14 ms·

Disaster.radio: a disaster-resilient communications network powered by the sun

318 points by tlrobinson 7y ago

xupybd 7y ago
I'd be really interested to see what impact this will have on the site they link to http://disasteradio.org/ http://disasteradio.org/ some tiny little band. It would be neat to see what sort of traffic spike they get after being linked from a story that made it to the front page of HN.
- disasteradio 7y ago
  in answer to your question: 1000 hits in ten minutes baby! that's showbiz! (someone PMed me about it already haha)
  - kgwxd 7y ago
    I'm glad I came back and followed that link. I'm programming an Atari 2600 ROM right now, this is perfect background music for it!
    - disasteradio 7y ago
      yay good luck! PS I did a tune for atari 2600 cart! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y80BzcS5bKw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y80BzcS5bKw
      - kgwxd 7y ago
        That was rad as hell.
  - juuul 7y ago
    Yay! I'm one of the devs on disaster.radio and we're big fans. We're actually having our weekly meeting at our hackerspace sudo room https://sudoroom.org/ https://sudoroom.org/ in Oakland, CA right now and listening to your track Drop The Bomb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0S-HOOp_VY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0S-HOOp_VY which has been something of an unofficial theme song for us!
    - disasteradio 7y ago
      omg <3 <3!! I gotta play in Oakland one day, I've never been but I have met way too many hilarious wonderful kooks living out there.. PS new disasteradio album is less about post-apocalypse and more an equal mix of solarpunk and SYNTHESIZER TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE TEMPORAL VOID
- robbs 7y ago
  They’re a fun artist! I’ve seen him live a few times around Wellington.
rinchik 7y ago
Disaster Radio. Does one need an FCC ham license to own/operate an endpoint? What are the frequencies? After some light poking on the website I don't see any info on that. Love the idea though. there is also this: https://www.nycmesh.net/ https://www.nycmesh.net/ , somewhat related and can be used as a back up information/communication source
- teraflop 7y ago
  It uses WiFi for local communications and LoRa for the mesh network, both of which operate on frequencies that don't require licensing. https://disaster.radio/learn/hardware/ https://disaster.radio/learn/hardware/
  - rinchik 7y ago
    Interesting, so how is it different from similar projects, e.g nycmesh.net, I mentioned above? Is it a promo for the custom hardware design initiative? hardware that's more modular, cheaper, focused than traditional brands?
    - tlrobinson 7y ago
      NYC Mesh and similar networks use point-to-point relatively high bandwidth links (e.x. Ubiquiti radios commonly used by WISPs) Disaster.radio uses LoRa which is very low bandwidth and typically omnidirectional antennas. It only uses WiFi to connect users’ “terminal” devices to the node within a short range.
      - juuul 7y ago
        Yes! To expand on this a bit, disaster.radio locally hosts web apps, e.g. a vector tile map of the local area, and serves them up over WiFi to local devices with a reasonable bandwidth, then uses the very low bandwidth of LoRa to share points on the map added by users over long distances (e.g. where you can get water, food, etc). disaster.radio is not a replacement to a existing internet infrastructure like NYC Mesh. Setting up a high bandwidth mesh network is a lot of work. Each node needs a non-trivial amount of power (enough to make solar hard) and nodes generally need line of sight which requires good mounting locations and planning. We, the creators of disaster.radio, actually also run a small wifi-based mesh network https://peoplesopen.net/ https://peoplesopen.net/ and the idea for disaster.radio came out of frustration with difficulty of mounting wifi nodes (finding interested people in good locations, then negotiating with landlords for permission to mount on rooftops and running ethernet cable for PoE into building, then finding another location within line of sight and repeating the process). We thought: What if we could make a "mesh throwie" where installation was as easy as throwing it on a roof (and maybe strapping it to something).
ummonk 7y ago
How well would these hold up after a solar storm or EMP?
- rinchik 7y ago
  was my first thought as well, but after watching the video it looks like it's something you can quickly setup AFTER the incident. To deal with the aftermath I guess?..
  - pps43 7y ago
    After the EMP you don't set up mesh network. Instead you start moving perpendicular to wind direction, away from the epicenter, to avoid the fallout.
    - rinchik 7y ago
      yeah, but you can't be moving forever. When you stop and setup a base, you will need something more than a basic walkie-talkie, right?
    - ShorsHammer 7y ago
      EMP's have numerous causes besides nuclear bombs, perhaps "After the blast" is more appropriate here.
    - madengr 7y ago
      You wouldn’t get much fallout from EMP. It has to be an upper atmosphere detonation to get the EMP.
    - ummonk 7y ago
      It's probably a better idea to shelter in place for a week, with windows closed and a hepa filter installed.
    - Johnny555 7y ago
      An EMP pulse weapon would be detonated hundreds of miles about the ground, how do you figure out the wind direction where that device was detonated after the internet, commercial radio stations, etc have all been knocked offline (assuming your personal electronics survived)
wilg 7y ago
This is awesome! Super smart set of basic apps, and having it just be a normal WiFi hotspot is great. I could see it actually being quite usable in a disaster scenario. Kickstarter the hardware for like $100 and I bet it would do really well. I'd buy one right now. Or let me donate! Looks like there's an "app store". Curious how that works. I assume that would be a major bandwidth/tragedy of the commons issue, but perhaps there's some way to have a higher QoS channel for the critical apps.
bulutzuku 7y ago
Hey, nice project. Can you comment or point me what hardware do I need to buy to get my own node? If there are too many options maybe put a hardware matrix?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- juuul 7y ago
  Hi. Thanks! Some of our contributors have added support for some of the off-the-shelf TTGO ESP32 + LoRa boards but I'm not sure we're ready to call it stable. I'll ping them to come here and answer your question. The previous ESP8266-based solution was just a bit under-powered for serving up the vector tile maps and we're not supporting that anymore. We're also about to finalize some new custom boards with ESP32 and two LoRa modules (meshing on a single channel kinda sucks) and will make an announcement on our site as soon as that's ready to try out.
- paidforby 7y ago
  Thanks! I am the current maintainer of the firmware, juul is correct. I am actively developing with the LILYGO TTGO ESP32 dev board. If you are interested in development then you can buy one from aliexpress, if you are looking for a finished product, then you should wait for us to finish the next iteration of our custom board. Here's board that is currently supported thttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/32915894264.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.671054bdhI1Hix&algo_pvid=aec249fc-c80a-4c81-8220-334dc9f635b1&algo_expid=aec249fc-c80a-4c81-8220-334dc9f635b1-0&btsid=6d976d5a-e661-47f6-b371-7f0bc42c5336&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_7,searchweb201603_55 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32915894264.html?spm=a2g0o.p...
