The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton said:

What parts would make up a kit to design for energy recovery, efficiency, but to produce something useful?

For someone wanting to explore LoRa functionality out in the field, then perhaps something like this:

https://lilygo.cc/products/t-display-p4

would be a starting point ? A near ready-to-use pocketable format but with some GPIO exposed to extend the functionality.

cstanton said:

Meanwhile... I'm trying to resist buying meshtastic nodes.

There appear to be variants specifically for the likes of Meshtastic or MeshCore:

https://lilygo.cc/collections/lilygo-with-meshtastic

https://lilygo.cc/collections/lilygo-with-meshcore

beacon_dave said:

If you are an individual, then you are likely going to have to configure your equipment to match whatever mesh network technology is actively being used in the area you are in.

There're discussions about this and how it's setup on the meshtastic subreddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1e9khyg/primary_channel_frequency_selection/

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1howp8k/frequency_slot_changes/ 

beacon_dave said:

it could probably test a LoRa based mesh network

Looks like there are some enterprise solutions for coverage which I didn't expect:

https://netmoregroup.com/news/netmore-lorawan-expands-to-norway-through-collaboration-with-eidsiva/

https://tektelic.com/projects/smart-city-lorawan-network/ 

cstanton said:

where if I'm an individual

If you are an individual, then you are likely going to have to configure your equipment to match whatever mesh network technology is actively being used in the area you are in. You are also relying on other individuals in the immediate vicinity to be using the same mesh network technology in order to relay the messages ( assuming that there aren't sufficient repeaters already fully covering the area ). 

If you are part of a large group, then your group can choose which is the most appropriate mesh network technology to use. Downside is that if there are beacons and repeaters available, then you won't be able to benefit from them.

So one challenge here could be standards and we all know that "the wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from". 

cstanton said:

where if I'm an individual hiking in Norway, which in Norway you can pretty much go anywhere because 'everyone owns the land'

I've always been interested in skiing the 'Peer Gynt Trail' between Espedalen and Skeikampen in Norway. At around 90km in distance, it could probably test a LoRa based mesh network. Especially if you have several individuals in your group travelling at different speeds and joining the trail at different points.

Indeed, Meshtastic does have a lot of potential that extends beyond just messaging. Recently, I'm experimenting on setting up Meshtastic sensor nodes for environment telemetry using an I2C temp and humidity sensor.

The best part is how easy it is to configure everything through the Meshtastic app via GUI.

While I'm still experimenting about the private channels on the meshtastic, I would like to try to send edge AI telemetry data through the mesh network.

it depends on the effective range - especially in the forest and/or hills/mountains/line-of-sign obstacles; but maybe solar-powered repeaters in high places would do the trick (another question how effective would be solar power in the given geographical location)

beacon_dave said:

I guess that in a lot of circumstances that isn't really an issue and is perhaps even greatly outweighed by the amount of information that can be quickly exchanged via speech.

However if you have the likes of  200 volunteers out on a hillside helping to tackle a wildfire, then with LoRa you perhaps have the ability to autonomously transmit GPS coordinates along with other sensor information, at regular intervals back to a mobile base camp to be able to log last known location.

There's also the 'beacon notification' opportunity here, where if I'm an individual hiking in Norway, which in Norway you can pretty much go anywhere because 'everyone owns the land', if I don't have phone signal, perhaps a mesh network of this could notify me in case of landslide or fire, or simply "hey I have spare hot dogs to share if anyone's around".

beacon_dave said:

Any insights into how it is actively being used in these situations ?

It's growing in popularity, emfcamp had a collection off people carrying this kit around and you can see casual conversations on reddit and online as to people carrying it around for hiking. I don't have a direct report or metrics to share.

Another term for this is 'meshnology' as people pick it up. 

cstanton said:

Doesn't that require knowing what channels are in use? and that it's not encrypted?

I guess that in a lot of circumstances that isn't really an issue and is perhaps even greatly outweighed by the amount of information that can be quickly exchanged via speech.

However if you have the likes of  200 volunteers out on a hillside helping to tackle a wildfire, then with LoRa you perhaps have the ability to autonomously transmit GPS coordinates along with other sensor information, at regular intervals back to a mobile base camp to be able to log last known location.

cstanton said:

For meshtastic, it ranges from camping festivals to hiking.

Any insights into how it is actively being used in these situations ?

beacon_dave said:

I guess in a lot of circumstances, it wouldn't be as practical as using something like a PMR446 radio system

Doesn't that require knowing what channels are in use? and that it's not encrypted?

ralphjy said:

I wonder if people really use these in the wild for messaging?

For meshtastic, it ranges from camping festivals to hiking.

A benefit of it is that you can be purely a 'receiver' of messages, like the paging system, rather than a self identified node or two way node. There's an element of passive anonyminity that makes it appealing.

JWx said:

does they have - for example - better effective range than popular analog radio in typical wilderness setting

It would appear so, that and people are hacking on these 'nodes' to provide sensor data. A combination of providing 'status' information in a purposeful update compared to a beacon, etc.

dougw said:

Unfortunately, it needs a Lora Gateway

You should look into meshtastic a bit more

and what would be the advantage over handheld radios... does they have - for example - better effective range than popular analog radio in typical wilderness setting? I can understand military advantages - short bursts of data could limit the possibility of locating the transmitter, but for civilian use? Maybe there could be some cultural factor involved - if young people are really not used to phone calls and prefer messaging, text terminal could be considered more friendly than a voice radio...

ralphjy said:

I wonder if people really use these in the wild for messaging

I guess in a lot of circumstances, it wouldn't be as practical as using something like a PMR446 radio system.  

However if you mainly want to transmit small amounts of data, then it could be advantageous, especially if you want to log it. I've seen an emergency text pager system based on LoRa.

ralphjy said:

I could power one from my solar hat

If you add a GPS receiver/compass and a LED ring to your hat, you could perhaps use it to indicate the  location of another hat (or beacon) relative to yours.