Hello! I have been working on getting a mesh net established among our repeater club and hope to have members use it for communication with our repeater site.

In the process I've come across a small group of people in Sacramento area who are also interested. And we're banding together for mutual support.

I wonder if we might have our own area in this forum, as other localities do, to discuss local matters?

I've also created a Yahoo Group for mutual local support in the Sacramento area. It is restricted to area hams only, but Broadband-Hamnet developers would be welcome as well ;)

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SacMeshNet/info

73,

Joe

AG6QO@AG6QO.#NCA.CA.USA.NOAM

"Once the upgrade file is uploaded to the node will it be necessary to redo all the steps regarding Node Name, and Password as found in "Firmware Installation Instructions" under the heading "DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!!"?"

Yes. There has been discussion on preserving the configuration from upgrade to upgrade, but this gets increasingly complicated when advanced and/or manual settings have been applied. The jury is still out as to what extent settings can and will be preserved across an upgrade, but do look for this in a future release. There's a related request to make it easier to upgrade remote nodes that are not readily accessible.

No problem K6AH, Thanks for your quick reply and I'm glad I can help.
I also have a NanoStation Loco M2 that has not been flashed with BBHN yet, Would it helpful if I run the cat command on that one and  post the results?

De Rob 2E0RPT.

ajo,

Use the file bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx to upgrade/upload from any/all prior versions of bbhn on linksys.

The terms firmware and software and the lines between them are often blurred. Embedded devices refer to loading the 'firmware' or the controlling software of the device. In our case with bbhn, the firmware is a linux operating system and the devices have the capabilities approaching a desktop computer, except very limited with cpu performance, memory, and disk space. We start to talk about the 'software' or programs we can load on this 'computer', same as on a desktop computer.

I've not looked on linksys for a while, did you try the "refresh" button to see if the 3.0.0 shows up in the link? The list can only be 'refreshed' if you have an internet gateway node on your mesh or this linksys node is directly plugged into the internet on the WAN port.

Joe AE6XE

I'm confused again-still/as usual...

Setting up to "upgrade" my mesh nodes...

In the node itself the term used is "firmware"? On broadband-hamnet.org the
term used is "software"? Unless I am looking in the wrong place... Are
those two words synonymous?

When I go into any of my node | administration menus I see a place for
Firmware Update and dialogues for Uploading from local hard drive or
Downloading from someplace else.

My WRT54G node's current version of software/firmware is: 1.0.0

Node is connected to internet.

When I refresh the "Select Firmware" Download list there appears a list of
four items:
bbhn-1.0.0-brcm.trx
hsmm-mesh-0.4.3-brcm.trx
Linksys-WRT54GL.trx
Linksys-WRT54G.trx

Hold that thought...

When I go to http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/software-download.html and see
the header Software Download there is a table listing "Broadband Hamnet
firmware" and there I see the first item:
bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx to upgrade an existing mesh node.

I have downloaded that item to a local hard drive.

Which file should I use to do this "upgrade"?

How come the bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx file does not appear in the
node's "Select Firmware" list

Once the upgrade file is uploaded to the node will it be necessary to redo
all the steps regarding Node Name, and Password as found in "Firmware
Installation Instructions" under the heading "DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!!"?


~ajo

Hi my name is Rob call 2E0RPT.
I recently got 2x Ubiquiti 2G20 M2 HP's that are showing up with Unsupported Hardware in BBHN.
I was instructed by Clint via Facebook to run the cat command and supply my results on here.
Pasted from putty:

BusyBox v1.11.2 (2010-05-19 17:47:07 EEST) built-in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

XM.v5.2# cat /etc/board.info

board.sysid=0xe212

board.name=AirGrid M2

board.shortname=AG2

board.subtype=

board.hwaddr=00156D5C11D1

board.reboot=30

board.upgrade=150

board.phycount=1

radio.1.name=

radio.1.shortname=

radio.1.bus=pci

radio.1.subsystemid=0xe212

radio.1.subvendorid=0x0777

radio.1.txpower.max=18

radio.1.txpower.offset=0

radio.1.antennas=3

radio.1.def_antenna=4

radio.1.antenna.1.id=4

radio.1.antenna.1.name=Not specified

radio.1.antenna.1.gain=0

radio.1.antenna.2.id=1

radio.1.antenna.2.name=11x14

radio.1.antenna.2.gain=16

radio.1.antenna.3.id=2

radio.1.antenna.3.name=17x24

radio.1.antenna.3.gain=20

XM.v5.2#

I hope this helps De Rob 2E0RPT

It sounds like you have internet at node 1 and you want to get internet at node 2 and 3 through the mesh (wireless, no cat5).

On node 1 go into setup and select the internet gateway check box. Then node 2 and node 3 as well as anyone else that can connect to you mesh should have internet.

I generally do not like the use of the internet gateway feature in a largemesh. If you need it for a local function like this you may want to use a different said to prevent a larger mesh from connecting. 

Thanks for all the great information! I will use a Linksys wireless router to make this work.

Any references to specific settings and connections needed for the routers and the phones?