TimTheTinker 7y ago
Ham radio (or amateur radio) operators have historically filled this role - providing essential communications in the event of a disaster. I wonder whether this project (if it's successful) would indicate that their numbers have declined past an inflection point, where their presence and availability is no longer assumed.
- vvanders 7y ago
  I think that depends a lot on the area and local clubs, some are better than others. While this looks interesting I'm curious if they've done the numbers for Lora throughput. It's very, very low(which is also what makes it able to punch through everything). Honestly I'm surprised they're not going for a p2p directional wifi. You've got a lot more hardware to choose from(pretty much all WISP hardware) and it has much better throughput with the benefit of dedicated links. Anything that's omnidirectional is going to have to deal with collisions which is not an easy thing to do.
  - rtkwe 7y ago
    Using LoRa and going omni-directional lets you get away with less upfront setup and a sparser node coverage. Point to point requires some knowledge of node locations for bringing more areas online.
- smkellat 7y ago
  There really is not a decline in numbers, though. This seems more an attempt to make a single widget to replace needing hams. Communications in disasters is not so much a function of having the best power toys but rather the best operational doctrine. Hams have the operational doctrine and also the flexibility in terms of tools to use. If the message doesn’t get through on one frequency band, change bands. If your transmitter modulation isn’t working, switch modes all the way downward to continuous wave Morse Code if you have to. The sun has been on a multi-week streak without sunspots so High Frequency communication will take operator skill to get messages through.
- missosoup 7y ago
  This won't replace HAM radio in a disaster scenario. This might provide a long-distance digital comms capability post-disaster. Even then, LoRa throughput is so low that I don't see how it would be useful unless an entire region goes full zombie apocalypse and this network replaces... I don't know, messenger pigeons? In a long range configuration, LoRa has a theoretical max throughput of about 140bps (bits) and that's assuming only one device is transmitting and no packet loss. LoRa is built for low power, long range, low throughput sensor networks. It's not really suitable for a chatty mesh network. To get an idea of the intended use for it, take a look at LoRaWAN limits: * An average of 30 seconds uplink time on air, per day, per device. * At most 10 downlink messages per day, including the ACKs for confirmed uplinks. * A good goal is to keep the application payload under 12 bytes, and the interval between messages at least several minutes.
ShinyCyril 7y ago
Without meaning to hijack this thread: does anyone know of any volunteering opportunities deploying / maintaining communication networks for disaster relief? Ericsson Response (https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corporate-responsibility/technology-for-good/humanitarian-response/ericsson-response https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corp...) is a group doing exactly what I'm after, but seems to be internal-only.
- tlrobinson 7y ago
  In ham radio in the US there’s ARES, RACES, etc, but you’ll typically need a ham radio license (not that hard to get, though)
- themodelplumber 7y ago
  We have a good number of local hams working on mesh networking projects here in rural norcal, including exploring options for emergency use. I know of 5-7 locally and at least another 4-5 one small city over. There have been some recent test runs locally for distance and coverage. One of the goals is to set up a pan tilt camera to remotely watch for wildfires, and we are seeking Ubiquiti gear for use on the project. We'd like to link it from inland to the coast which will take some doing but is probably possible. There's a really impressive mesh network project in Washington state, one I recall in Texas, etc...we are talking hilltops and mountaintops connecting whole communities. Ham radio has served us well here during recent emergencies. After the recent 4-5 day power outage & wildfires, one of the county-coverage repeaters that didn't have backup power was set up with backup power.. Other than that even my non-ham friends were saying that listening to the ham radio frequencies was more helpful than listening to first responders via radio. Also, broadcast FM radio was really nice and there were hourly updates, calls with county officials, etc. Facebook was ridiculous because it has no idea that you are suddenly needing updates from your sheriff first, and everything else later. Cell data speeds were about ISDN level or maybe a tad faster. I accidentally made duplicate purchases on Amazon because I couldn't tell if my first purchase went through due to slow load times. On ham frequencies we had people on hilltops directly watching and monitoring the fires, calling out what they were seeing long before the fires hit the news. Anyway if you want to get into this, definitely get your ham license. Give yourself 2 weeks of study and dive in. Working with hams you'll find it much easier to get access to know-how, gear, people, etc. Even if you work independently somehow, the free education is worth it.
syedkarim 7y ago
We don't have anything to do with disaster.radio (maybe that should change), but we do have an existing single board computer that runs Linux, has a LoRa radio, and wifi. A somewhat similar product, but we use this for reception of a satellite data broadcast. https://othernet.is/products/dreamcatcher-v3-05 https://othernet.is/products/dreamcatcher-v3-05 It has the 2.4 GHz LoRa radio, the SX1281. It also has a wideband mixer and synthesizer, which allows transmission across 85 - 6000 MHz. You should be a ham in order to play with the tx-side. The SX1281 is not compatible with sub-GHz LoRa.
- syntaxing 7y ago
  Super interesting, how does it work in terms of pricing? Is the satellite data broadcast free? It's really neat how most of the US is convered. This might be a stupid question but do you need a license to use this and/or LoRa radio?
  - syedkarim 7y ago
    Yes, the broadcast is free to receive. To use the transmit outside of ISM bands, you definitely need to be a ham (and stay within ham bands).
- jcims 7y ago
  Neat little board and nice price point. This seems like it would be generally used as a client/relay for satellite transmissions? Any common applications to help me understand how it's used?
  - syedkarim 7y ago
    The primary use is for receiving our data broadcast in places that have limite/no/costly connectivity. We want to provide a basic information service that's available everywhere. Right now there is an audio stream coming down (Voice of America; it's free content), news feeds, weather updates, and the day's popular Wikipedia articles. It's a 10kbs datacast. We also act as a relay for ham packet radio (APRS). Hams can send messages that eventually get picked up by internet-connected gateways. We take APRS messages tagged with OTHER and broadcast then over the two satellite beams.
