So, Raspberry Pi2 B has just been released. I am looking forward to getting one of these for now to play with and use for many projects. Eventually I am sure I'll have a pile of these things all over the place. Anyway, my particular interest right now is using them as mesh nodes. A guy contacted me recently (deleted the emails) and he was using the Pi's for mesh nodes. For him and his application, this was the best solution for him. This got me thinking...

Is there a guide or something that explains (perhaps shows) how to setup Pi's to operate as mesh nodes? What hardware (antennas and such) that can be used? Maybe even what power can be used since these would be placed "in the wild"?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I just cant seem to find answers to all of that and thought that someone here may have something to say about it. :)

Thanks

I suspect for in the wild nodes you will find Ubiquiti cheaper after you consider the following list of supplies

Pi - 35$

SSD CARD - 20$ (depends on size and performance)

Outdoor Case - 50$ (cooling/heating/case/etc)

Switching Power Suppply - 25$ (12v to 5v).  One may be able to use a LM317 but would need a large heatsink because of the 1amp current draw (less than 40% efficiency on this circuit)

Wifi Card - Varies. Most only have a single antenna port meaning you can NOT get extra MIMO RX/TX performance. I did see one dual antenna model on eBay for 20$ but it looks to lack FCC so one would wonder how well it is built, we don't need FCC for HAM but a lot of non certified gear is very poorly built.

The list goes on.  If you do want to run one as a mesh node you should look at the HSMM-Pi project as we do not build a pi install at this time.

As much as I kind of wish I didn't read that, I am glad you cleared that all up. That does make other solutions look better when it comes to cost. So, however it is that a person plans to build a mesh, a Pi probably shouldn't be at the top of the list then huh? :)

Still going to need to get a Pi2 B so that I can use it as a HTPC. ;)

That would be my personal opinion yes.

That is not to say Pi's don't have a purpose, I'm an early adopter I've got several of the Rev1 Model B's (256mb ram old pinout) that have proven themselves very useful over the years.

I use one for my display system and for teleneting around my local developer test network and for sshing into my BBHN compile lab. 

I can see Pi's being good servers for a lot of applications (I tend to recommend against running services on node) there are some things a Pi can't do but a lot of things they can.

I have a couple of Pis running as mesh nodes.

I already had them and some USB wifi cards (Alfa 2W) kicking around so it made sense to give it a go. Probably more useful as a temporary or test node.

There is all the info you need to do it here:  https://hsmmpi.wordpress.com/

I like using them as I can just swap out the SD card for another purpose and then pop the Mesh SD card in if I want to use one as a node.

Jon

I have some basic information about HSMM-PI on my page:

http:www.qsl.net/w6dps

Click on the "Ham Projects" page.

I like playing with Raspberry Pi for nodes, and a variety of other ham related uses.  I will be posting another couple of articles in the near future about using a PI for APRS tracking...

Dave

I think KG6JEI's earlier comment is still valid.  It is pretty hard to beat the price of a Ubiquiti PicoStation... (<$80) and there is "no assembly required." And, if you want a 60º sector with MIMO you absolutely cannot beat a 2.4 or 5gHz NanoStationM2/M5 at just $5 to $10 more. (Personally, I'd avoid the NanoStation loco unless range is not an issue.)