

Post by hackcasual »

jkoberg wrote: post #8
punkgeek wrote: post #2

Hi ya'll, so we've spent a few weeks making device software and an android app to convert a $30 chinese gps/radio into a long range mesh radio for hikers. It is working fairly well now (though still an alpha) and we'd love more people to try it and/or have fun coding on it. We got about 30 users (and some devs from this hackaday article) but we'd love more users and devs to join this happy-happy project: https://hack…

What frequency band are you using? ISM is the only one that permits store-and-forward / automatic operation, as the gotenna people found. You say a few miles per node - I am having trouble seeing how that's possible without elevating all the nodes

Their site says using 915mhz, and the radios they recommend are all LoRa devices, so that's probably the best way of evaluating distance performance.

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#18

Post by alexisread »

Not an expert by any means, but I'd suggest looking at the Dash7 protocol/ firmware as a reference for the mesh, security and positioning. It's been around a while and seems robust.

Open source, royalty free, low power, high range (several km even in urban areas), medium bandwidth, runs on several lora boards.

https://dash7-alliance.org/

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#19

Post by beering »

Not sure if this is "good" advice, but this would make for a very appealing kickstarter: cool gadget with very useful functionality for popular activities (music festivals, hiking, skiing) that could even help in an emergency. It hits a lot of the right notes.

Possible that when you're further along you can have a kickstarter for a commercial version that's officially created by the open-source project. The more (mutually compatible) devices out there, the better the mesh, right?

Re: We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

#20

Post by leggomylibro »

Gotta love ESP32s, huh? It's great to see more affordable "commodity-style" boards with some extra radios built in.

This looks like a very cool project - I might pick up a few of those 'T-beam' boards and see if some people want to try taking a hike with them. Thanks for sharing!

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