smkellat 7y ago
To an extent, I feel good that the Secure Scuttlebutt guys are behind this. A good direction to develop would be to talk to FEMA and its global counterparts. There is literature on what is needed in disaster. Instead of an insular tech-world development of such a platform having disaster response practitioner insights might be useful.
- paidforby 7y ago
  For sure, SSB is a cool community. Cel wrote demo software that allowed a disaster radio node to post messages to SSB. Check out the source on git-ssb, https://git.scuttlebot.io/%25SyAU1pa6g6yYcELjTrBG4JY41vjuP6HSvAo%2BmsrP0Sg%3D.sha256 https://git.scuttlebot.io/%25SyAU1pa6g6yYcELjTrBG4JY41vjuP6H... And agreed, once we have stable hardware and firmware, talking to local disaster response practitioners would be a great way do test deployments and get feedback on the software design and usability. I'm curious about the disaster-related literature you referenced, would love to read it.
superkuh 7y ago
Using 900 MHz means you only get line of sight which means you need height above terrain. In a disaster maybe you can get this without paying anyone any money so this might be feasible. Using HF would be better in almost all ways except size though.
- vvanders 7y ago
  900Mhz will punch through some stuff and the spread spectrum chrip Lora uses will do non-LoS[1] under some conditions. The bigger issue is to get that capability Lora is a really low bit-rate(on the order of bits-per-second) and polled instead of ad-hoc. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/lostik-usb-lora-radios/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/lostik-usb-lora-radi...
  - superkuh 7y ago
    Yeah, I heard the same thing. So now I own a bunch of 900 MHz transceivers, telemetry dongles, and equipment. I don't think it deserves the good rep it gets. It may punch to the other side of the house or do okay through some pine trees point-to-point but at the slightest hill or gentle dip it's done. It's best to treat it like a microwave link. And for a microwave link it has a pretty significant fresnel zone.
- jcims 7y ago
  I always thought it would be cool to make a little portable kit to fly an antenna/relay in case of emergency. The practical solution would probably be a parafoil, but a chemical hydrogen generator and balloon would be way more fun.
  - superkuh 7y ago
    Some way to get height above terrain is required. One of the more game changing ways I've heard about is using specially shaped TEM mode launchers with thin single wires to transmit RF power up to a hovering quadcopter to be rectified. Glenn Elmore has published some articles about these surface wave transmission lines in the amateur radio magazine QEX (mirrors at: http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/ http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/) and documented some 50w power tests on his youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/n6gnSWTL https://www.youtube.com/user/n6gnSWTL I implemented a pair of these launchers designed for my 900 MHz "wifi" setup using a ubiquiti 900 MHz tranceiver running broadband hamnet firmware. It seemed to carry the signal to the antenna as well as a similar length of RG-6 coax. http://erewhon.superkuh.com/swtl_launcher_complete.jpg http://erewhon.superkuh.com/swtl_launcher_complete.jpg It was a little fragile and the connection to the SMA connector broke on one. Some day I need to resolder it and put one end up in a tree. Glenn's 2.5d metallized paper designs look much easier to build and more robust.
cozzyd 7y ago
I was hoping this would use meteor scatter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications)
- themodelplumber 7y ago
  Might as well throw in EME as well ;-)
ngngngng 7y ago
Love this. I was just without internet for a few days last week, and as a bit of a "prepper" I couldn't help but think if long term disaster situations and what I would want to do for internet and communication in such an event. I'm actually getting a ham radio for christmas (don't tell my wife I know) and while that will fill almost every NEED for communication, it certainly leaves room for improvements. Text chat is very convenient, maps are very convenient, so I think this project is a great start.
- themodelplumber 7y ago
  If you love ham radio, text messages, and maps, boy are you going to get your money's worth out of APRS and digital modes. Haha. We have a digi-net here locally and whenever I'm able to participate I often end up just holding my phone (AndFlMsg) to my HT. Works great.
epx 7y ago
I was working on something vaguely similar to this and to LoRaHaM: https://github.com/elvis-epx/sdr/tree/master/LoRaMaDoR https://github.com/elvis-epx/sdr/tree/master/LoRaMaDoR but most hams around are stuck in 2M analog, some even find configuring a subtone too complicated, so it is difficult to work on something no one will bother to use.
walrus01 7y ago
If the people who created this are here in the thread, some questions on the power system... 1. What is your baseline calculation for Wh per day produced by the PV panel? 2. More precise specifications on the PV panel? 3. What is the calculated load in Wh per day? How much of this is dependent on data traffic level? (eg. Does it go into a sleep mode?) 4. Have you calculated this for sunlight levels in mid winter, off grid, at latitudes 48 and above? The Wh produced in a day, week or month by that size panel somewhere like North Vancouver, BC, will be really low from November to February due to short day lengths and winter weather.
- fyfy18 7y ago
  The hardware section mentions: > disaster.radio nodes are capable of functioning in most moderately sunny locations I live in Northern Europe (54N) and wanted to use an old phone as a time lapse camera in a remote location without power or internet (hence the phone rather than something like a Raspberry Pi). The battery when fully charged would last ~3 days, so I just needed a solar panel big enough to keep it topped up. I figured a 20W solar panel would be sufficient, as most phones use way less than that when charging. In my initial testing in direct sunlight this panel was barely able to keep the battery % the same, let alone charge it. I'm not sure whether I just needed or a bigger panel, or it was just the 20W solar panel I got from eBay not really being 20W. If anyone has any experience with this I'd still like to do the project :-)
  - baroffoos 7y ago
    The rating for a panel is the absolute best case where it has full direct sunlight and the panel is cold. Most of the time you will be getting less than the rated power.
  - walrus01 7y ago
    That will almost certainly need a much bigger panel. If a phone is a 3W constant load, that's 2232Wh in a month, except in summer there is no way a nominally 20W cheap PV panel will keep up with that from October to March at latitude 54. Combination of short daylight hours and overcast weather so rarely any direct sunlight. The 20W rating is at what is called standard test conditions, basically equivalent to direct sunlight in the Arizona desert. You'd probably want at least a nominal 180W panel and a basic 25 Euro PWM PV charge controller.
VectorLock 7y ago
What is the specific use case of the low bitrate long distance radio? Very basic news dissemination? FidoNet like message relay?
bullen 7y ago
