Well, I finally got raspbx image loaded to the usb hard drive earlier this morning. Took me

around four hours to figure out how to get it so that it was not corrupted on the HD.

Had to utilize Imagewriter (actually usb-imagewriter) on my Ubuntu desktop to get the image

loaded and where I could move the files from the boot partition to the small sd card I wanted to use.

The 'sudo dd' commands that were on the asterisk-pi web page in the documentation just would not

put a uncorrupted image on anything I tried. Did as the documentation said and nada. :(

Wondering what I was doing wrong. I was utilizing the latest and greatest image download that

was available.

As it is now, my pi has been running for the past eight hours with not a burp other than when

I was logged in on ssh and shut it down when I meant that I wanted the laptop I was toying with

to shutdown. That laptop was my only puter I have with a sd slot on it. Have another but I just

don't trust windoze that much for doing an image transfer.

I didn't watch the video until about an hour ago :)  It did help me on one thing that I had forgotten

about : the passwords to log in via the web portal <L> Was driving me bonkers not being able to

log in that way and do anything.

As for it working, I won't have my two spa1001's until a few days before FD. Been toying with it

though using Linphone. tried to call things like 'kd4dla@raspbx-w8iss' and other numbers (1234,

w8iss). Keep getting an automated message from the pi telling me that that users account is not

set up, which I am taking as that the raspbx is working :) I'll probably be posting in a few days

asking for help with those.

BTW - this is not on any of my hsmm boxes yet as I want to test it out before I toss it onto

those.

I figure that if I can get this far in setting things up and not have to do a 'shout out' for help,

almost anyone can do this. Granted I have about ten years of utilizing a version of linux in one

form or another, that probably helped out also.

As far as the 'shutdown' command to properly shut things down, do a 'man shutdown' command

and you'll find the meanings of '-r' and '-h' and a few others that might help out.

I am planning to install hsmm-pi, gpsd, and ntpd along with a real-time clock board onto this also.

I have had hsmm-pi running on another card for the past year. Need to test the update and go from

there. I have heard there are some nice features added to hsmm-pi that I am going to like :)

James W8ISS

VERY happy asterisk installer :)

I have a old pre-WRT54G router that I was wondering if it is/would be possible to connect this to a regular MESH node to provide wifi capabilities to a MESH node.

Yes. TFTP the firmware back to the device.

Google searching yields this result: http://wiki.ubnt.com/Firmware_Recovery

I have a couple of Airgrids that I'd like to use during field day for mesh nodes, but after I'd like to have them back to stock to use bridging two sites. Has anyone sucessfully reloaded the factor software on a Ubiquity device after it's been a mesh node?

Thanks,

Bernie

Great thanks. We are just getting started. I have the Bullet with an Omni an AirGrid. Also have 10 WRT54's. It looks like a few of us will be at Radio World tomorrow for the ARES presentation.

I am operating a Ubiquiti Bullet2 HP with an Omni antenna at 100 feet above ground level (GND is approximately 600 feet) at VE3PLF at Fonthill, Ontario

VA3YYZ-100 at the St Catharines marina is NOT on-line as yet. Waiting for some antenna mounts for the tower.

Eric - ve3ei

Eric,

What type of equipment is being used at the two below locations?

Node at VE3PLF (atop Fonthill) and VA3YYZ at the St Catharines Marina (Port Weller)

My name is Gavin VA3XRR and I'm trying to get the South Pickering group involved in the Durham region area. I'm sure we should be able to see you from Ajax.

I am aware of very few devices that support IAX natively.

IAX was created to be used between asterisk instances (Infer-Asterisk eXchange protocol)

This lack device support would be the biggest reason I can think of not to choose it. SIP has much more support in the world of software and hardware. 

Anyone utilizing IAX instead of SIP? One port and done!

I've set up a node on the east end of Waynesboro, roughly 30 feet AGL, currently with stock antennas.

I'm on the lookout for some higher gain omni antennas to add to this node, and have have a second node in my shack to provide mesh connectivity to some server resources.  

My current thoughts on server resources include a FTP server to provide a repository for commonly used applications, and perhaps a Teamspeak server for low latency PC-PC voice comms over the mesh.

Hi Peter,

There are a couple of approaches to consider:

1) Use a higher gain antenna.  There are many choices out there ranging all the way up to 25 dBi and beyond.  I picked up a 25 dBi "Bar-B-Q grill" reflector for about $45.

2) Increase the power of the device.  The WRT54Gs run about 79mW (19dBm).  While amplifiers can be had, they are not preferred.  There's a lot trashy stuff out there.  The suitable amps cost a lot of money and still often require outboard filters to clean-up their spurious emissions.

With a high gain antenna the WRT54G has been used successfully at a distance of up to about 10 miles... of course, your mileage will vary.

If you are considering either of these options to increase range, then you should weigh the cost/benefit of going to a Ubiquiti device, such as the NanoBridge M2, for example.  This device comes packaged with the router and an 18 dBi dish antenna in one device.  This device runs about 200mW (23dBm) and can be had on eBay for about $80.

For more on how much power and and gain you'll require to cover a given distance, you should research the term "link budget."  There are several link budget calculator tools available on the Internet: ( http://www.afar.net/rf-link-budget-calculator/ ).  If you have a remote destination in mind, then you'll also want to take advantage of a propagation prediction tool such as Radio Mobile ( http://www.cplus.org/rmw/rmonline.html ).

Andre, K6AH

Good Morning,

I have a converted linksys router running the Hamnet software. I have the recommended SSID Broadband-Hamnet-v1 and I can see other wireless devices but I am not able to see any other hamnet devices. Note that I am using static addresses for my connections

What is the broadcast distance of the modified linksys routers?

What options are available to increase the distance of the wireless router?

Comments

KK6IVW

Peter

I've been searching for a half hour or so with Google advanced search, and although I've seen posts about this in the past, I just can't seem to dredge them up.

I'd like to really simplify initial access to a node, and make it extremely easy to find the advertised services. The simplest thing to do would be to have a splash page that comes up when you initially access the node, in place of the 'redirecting' message. Then, have links directly to various services permanently installed on a node, rather than drilling down to the 'advertised services' on the mesh status page.

For example, telling people to connect to a wifi AP attached to a node should be sufficient to get them started in finding services such as web pages with event information, ftp servers with required software for download, etc. A captive portal comes to mind, but they tend to be restrictive and difficult to set up (for me, a Linux novice). It seems easier to take advantage of the already working Apache server.

I'm about to dig into a node to see what I can see about adding some information pages, possible splash pages, etc. Any suggestions or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

The page is temporarily unavailable.

The procedure is basically documented in Ubiquiti's own manuals as well should you need reference.

Either upload via the AirOS web interface or via a TFTP recovery mode.

I had saved a link to here;

http://ubnt.hsmm-mesh.org/products/BBHN/wiki/HowTo/FlashUbiquiti

But that is no longer active. Does anyone know where that page is located now?

Thanks,

Bernie