The wire - less madness

Lately working with Lora device I have learned that we are really close to create big impact changes with relatively little investing.

  

I've started my mesh during a research to communicate my postbox with my Home Assistant setup. In all the apartments where I lived this really got me; I wanted that when the post agent left something for me it should notify me somehow. This could have been because I've worked far from my place, or even because otherwise every time I need to go check it.

During this mission I only counted with a bunch of ESP32s that could be used for communication using WiFi, Bluetooth and ESPnow. That's awesome but unfortunately not enough. 

Suddenly when looking for sensors for other project, I've found SX126X and SX127X which are modules for LoRa communication. And pretty cheap ones! 

 

2022 I've got some Heltec V1 (Stockholm)

 

Is good to mention that this technology uses ISM which basically is that the states provide a license-free band to operate within a bunch of regulations to follow.   

2023 I've got some RFM95W (Gaiman - ANZ) 

With the time I started realizing that this tech is really the same that powered our Remote controls for a long while before, and this is just a "digitization" of it, with some power ups and a lot of control -yeah, as an oversimplification.

 

 

I couldn't feel less than a new era of  "radio aficionado" (amateur radio).

Cheaper!

 

So I have started having these devices as no-tomorrow.

  

 

Mid 2023 started testing on more devices

After some research and thanks for already built modules, libraries, tutorials and the introduction of ChatGPT I was able to use just my spare time to successfully create prototypes. 

Now... what?

Well the communication was done but honestly quite overkill yet just for my postbox project, so I started to look for something else.

In the road appeared many projects: The things network and Meshtastic between many others. 

The Things Network (TTN) runs on LoRaWAN, which in simple terms is an abstraction layer built on top of the raw LoRa protocol. You require infrastructure and certified devices.

By the other hand I had Meshtastic feels more like a guerrilla approach. With the just created node it's enough to start operating. Now this is fascinating: it doesn't require infrastructure, it communicate itself with other devices within it's range and if you need to reach a further node it just "hops" until it reaches it (it has limits).

 

That's how I've found the way to go. 

Fortunately for me, I'm living in a high concentrated area of this devices and amateur radio owners. It's very nice to see so dense activity and they communicate in the public chat quite often and very respectfully, and SO FAR from my location I got messages from other countries too.

 

This will continue!