I have also been thinking about a P2P radio mesh: http://radiomesh.org http://radiomesh.org I'm a bit stuck at trying to manually change frequency of the LoRa radios. It seems the standard does not allow it but the HopeRF chip I use have methods for selecting frequency and bandwidth around that frequency. If so, that would allow for a multi-frequency protocol over LoRa that could scale!
jsilence 7y ago
Maybe they should integrate it with disaster mapping software like Ushahidi (https://www.ushahidi.com https://www.ushahidi.com) instead of programming yet another chat silo.
- jsilence 7y ago
  To clarify: not meant to diss secure scuttlebutt. Integration with disaster relief software would be nice, I meant.
- paidforby 7y ago
  Never heard of ushahidi. It looks expensive. We developed a free, open source mapping app that uses MapBox vector tiles on to which you can drop pins that are then shared with neighboring nodes over the LoRa radio. Check out development here, https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio-map https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio-map it hasn't been tested on latest dev hardware and might need some work to improve the loading of map tiles.
  - jsilence 7y ago
    AFAIR Ushahidi is open source
ed_blackburn 7y ago
First thing I thought? If I can survive long enough we can still communicate in a zombie apocalypse! (Yes, I'm still persevering with The Walking Dead after 10 seasons)
- dTal 7y ago
  I am often curious what mental itch people are scratching with "zombie apocalypse" fantasies. It's clear at any rate that "zombies" are really "people it's okay to kill". It's as if people are hungering for a simpler, more brutal time where your problems are largely constrained to kill or be killed - a kind of civilization wanderlust. I do not think it is healthy.
  - ed_blackburn 7y ago
    I'm petrified of such an event. It's why I fantasise how I may survive, because I know I wouldn't!
TaylorAlexander 7y ago
Open source radio tech is great! This is the radio chip used in their hardware: https://www.semtech.com/products/wireless-rf/lora-transceivers/SX1276 https://www.semtech.com/products/wireless-rf/lora-transceive... Very similar to the CC1200 I used in a radio I designed in 2013: https://www.ti.com/product/CC1200 https://www.ti.com/product/CC1200 Low data rate networks are super interesting. The long range let’s you do things you wouldn’t do with WiFi. But what i would really like is a high bandwidth long range mesh. The issue you run in to is who owns the spectrum. In the US it’s private communications companies that buy large chunks of spectrum. I’d like to see more valuable spectrum allotted for public use. This would pave the way for free or very low cost municipal cell phone service. Unfortunately there is big money interested in making sure that doesn’t happen. And with “business friendly” people in the FCC, the idea of free communications doesn’t have much traction. This radio project looks cool. Ideally we’d have a generic 915mhz radio in our cell phones. I guess since this device also has WiFi, you could connect a phone pretty easily. Let’s beg the Librem folks to add a sub-Gigabertz radio (915/868/433MHz) to their next phone. :-D
Tepix 7y ago
That's a cool use of LoRa. I think it makes a lot of sense to have asynchronous super low-bandwidth text messages in such a scenario. You won't have time to man the radio 24/7, instead you just check if there are new messages of interest every now and then. For this use case, low power usage is essential, you want to be able to receive messages 24/7 even if there is a cloud cover for several days in a row. For even longer range it would be nice to have a certain percentage of nodes that can also communicate with HAM radio amateur satellites.
freakynit 7y ago
This is nice :) Two parts can be replaced I guess with better alternatives though: 1. Risc-v chips for esp8266. Why? Because they are built on open source standard, are cheaply available, and are generally very powerful. 2. 802.11ah for LoRa. Why? Well, lora is highly optimized towards power optimization at the expense of data transfer rate. Data rates offered by LoRa might not be suitable for anything much demanding other that IoT. 802.11ah on other hand is also optimized for power, but still can operate up to at multiple 100mbps of data rates, with range in many KM's and supporting thousands of connections per installment. This might help: https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/what-s-difference-between-ieee-80211ah-and-80211af-iot https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/what-...
- Tepix 7y ago
  ESP8266 is cheaper than RISC-V and powerful enough. It's not open source but that doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for this project. 802.11ah has only 1km range which is not enough for this purpose. LoRa is rated at more than 10km range at 292bit/s up to 50kbit/s. Also the chip used in this project costs only around $6.
- leggomylibro 7y ago
  Are there any RISC-V cores with WiFi and good software / toolchain support available for about $1 today? I wasn't aware of any, but I guess chips like those GD32Vs have been getting popular quickly...
nathancahill 7y ago
Very cool. Reminds me of goTenna Mesh, which is already deployed globally (albeit closed-source and without a power source): https://gotennamesh.com/products/mesh https://gotennamesh.com/products/mesh
nathancahill 7y ago
What is the estimated range of the antennas? Several miles with line of sight?
cjdell 7y ago
I wonder if SpaceX's StarLink (if it ever gets finished) will continue to function independently in the event of global disaster. Having equipment around that can communicate with that sounds like a good idea.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  I don't think they will, at least not in their default configuration. They do have the capability to communicate between the satellites but I'm not sure that they are setup to deliver data going strictly between two Starlink'd users without going through a ground station. There's also the problem of just keeping them up, being low flying satellites they'll need periodic boosts which are planned from the ground iirc. Both of these could be turned over to an automated system though I suppose.
paidforby 7y ago
Hey there! I am the current maintainer of the disaster radio firmware https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/ https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/ and the LoRaLayer2 routing protocol https://github.com/sudomesh/LoRaLayer2/ https://github.com/sudomesh/LoRaLayer2/ that is intended to mesh disaster radio nodes. The website doesn't include many of our latest developments, if you would like to stay in the loop, it's best to join our mailing list https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio or follow our wiki where I am posting development updates https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/wiki https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/wiki Happy to answer questions as I am capable. It's cool to see this up on the front page, thanks for all the interest!
s_m 7y ago
"powered by the sun" buddy everything is powered by the sun
Sabrees 7y ago
This software is available pre-flashed onto cheap LoRa boards now. $40 for a pair https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000396836096.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000396836096.html

