Due to the area's geography we will be forced to locate nodes in places where the temperature gets in the 20's and often snows in the winter.

Has anyone had experience in this area who can give us advice on suitable enclosure techniques.  The nodes are envisioned to be battery/solar powered, so temperature control might be a relatively complicated solution. 

Andre, K6AH

Due to the area's geography we will be forced to locate nodes in places where the temperature gets in the 20's and often snows in the winter.

Has anyone had experience in this area who can give us advice on suitable enclosure techniques.  The nodes are envisioned to be battery/solar powered, so temperature control might be a relatively complicated solution. 

Andre, K6AH

The wireless IP address (10.x.y.z) is set during the initial setup of your HSMM-MESH™ node where x.y.z is the last three bytes of the wifi MAC address of the router.

For instance, say your router's MAC address ended in :12:17:48 Convert those from hex values to binary, your router's wifi IP address would be configured to 10.18.23.72

This is done automatically during the firmware installation so you shouldn't have to do anything yourself to set the IP address.

I'm curious as to the process of how a mesh node chooses its wireless IP address. Is is simply randomization with a check to ensure it's not currently in use on an existing mesh? Or is there some sort of correlation between the IP and the serial number or some other information in the hardware of the node?

If it is randomization, does a node try to retain the same IP address after a power cycle or does it select a new random IP each time?

I asked a few questions on the AMSAT mail reflector, amsat-bb, about utilizing 2.4GHz for high speed data

usage based on a satellite.

There have been a few replies and I replied back to there with a few more ideas and comments about this.

Wondering what the HSMM-mesh groups thoughts are on this.

This may be a 'lofty' idea but something to consider and maybe give a try.

James W8ISS

I can't say I have seen that specific behavior but have you tried any of the standard reset procedures yet?  The 30-30-30 reset procedure has worked for me so far on all my Ebay purchased routers to get them back to a known state and load the HSMM-MESH™ firmware on them <knock on wood>.

You could try going through the recovery process for the WRT54 routers outlined on the dd-wrt site too: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Recover_from_a_Bad_Flash

I bought my node preflashed on ebay and when plugged into wall power, the 4 Ethernet LEDs and the Internet LED stays solid and power LED flashes, and it won't leave this state on its own. If you slowly plug the power cord in most of the time it powers on. I bought a wall wart from another ebay seller the advertised compatibility with the WRT54GS. I've gotten it to work once powered on and configured with my callsign, but I do not want to have to fiddle with it at a public service event next week.

I've worked with the seller (who has been awesome to work with) to troubleshoot and I'm waiting to hear from him. Just curious if anyone else has had this issue?

-KE7UQO

I've also seen it listed as "5.5x2.5" on the internet, but I think the 2.1 is closer to reality.

Even if this is "wrong," it might actually work for the jack due to the amount of play in the jack on the back of the WRT-54G.  The spring on the side might push the connector far enough off center to make contact on the center pin.

I thought I posted this, but it disappeared.

Unfortunately, the measured and "advertised" sizes often don't match.

"Type M 5.5x2.1mm" barrel connector seems to be the most common answer for what you order.

The plug on the Linksys power supply connector is actually 5mm OD, 2.2 ID measured.  I've got both 10 mm and 11 mm lengths.

The hole on the WRT is about 6 mm, but there's a spring loaded contact that has quite a bunch of give to it.

The Belkin UPS we use a lot of is 5.5 mm OD, 2.2 ID on the connector, 12 mm long.  They fit all the WRT54G* machines.  

You'll probably have to just get a part and try it to find out what "standard" it is.  Or wait for someone who's already ordered the part somewhere.

I've been doing a bit of research on power and portable power for HSMM-MESH nodes and need to validate some information.

KD8RAP and I have identified that the outer diameter of the power plug is 5.5mm for our WRT54GS nodes. I'm finding a lot of inconsistent data out there regarding the inner diameter of the plug. I'm also not sure about the length of the barrel.

My intention is to replace the AC/DC power converter with a plug connected to power poles that then connects to whatever 12V source is local... batteries, power supply, etc.

So, I'm asking for anyone who has a WRT54G, WRT54GS or WRT54GL to measure their plugs and post the results here. Please also post your note model and version.

Thanks!

P.S. Yes, I know that the WRT54G V1 is 5V.

Wes,

quick questions....

Have you put the node on any analyzing equipment when you crank it up that high?

Im curious if it really does go that high, and if it does actually go over 79mW, what kind of signals are coming out?

From what I have heard who did hook it up to quarter-million dollar gear (way above my pay scale), it started to get really gnarly RF (spurs n such) above a certain point. Plus I remember something about radio life being shortened.

From what I understand, and I have been wrong a time or two before (just ask the wife...All men make mistakes--Married men just find out sooner), 19dBm/79mW is the RATED spec for the WRT radios. I have seen where others using other FW have cranked it up, but it would only be good for testing with limited longevity.

Im not trying to be an ass or facetious, just sincerely curious as to your results.

Thanks,

Jim

The antenna use is software configured on one of the configuration pages.  Set for separate TX and RX or Diversity mode.  Diversity is the default.  It is common to have two different types of of antennas on a mesh node.

-Glenn

KD5MFW

Two different antennas, such as one directional, and one stock antenna are quite common, so I presume diversity mode is the normal setup.

So I have a dumb question.. the dual antennas... are they used as diversity antennas with mesh or is one trransmit and one receive? I could envision two directional antennas to extend the range but I have not seen anything on this website that might give a hint.