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Fascinating hardware. How does it work? Does the iOS device use BLE to connect to the goTenna, which is then connected to the end device (Windows PC or somethin

Fascinating hardware. How does it work? Does the iOS device use BLE to connect to the goTenna, which is then connected to the end device (Windows PC or something)? Or do you always need two goTenna devices? Do you have a client who requires an interface to these devices? Or is it of general interest to you?

ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
Not exactly sure how the mesh system works. There’s basically three players in this space: goTenna, BearTooth and Radacat. goTenna seems to be the biggest and most successful outfit. BearTooth uses Bluetooth Classic; not BLE. In the latest OS revisions, Apple claims to have integrated Classic into CoreBluetooth, but the documentation is terrible, so I’m not sure how seriously to take it. You need multiple devices of the same type. When you buy them, they come in sets of two. You can have a whole network of them. goTenna markets a “pro” line, aimed at First Responders. You can buy sets of devices that go for like $20,000. They have a military use case, but I doubt it’s battlefield, as these could easily be “shoot me” beacons. I like that these are aimed at disaster response. I’ve been writing software to support NGO/NPO assistance for decades. No client yet. I’m doing this because I want to learn Bluetooth programming, and I want to create much more lightweight and flexible SDKs than the ones that currently exist. Their use case is that the devices establish a mesh network in RF, with devices acting as repeaters, and are controlled individually via Bluetooth. The current limitations on that seem to be software, as a function of their SDKs. I’d like to improve On their SDKs. For example, I’d like to be able to control goTenna devices directly from a Watch. You can’t do that, with their established SDK. I’m fairly good at SDKs. I’ve been writing them for decades. Most of the “closed” work I’ve done (what I was paid for) was SDK work. The driver is really just the lower-level part of an SDK, designed to provide transport abstraction. There will be another layer over that, providing application implementation support.
- cerberusss 7y ago
  Hugely interesting, thanks a lot for the info. I'd love to work with this stuff, but there's gotta be a client too :) Anyway, keep it up!
  - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
    Well, I have spent the last year and a half "retooling" to be a pure developer. I was a manager for twenty-five years, and did not code full-time. I love coding. I'm a really good manager, but I don't love it. Since I need to hang a coding shingle, I need to have a serious portfolio. These types of projects give me that.
    - cerberusss 7y ago
      Dude! Mad respect. Not many people seem able to turn around their career, because it requires a decent amount of effort. One of my office mates is sick and tired of developing business apps but can't seem to turn the ship around. I've made some technical switches (Java -> Embedded -> iOS) and found those to be hard; like you said, you need to have a serious portfolio before someone bothers interviewing you for either a job or a freelance project.
    - erichocean 7y ago
      Hi Chris, can you please contact me regarding work? erich AT xygroup DOT co (not com)
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
        Sent you an email (had to make it very simple, as you have your spam filter set to "11"), and a LinkedIn connection req.

ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago

Not exactly sure how the mesh system works. There’s basically three players in this space: goTenna, BearTooth and Radacat. goTenna seems to be the biggest and most successful outfit. BearTooth uses Bluetooth Classic; not BLE. In the latest OS revisions, Apple claims to have integrated Classic into CoreBluetooth, but the documentation is terrible, so I’m not sure how seriously to take it. You need multiple devices of the same type. When you buy them, they come in sets of two. You can have a whole network of them. goTenna markets a “pro” line, aimed at First Responders. You can buy sets of devices that go for like $20,000. They have a military use case, but I doubt it’s battlefield, as these could easily be “shoot me” beacons. I like that these are aimed at disaster response. I’ve been writing software to support NGO/NPO assistance for decades. No client yet. I’m doing this because I want to learn Bluetooth programming, and I want to create much more lightweight and flexible SDKs than the ones that currently exist. Their use case is that the devices establish a mesh network in RF, with devices acting as repeaters, and are controlled individually via Bluetooth. The current limitations on that seem to be software, as a function of their SDKs. I’d like to improve On their SDKs. For example, I’d like to be able to control goTenna devices directly from a Watch. You can’t do that, with their established SDK. I’m fairly good at SDKs. I’ve been writing them for decades. Most of the “closed” work I’ve done (what I was paid for) was SDK work. The driver is really just the lower-level part of an SDK, designed to provide transport abstraction. There will be another layer over that, providing application implementation support.

cerberusss 7y ago
Hugely interesting, thanks a lot for the info. I'd love to work with this stuff, but there's gotta be a client too :) Anyway, keep it up!
- ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
  Well, I have spent the last year and a half "retooling" to be a pure developer. I was a manager for twenty-five years, and did not code full-time. I love coding. I'm a really good manager, but I don't love it. Since I need to hang a coding shingle, I need to have a serious portfolio. These types of projects give me that.
  - cerberusss 7y ago
    Dude! Mad respect. Not many people seem able to turn around their career, because it requires a decent amount of effort. One of my office mates is sick and tired of developing business apps but can't seem to turn the ship around. I've made some technical switches (Java -> Embedded -> iOS) and found those to be hard; like you said, you need to have a serious portfolio before someone bothers interviewing you for either a job or a freelance project.
  - erichocean 7y ago
    Hi Chris, can you please contact me regarding work? erich AT xygroup DOT co (not com)
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - ChrisMarshallNY 7y ago
      Sent you an email (had to make it very simple, as you have your spam filter set to "11"), and a LinkedIn connection req.