318 points by tlrobinson 7y ago

I'd be really interested to see what impact this will have on the site they link to http://disasteradio.org/ http://disasteradio.org/ some tiny little band. It would be neat to see what sort of traffic spike they get after being linked from a story that made it to the front page of HN.

disasteradio 7y ago
in answer to your question: 1000 hits in ten minutes baby! that's showbiz! (someone PMed me about it already haha)
- kgwxd 7y ago
  I'm glad I came back and followed that link. I'm programming an Atari 2600 ROM right now, this is perfect background music for it!
  - disasteradio 7y ago
    yay good luck! PS I did a tune for atari 2600 cart! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y80BzcS5bKw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y80BzcS5bKw
    - kgwxd 7y ago
      That was rad as hell.
- juuul 7y ago
  Yay! I'm one of the devs on disaster.radio and we're big fans. We're actually having our weekly meeting at our hackerspace sudo room https://sudoroom.org/ https://sudoroom.org/ in Oakland, CA right now and listening to your track Drop The Bomb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0S-HOOp_VY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0S-HOOp_VY which has been something of an unofficial theme song for us!
  - disasteradio 7y ago
    omg <3 <3!! I gotta play in Oakland one day, I've never been but I have met way too many hilarious wonderful kooks living out there.. PS new disasteradio album is less about post-apocalypse and more an equal mix of solarpunk and SYNTHESIZER TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE TEMPORAL VOID
robbs 7y ago
They’re a fun artist! I’ve seen him live a few times around Wellington.

rinchik 7y ago

Disaster Radio. Does one need an FCC ham license to own/operate an endpoint? What are the frequencies? After some light poking on the website I don't see any info on that. Love the idea though. there is also this: https://www.nycmesh.net/ https://www.nycmesh.net/ , somewhat related and can be used as a back up information/communication source

teraflop 7y ago
It uses WiFi for local communications and LoRa for the mesh network, both of which operate on frequencies that don't require licensing. https://disaster.radio/learn/hardware/ https://disaster.radio/learn/hardware/
- rinchik 7y ago
  Interesting, so how is it different from similar projects, e.g nycmesh.net, I mentioned above? Is it a promo for the custom hardware design initiative? hardware that's more modular, cheaper, focused than traditional brands?
  - tlrobinson 7y ago
    NYC Mesh and similar networks use point-to-point relatively high bandwidth links (e.x. Ubiquiti radios commonly used by WISPs) Disaster.radio uses LoRa which is very low bandwidth and typically omnidirectional antennas. It only uses WiFi to connect users’ “terminal” devices to the node within a short range.
    - juuul 7y ago
      Yes! To expand on this a bit, disaster.radio locally hosts web apps, e.g. a vector tile map of the local area, and serves them up over WiFi to local devices with a reasonable bandwidth, then uses the very low bandwidth of LoRa to share points on the map added by users over long distances (e.g. where you can get water, food, etc). disaster.radio is not a replacement to a existing internet infrastructure like NYC Mesh. Setting up a high bandwidth mesh network is a lot of work. Each node needs a non-trivial amount of power (enough to make solar hard) and nodes generally need line of sight which requires good mounting locations and planning. We, the creators of disaster.radio, actually also run a small wifi-based mesh network https://peoplesopen.net/ https://peoplesopen.net/ and the idea for disaster.radio came out of frustration with difficulty of mounting wifi nodes (finding interested people in good locations, then negotiating with landlords for permission to mount on rooftops and running ethernet cable for PoE into building, then finding another location within line of sight and repeating the process). We thought: What if we could make a "mesh throwie" where installation was as easy as throwing it on a roof (and maybe strapping it to something).

ummonk 7y ago

How well would these hold up after a solar storm or EMP?

rinchik 7y ago
was my first thought as well, but after watching the video it looks like it's something you can quickly setup AFTER the incident. To deal with the aftermath I guess?..
- pps43 7y ago
  After the EMP you don't set up mesh network. Instead you start moving perpendicular to wind direction, away from the epicenter, to avoid the fallout.
  - rinchik 7y ago
    yeah, but you can't be moving forever. When you stop and setup a base, you will need something more than a basic walkie-talkie, right?
  - ShorsHammer 7y ago
    EMP's have numerous causes besides nuclear bombs, perhaps "After the blast" is more appropriate here.
  - madengr 7y ago
    You wouldn’t get much fallout from EMP. It has to be an upper atmosphere detonation to get the EMP.
  - ummonk 7y ago
    It's probably a better idea to shelter in place for a week, with windows closed and a hepa filter installed.
  - Johnny555 7y ago
    An EMP pulse weapon would be detonated hundreds of miles about the ground, how do you figure out the wind direction where that device was detonated after the internet, commercial radio stations, etc have all been knocked offline (assuming your personal electronics survived)

wilg 7y ago

This is awesome! Super smart set of basic apps, and having it just be a normal WiFi hotspot is great. I could see it actually being quite usable in a disaster scenario. Kickstarter the hardware for like $100 and I bet it would do really well. I'd buy one right now. Or let me donate! Looks like there's an "app store". Curious how that works. I assume that would be a major bandwidth/tragedy of the commons issue, but perhaps there's some way to have a higher QoS channel for the critical apps.

bulutzuku 7y ago

Hey, nice project. Can you comment or point me what hardware do I need to buy to get my own node? If there are too many options maybe put a hardware matrix?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
juuul 7y ago
Hi. Thanks! Some of our contributors have added support for some of the off-the-shelf TTGO ESP32 + LoRa boards but I'm not sure we're ready to call it stable. I'll ping them to come here and answer your question. The previous ESP8266-based solution was just a bit under-powered for serving up the vector tile maps and we're not supporting that anymore. We're also about to finalize some new custom boards with ESP32 and two LoRa modules (meshing on a single channel kinda sucks) and will make an announcement on our site as soon as that's ready to try out.
paidforby 7y ago
Thanks! I am the current maintainer of the firmware, juul is correct. I am actively developing with the LILYGO TTGO ESP32 dev board. If you are interested in development then you can buy one from aliexpress, if you are looking for a finished product, then you should wait for us to finish the next iteration of our custom board. Here's board that is currently supported thttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/32915894264.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.671054bdhI1Hix&algo_pvid=aec249fc-c80a-4c81-8220-334dc9f635b1&algo_expid=aec249fc-c80a-4c81-8220-334dc9f635b1-0&btsid=6d976d5a-e661-47f6-b371-7f0bc42c5336&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_7,searchweb201603_55 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32915894264.html?spm=a2g0o.p...

