I grew up not far from Albany and if there was a mesh to play with the next time I visit home that would be awesome.

1. The nodes run an NTP client.  When internet access is available they automatically get their own time.  There is no way in the web interface to set it, you would have to log in with ssh and use the date command if you really wanted to set it manually.  Bear in mind that the local time on a node has absolutely no effect on the operation of the network or any applications that may be running on it.

2. The mesh gateway function must be enabled on the setup page, and you must be using at least version 0.4.3 of the firmware.  Some internet dependencies went away and older firmware no longer works. 

73
ad5oo

testing post from new phone (w/ice cream sandwich Android)

KTF

Hi,

A few of us in Eastern New York have arrived simultaneously at the starting point into HSMM-MESH and are beginning the early planning.  I have three portable nodes up and running with one operating as an irc server. Testing with HydraIRC on windows works fine on the #mesh channel.

Now as we start to look at actually using the system (at first with temporary tactical setups), I have a couple of stupid questions:

1.  Though it seems trivial, how do you set the time on a node?  All mine are coming back as being in the year 2000 (except the one I tried hooking internet to through the wan port, possible answer here?)

2.  Nodes that are not linked directly to internet through the wan port have no internet connectivity. Did I miss something in the setup? I thought the internet would flow through the mesh if a node was connected.

Thanks for the great work done on this project making it easy for us to follow on.

David Galletly KM2O, Eastern New York SEC

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I'm curious what the longest North American 2-way mesh contact is?  I think I remember reading about some guys who had a 100+ mile QSO in the mountains of South America.  Of course, if anyone used mesh on the CA-Hawaii duct, that would blow everyone out of the water at 2400+ miles!  

The reason I ask is that last weekend we had a 41.5 mile 2-way on IRC.  One end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector & 1 watt BDA.  The other end had a 24 dBi parabolic reflector and a "barefoot" WRT54 running a mere 19 mW.  Best rx sig on end with amp was -76 dBm.  

73 & Thanks!

Fred, NP2X

I was one end of a mobile link experiment on a long strech of I-10 in west Texas.  For sevral hours we passed live video and files back and forth between two vehicles.  Antennas were basic factory antennas.  A great deal if distance can be gained with better antennas.  We were traveling at about 80 mph which is the speed limit in west Texas on the Interstate.   Side by side we got very good links.  We forced link breaks by alowing one vehicle to get a mile or more ahead of the other vehicle.  Then we noted behaviour as we went over hills and made turns that forced the link to break.  Once links reconnected in a few seconds with the automatic link OLSR code, the frozen video started to move again with no user intervention.  FT file transfers of a 10mb file took from about 30 seconds, to several minutes as all the timeouts and retries in TCP did their retries.

With factory antennas on the dash board of the cars involved a range of 2 miles or more was possible in some cases.  With better antennas I am sure the range could be improved.  In a seperate test a mobile node could pass data to a fixed node in a plastic box, on the ground for about 30 seconds link time.  Again, with fore and aft aimed antennas I am sure longer links could be made.  We suggest placing fixed nodes on hospitals that are regularly on highly traveled routes.  In Austin many are right next to an Interstate or other large highway.  Significant sized messages can be passed with link times of a minute or more.  Note in many cases aproching the node is all set up time for the link.  Most of the data is passed after the car has passed the node.

With a good link the entire ARRL handbook in PDF format can be passed in about 45 seconds, so when I say significant sized messages could be passed, I mean  LOT of data if you are ready to blast the data over the link when it opens.

KD5MFW

So here is an update I am pleased with:

In the photograph called "Asterisk1.jpg," you are looking at three con-current phone calls through 6 different phones with asterisk installed on an HSMM-MESH node (KF5JIM-WRT54GL-1B) (and me in the picture). They all stayed connected for an hour before we decided to hang up. Processor usage 0.30 to 0.45.

In another attempt, "Asterisk2.jpg," you are witnessing the routing table between nodes setup throughout hallways in a building with thick walls. In this particular scenerio, do not remove W5VUI-7. The nodes with VoIP phones attached are IOH-5, VUI-6, and 2 on KF5JIM-WRT54GL-1B.  IOH-5 and VUI-6 are each calling different phones on the 1B HSMM-MESH node.  The phones stayed connected for two hours with audio going though them before we decided to hang it up and "call" it a day.

NOTE: Once you open ports in /etc/config/firewall and decide to forward more ports afterwards on that particular node, you will loose the ports you opened on /etc/config/firewall.

Solution: Open the specified ports in the firewall config file and compile your own firmware.

Attachments
 Asterisk2.jpg [37 KB] ::

I am located in San Mateo, close to Crystal springs.

Can see Belmont above me and parts off San Mateo / Hillsdale below. Plus the Fremont across the Bay.

Any one interested in starting a Mesh Network?

Might even put a solar powered node on top off Sugarloaf witch is in full view off our condo.

73

Rogier

kj6etl

The phones I got working are the cheap VoIP Grandstream phones and Grandstream HT286 ATA adapters. However, any VoIP phone should be able to work just fine as long as you can configure it with the information specified in step 12.

Side Note: I think that it might be a good idea in a future HSMM-MESH firmware release to have the option to open up ports and poke a hole in the firewall for localnode to use vs. Port Forwarding (I tried it this way and it wouldn't work). This would nullify step 5 and make it's alternative easier.

Sounds like a neat application!  And the instructions look easy to follow and well written.

What kind of phones would be good for playing around with this?  Cheap, available, asterisk compatible, and 12V i think would be the criteria ...
From a couple quick searches, seems like maybe the polycom soundpoints (but wasn't sure of exact power reqs)?  Any one have experience with these or other models?

thanks,
--david
KJ4IZW
Aiken, SC