Bob W8ERD

Bob,

All the smart phones made for a number of years  have included, 2.4 GHz wi-fi and some  5.8 GHz band wi-fi as well.  So, as I have pointed out in several of my presentations, there are millions of potential ham radios sold in the form f smart phones - millions of them.

As for mesh running on smart phones, there has been mesh software available for years.  We do not have a version of Broadband Hamnet mesh code running on smart phones because you can easily link them in with a WRT54 running in Access Point mode instead of mesh mode.  Then the smart phone simply uses its native wi-fi radio and software to tie in with minimal work.  No need to spend months writing a version of the mesh software for the smart phone.  Too many other things to do first.

Part of the problem is a large number of people that own smart phones, don't know how to use all the features.

If you set up the configuration correctly on these millions of smart phones, they can be easily used as amateur radios.   How many hams are aware of this?  Not enough.

I have given demonstrations of setting up a WRT54G with Broadband Hamnet firmware, configured to be an Access Point, then connected it back to back with a WRT54G with Broadband Hamnet, configured as a mesh node.  So the pair acted as a gateway into the mesh.

On the Access Point, you can run with encryption on if you like and use is as a Part-15 device.  We have connected multiple smart phones, via their wi-fi radios to the mesh via the method outlined above.  And you can pass all the types of data you mentioned.

Great idea.  It has been done and is one reason the Access Point configuration is there. You just need to know what can be done with what has been available for years.  The data is no more valuable for having passed through a mesh radio than wi-fi if links where you desire.  One HUGE reason for being a TCP/IP network is so you can tie to similar networks that are all over the world.

So the basic capability you speak of is available now and has been for years.  There are many useful ways to connect networks together.  Mesh radios are something hams should be familiar with, but they are not the perfect solution to all communications challenges.  So don't get hung up with a particular link needing to be a mesh.  Isolated pocket mesh networks can be usefully linked with point to point radios that are not formally mesh radios.  The data does not care.  It just needs a path that works to ship the data.

Mesh radios are shine in some situations, but part of the strength of a system is how flexible it is.  There are a variety of ways to link various data networks.  You can mix wired and wireless networks (that is what an Access Point is -  it is the Point where the wired network Accesses the wireless network or the other way around if you like.

I would encourage you to set up a WRT54G mesh and WT54G Access point and connect them back to back and tinker with a gateway into the mesh with smart phones.  It is fun and it works fine within the limits of the range of the radios. 

I think every ham that has a smart phone and an interest in Broadband Hamnet should set up a mesh gateway and link their smart phones into their mesh systems. Why show up anywhere with a smart phone and not have it tied into your mesh? The phone is with you most of the time anyway.  Add it to your station!

Have fun.

KD5MFW

-Glenn

Well, the first off limit is the very limited range of a cellular device, where most meshes need high gain and higher power than a cell phone emits in order to reach their distances.  The second issue is one of a technical issue in that basically we have 2 major operating systems for cell phones, Android and IOS, IOS will likely never let us touch the wifi levels so it gets removed from the list, Android doesn't have the programmatic interfaces to setup the connections, and in some cases ya rumored that even the hardware isn't capable of working in full AdHoc as the devices do not need to run AdHoc as part of a normal use case.

Ignoring the operating system limitations for a moment I want to go back to the low power/gain issue. One may be inclined to think "well I will let the local phone speak to a mesh node locally and get its power and gain that way". I've heard of this being done with nodes, this is in my opinion a poor practice. Why do I feel that way? It's simple, you have a node that can talk to a set area, everytimenit transmits it takes away from another node ability to speak to the same remote nodes.  This is easier to picture in a star deployment where you have a central node that all remote (middle) nodes talk to, if that node acting as a middle man has to repeat that signal to go to your phone which is local it will cause that high up node to be unable to transmit or hear other nodes, effectively stalling the entire mesh for an area. It would be inefficient use of the spectrum when we have better ways to do this.

I would recommend having an access point locally, on a different channel than the rest of the mesh, this way you can target the RF to the local event area (meaning you can walk further from your main mesh point) you can operate locally with other users and you can link any wireless device you want to it which can than use all the services of the mesh. WIFI phones connected to a local AP could than be used to make VoIP calls, access status pages, submit emails, etc all without needing to speak the mesh routing protocol and at the same time providing better spectral usage.

Yes this necessitates a second device in your kit, but it can be any device you want, any cheap wifi AP or Router, it doesn't have to be some mesh compatible device. It may be a great use for any Linksys device that gets upgraded to Ubiquiti, or for that Linksys device that was a version 7 that wasn't mesh compatible, any wifi device that shows up at local club meeting etc.  Ultimately I think a setup like this would give you much more flexibility in the long term.

Is there any thought to having mesh software for cell phones?  Vendors are now selling cell phones with wifi connection capability, as an alternative to the normal cell tower.  It would be great to use a cell phone as a ham transceiver on the mesh.  They could do voice, file transfer, chat, video etc.

Bob W8ERD

Thanks very much!  Linphone seems to work perfectly with the Grandstream ATA.

Bob W8ERD