TimTheTinker 7y ago

Ham radio (or amateur radio) operators have historically filled this role - providing essential communications in the event of a disaster. I wonder whether this project (if it's successful) would indicate that their numbers have declined past an inflection point, where their presence and availability is no longer assumed.

vvanders 7y ago
I think that depends a lot on the area and local clubs, some are better than others. While this looks interesting I'm curious if they've done the numbers for Lora throughput. It's very, very low(which is also what makes it able to punch through everything). Honestly I'm surprised they're not going for a p2p directional wifi. You've got a lot more hardware to choose from(pretty much all WISP hardware) and it has much better throughput with the benefit of dedicated links. Anything that's omnidirectional is going to have to deal with collisions which is not an easy thing to do.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  Using LoRa and going omni-directional lets you get away with less upfront setup and a sparser node coverage. Point to point requires some knowledge of node locations for bringing more areas online.
smkellat 7y ago
There really is not a decline in numbers, though. This seems more an attempt to make a single widget to replace needing hams. Communications in disasters is not so much a function of having the best power toys but rather the best operational doctrine. Hams have the operational doctrine and also the flexibility in terms of tools to use. If the message doesn’t get through on one frequency band, change bands. If your transmitter modulation isn’t working, switch modes all the way downward to continuous wave Morse Code if you have to. The sun has been on a multi-week streak without sunspots so High Frequency communication will take operator skill to get messages through.
missosoup 7y ago
This won't replace HAM radio in a disaster scenario. This might provide a long-distance digital comms capability post-disaster. Even then, LoRa throughput is so low that I don't see how it would be useful unless an entire region goes full zombie apocalypse and this network replaces... I don't know, messenger pigeons? In a long range configuration, LoRa has a theoretical max throughput of about 140bps (bits) and that's assuming only one device is transmitting and no packet loss. LoRa is built for low power, long range, low throughput sensor networks. It's not really suitable for a chatty mesh network. To get an idea of the intended use for it, take a look at LoRaWAN limits: * An average of 30 seconds uplink time on air, per day, per device. * At most 10 downlink messages per day, including the ACKs for confirmed uplinks. * A good goal is to keep the application payload under 12 bytes, and the interval between messages at least several minutes.

ShinyCyril 7y ago

Without meaning to hijack this thread: does anyone know of any volunteering opportunities deploying / maintaining communication networks for disaster relief? Ericsson Response (https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corporate-responsibility/technology-for-good/humanitarian-response/ericsson-response https://www.ericsson.com/en/about-us/sustainability-and-corp...) is a group doing exactly what I'm after, but seems to be internal-only.

tlrobinson 7y ago
In ham radio in the US there’s ARES, RACES, etc, but you’ll typically need a ham radio license (not that hard to get, though)
themodelplumber 7y ago
We have a good number of local hams working on mesh networking projects here in rural norcal, including exploring options for emergency use. I know of 5-7 locally and at least another 4-5 one small city over. There have been some recent test runs locally for distance and coverage. One of the goals is to set up a pan tilt camera to remotely watch for wildfires, and we are seeking Ubiquiti gear for use on the project. We'd like to link it from inland to the coast which will take some doing but is probably possible. There's a really impressive mesh network project in Washington state, one I recall in Texas, etc...we are talking hilltops and mountaintops connecting whole communities. Ham radio has served us well here during recent emergencies. After the recent 4-5 day power outage & wildfires, one of the county-coverage repeaters that didn't have backup power was set up with backup power.. Other than that even my non-ham friends were saying that listening to the ham radio frequencies was more helpful than listening to first responders via radio. Also, broadcast FM radio was really nice and there were hourly updates, calls with county officials, etc. Facebook was ridiculous because it has no idea that you are suddenly needing updates from your sheriff first, and everything else later. Cell data speeds were about ISDN level or maybe a tad faster. I accidentally made duplicate purchases on Amazon because I couldn't tell if my first purchase went through due to slow load times. On ham frequencies we had people on hilltops directly watching and monitoring the fires, calling out what they were seeing long before the fires hit the news. Anyway if you want to get into this, definitely get your ham license. Give yourself 2 weeks of study and dive in. Working with hams you'll find it much easier to get access to know-how, gear, people, etc. Even if you work independently somehow, the free education is worth it.

syedkarim 7y ago

We don't have anything to do with disaster.radio (maybe that should change), but we do have an existing single board computer that runs Linux, has a LoRa radio, and wifi. A somewhat similar product, but we use this for reception of a satellite data broadcast. https://othernet.is/products/dreamcatcher-v3-05 https://othernet.is/products/dreamcatcher-v3-05 It has the 2.4 GHz LoRa radio, the SX1281. It also has a wideband mixer and synthesizer, which allows transmission across 85 - 6000 MHz. You should be a ham in order to play with the tx-side. The SX1281 is not compatible with sub-GHz LoRa.

syntaxing 7y ago
Super interesting, how does it work in terms of pricing? Is the satellite data broadcast free? It's really neat how most of the US is convered. This might be a stupid question but do you need a license to use this and/or LoRa radio?
- syedkarim 7y ago
  Yes, the broadcast is free to receive. To use the transmit outside of ISM bands, you definitely need to be a ham (and stay within ham bands).
jcims 7y ago
Neat little board and nice price point. This seems like it would be generally used as a client/relay for satellite transmissions? Any common applications to help me understand how it's used?
- syedkarim 7y ago
  The primary use is for receiving our data broadcast in places that have limite/no/costly connectivity. We want to provide a basic information service that's available everywhere. Right now there is an audio stream coming down (Voice of America; it's free content), news feeds, weather updates, and the day's popular Wikipedia articles. It's a 10kbs datacast. We also act as a relay for ham packet radio (APRS). Hams can send messages that eventually get picked up by internet-connected gateways. We take APRS messages tagged with OTHER and broadcast then over the two satellite beams.

smkellat 7y ago

To an extent, I feel good that the Secure Scuttlebutt guys are behind this. A good direction to develop would be to talk to FEMA and its global counterparts. There is literature on what is needed in disaster. Instead of an insular tech-world development of such a platform having disaster response practitioner insights might be useful.

paidforby 7y ago
For sure, SSB is a cool community. Cel wrote demo software that allowed a disaster radio node to post messages to SSB. Check out the source on git-ssb, https://git.scuttlebot.io/%25SyAU1pa6g6yYcELjTrBG4JY41vjuP6HSvAo%2BmsrP0Sg%3D.sha256 https://git.scuttlebot.io/%25SyAU1pa6g6yYcELjTrBG4JY41vjuP6H... And agreed, once we have stable hardware and firmware, talking to local disaster response practitioners would be a great way do test deployments and get feedback on the software design and usability. I'm curious about the disaster-related literature you referenced, would love to read it.

superkuh 7y ago

Using 900 MHz means you only get line of sight which means you need height above terrain. In a disaster maybe you can get this without paying anyone any money so this might be feasible. Using HF would be better in almost all ways except size though.

vvanders 7y ago
900Mhz will punch through some stuff and the spread spectrum chrip Lora uses will do non-LoS[1] under some conditions. The bigger issue is to get that capability Lora is a really low bit-rate(on the order of bits-per-second) and polled instead of ad-hoc. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/lostik-usb-lora-radios/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/lostik-usb-lora-radi...
- superkuh 7y ago
  Yeah, I heard the same thing. So now I own a bunch of 900 MHz transceivers, telemetry dongles, and equipment. I don't think it deserves the good rep it gets. It may punch to the other side of the house or do okay through some pine trees point-to-point but at the slightest hill or gentle dip it's done. It's best to treat it like a microwave link. And for a microwave link it has a pretty significant fresnel zone.
jcims 7y ago
I always thought it would be cool to make a little portable kit to fly an antenna/relay in case of emergency. The practical solution would probably be a parafoil, but a chemical hydrogen generator and balloon would be way more fun.
- superkuh 7y ago
  Some way to get height above terrain is required. One of the more game changing ways I've heard about is using specially shaped TEM mode launchers with thin single wires to transmit RF power up to a hovering quadcopter to be rectified. Glenn Elmore has published some articles about these surface wave transmission lines in the amateur radio magazine QEX (mirrors at: http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/ http://www.sonic.net/~n6gn/) and documented some 50w power tests on his youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/n6gnSWTL https://www.youtube.com/user/n6gnSWTL I implemented a pair of these launchers designed for my 900 MHz "wifi" setup using a ubiquiti 900 MHz tranceiver running broadband hamnet firmware. It seemed to carry the signal to the antenna as well as a similar length of RG-6 coax. http://erewhon.superkuh.com/swtl_launcher_complete.jpg http://erewhon.superkuh.com/swtl_launcher_complete.jpg It was a little fragile and the connection to the SMA connector broke on one. Some day I need to resolder it and put one end up in a tree. Glenn's 2.5d metallized paper designs look much easier to build and more robust.

cozzyd 7y ago

I was hoping this would use meteor scatter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications)

themodelplumber 7y ago
Might as well throw in EME as well ;-)

ngngngng 7y ago

Love this. I was just without internet for a few days last week, and as a bit of a "prepper" I couldn't help but think if long term disaster situations and what I would want to do for internet and communication in such an event. I'm actually getting a ham radio for christmas (don't tell my wife I know) and while that will fill almost every NEED for communication, it certainly leaves room for improvements. Text chat is very convenient, maps are very convenient, so I think this project is a great start.

themodelplumber 7y ago
If you love ham radio, text messages, and maps, boy are you going to get your money's worth out of APRS and digital modes. Haha. We have a digi-net here locally and whenever I'm able to participate I often end up just holding my phone (AndFlMsg) to my HT. Works great.

epx 7y ago

I was working on something vaguely similar to this and to LoRaHaM: https://github.com/elvis-epx/sdr/tree/master/LoRaMaDoR https://github.com/elvis-epx/sdr/tree/master/LoRaMaDoR but most hams around are stuck in 2M analog, some even find configuring a subtone too complicated, so it is difficult to work on something no one will bother to use.

walrus01 7y ago

If the people who created this are here in the thread, some questions on the power system... 1. What is your baseline calculation for Wh per day produced by the PV panel? 2. More precise specifications on the PV panel? 3. What is the calculated load in Wh per day? How much of this is dependent on data traffic level? (eg. Does it go into a sleep mode?) 4. Have you calculated this for sunlight levels in mid winter, off grid, at latitudes 48 and above? The Wh produced in a day, week or month by that size panel somewhere like North Vancouver, BC, will be really low from November to February due to short day lengths and winter weather.

fyfy18 7y ago
The hardware section mentions: > disaster.radio nodes are capable of functioning in most moderately sunny locations I live in Northern Europe (54N) and wanted to use an old phone as a time lapse camera in a remote location without power or internet (hence the phone rather than something like a Raspberry Pi). The battery when fully charged would last ~3 days, so I just needed a solar panel big enough to keep it topped up. I figured a 20W solar panel would be sufficient, as most phones use way less than that when charging. In my initial testing in direct sunlight this panel was barely able to keep the battery % the same, let alone charge it. I'm not sure whether I just needed or a bigger panel, or it was just the 20W solar panel I got from eBay not really being 20W. If anyone has any experience with this I'd still like to do the project :-)
- baroffoos 7y ago
  The rating for a panel is the absolute best case where it has full direct sunlight and the panel is cold. Most of the time you will be getting less than the rated power.
- walrus01 7y ago
  That will almost certainly need a much bigger panel. If a phone is a 3W constant load, that's 2232Wh in a month, except in summer there is no way a nominally 20W cheap PV panel will keep up with that from October to March at latitude 54. Combination of short daylight hours and overcast weather so rarely any direct sunlight. The 20W rating is at what is called standard test conditions, basically equivalent to direct sunlight in the Arizona desert. You'd probably want at least a nominal 180W panel and a basic 25 Euro PWM PV charge controller.

VectorLock 7y ago

What is the specific use case of the low bitrate long distance radio? Very basic news dissemination? FidoNet like message relay?

bullen 7y ago

I have also been thinking about a P2P radio mesh: http://radiomesh.org http://radiomesh.org I'm a bit stuck at trying to manually change frequency of the LoRa radios. It seems the standard does not allow it but the HopeRF chip I use have methods for selecting frequency and bandwidth around that frequency. If so, that would allow for a multi-frequency protocol over LoRa that could scale!

jsilence 7y ago

Maybe they should integrate it with disaster mapping software like Ushahidi (https://www.ushahidi.com https://www.ushahidi.com) instead of programming yet another chat silo.

jsilence 7y ago
To clarify: not meant to diss secure scuttlebutt. Integration with disaster relief software would be nice, I meant.
paidforby 7y ago
Never heard of ushahidi. It looks expensive. We developed a free, open source mapping app that uses MapBox vector tiles on to which you can drop pins that are then shared with neighboring nodes over the LoRa radio. Check out development here, https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio-map https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio-map it hasn't been tested on latest dev hardware and might need some work to improve the loading of map tiles.
- jsilence 7y ago
  AFAIR Ushahidi is open source

ed_blackburn 7y ago

First thing I thought? If I can survive long enough we can still communicate in a zombie apocalypse! (Yes, I'm still persevering with The Walking Dead after 10 seasons)

dTal 7y ago
I am often curious what mental itch people are scratching with "zombie apocalypse" fantasies. It's clear at any rate that "zombies" are really "people it's okay to kill". It's as if people are hungering for a simpler, more brutal time where your problems are largely constrained to kill or be killed - a kind of civilization wanderlust. I do not think it is healthy.
- ed_blackburn 7y ago
  I'm petrified of such an event. It's why I fantasise how I may survive, because I know I wouldn't!

TaylorAlexander 7y ago

Open source radio tech is great! This is the radio chip used in their hardware: https://www.semtech.com/products/wireless-rf/lora-transceivers/SX1276 https://www.semtech.com/products/wireless-rf/lora-transceive... Very similar to the CC1200 I used in a radio I designed in 2013: https://www.ti.com/product/CC1200 https://www.ti.com/product/CC1200 Low data rate networks are super interesting. The long range let’s you do things you wouldn’t do with WiFi. But what i would really like is a high bandwidth long range mesh. The issue you run in to is who owns the spectrum. In the US it’s private communications companies that buy large chunks of spectrum. I’d like to see more valuable spectrum allotted for public use. This would pave the way for free or very low cost municipal cell phone service. Unfortunately there is big money interested in making sure that doesn’t happen. And with “business friendly” people in the FCC, the idea of free communications doesn’t have much traction. This radio project looks cool. Ideally we’d have a generic 915mhz radio in our cell phones. I guess since this device also has WiFi, you could connect a phone pretty easily. Let’s beg the Librem folks to add a sub-Gigabertz radio (915/868/433MHz) to their next phone. :-D

Tepix 7y ago

That's a cool use of LoRa. I think it makes a lot of sense to have asynchronous super low-bandwidth text messages in such a scenario. You won't have time to man the radio 24/7, instead you just check if there are new messages of interest every now and then. For this use case, low power usage is essential, you want to be able to receive messages 24/7 even if there is a cloud cover for several days in a row. For even longer range it would be nice to have a certain percentage of nodes that can also communicate with HAM radio amateur satellites.

freakynit 7y ago

This is nice :) Two parts can be replaced I guess with better alternatives though: 1. Risc-v chips for esp8266. Why? Because they are built on open source standard, are cheaply available, and are generally very powerful. 2. 802.11ah for LoRa. Why? Well, lora is highly optimized towards power optimization at the expense of data transfer rate. Data rates offered by LoRa might not be suitable for anything much demanding other that IoT. 802.11ah on other hand is also optimized for power, but still can operate up to at multiple 100mbps of data rates, with range in many KM's and supporting thousands of connections per installment. This might help: https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/what-s-difference-between-ieee-80211ah-and-80211af-iot https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/what-...

Tepix 7y ago
ESP8266 is cheaper than RISC-V and powerful enough. It's not open source but that doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for this project. 802.11ah has only 1km range which is not enough for this purpose. LoRa is rated at more than 10km range at 292bit/s up to 50kbit/s. Also the chip used in this project costs only around $6.
leggomylibro 7y ago
Are there any RISC-V cores with WiFi and good software / toolchain support available for about $1 today? I wasn't aware of any, but I guess chips like those GD32Vs have been getting popular quickly...

nathancahill 7y ago

Very cool. Reminds me of goTenna Mesh, which is already deployed globally (albeit closed-source and without a power source): https://gotennamesh.com/products/mesh https://gotennamesh.com/products/mesh

nathancahill 7y ago

What is the estimated range of the antennas? Several miles with line of sight?

cjdell 7y ago

I wonder if SpaceX's StarLink (if it ever gets finished) will continue to function independently in the event of global disaster. Having equipment around that can communicate with that sounds like a good idea.

rtkwe 7y ago
I don't think they will, at least not in their default configuration. They do have the capability to communicate between the satellites but I'm not sure that they are setup to deliver data going strictly between two Starlink'd users without going through a ground station. There's also the problem of just keeping them up, being low flying satellites they'll need periodic boosts which are planned from the ground iirc. Both of these could be turned over to an automated system though I suppose.

paidforby 7y ago

Hey there! I am the current maintainer of the disaster radio firmware https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/ https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/ and the LoRaLayer2 routing protocol https://github.com/sudomesh/LoRaLayer2/ https://github.com/sudomesh/LoRaLayer2/ that is intended to mesh disaster radio nodes. The website doesn't include many of our latest developments, if you would like to stay in the loop, it's best to join our mailing list https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio or follow our wiki where I am posting development updates https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/wiki https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/wiki Happy to answer questions as I am capable. It's cool to see this up on the front page, thanks for all the interest!

s_m 7y ago

"powered by the sun" buddy everything is powered by the sun

Sabrees 7y ago

This software is available pre-flashed onto cheap LoRa boards now. $40 for a pair https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000396836096.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000396836096.html