It occurred to me to ask if anyone has investigated tablets and phones, those running Android in particular, for use as nodes. The advantage is having an all-in-one node and display with its own battery.
Clearly, the wi-fi radio would have to have the range to access the ham frequencies and someone would have to be able to program the OS.
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Tablets and phones
Tue, 01/19/2021 - 03:09
#1
wb0gag
Tablets and phones
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AREDN develop branch [is] porting on top of OpenWRT 19.07.0.
So, a prerequisite is that the tablet or phone is in the table of hardware of OpenWRT 19.07.0.
https://openwrt.org/toh/start
Are there any tablets or phones in the 'table of hardware'?
It may be much more practical to reprogram a Wi-Fi router to be an AREDN node,
than to program a Wi-Fi client only device to be a Wi-Fi router, AREDN or other.
Anyhow, look to the table of hardware first.
;-)
Chuck
The GL-iNet GL-USB150 can be used with a simple USB-A adapter cable on iPhone & Android. It allows any tablet/phone to act as a mesh node via it's AREDN proxy USB150. This is the simplest way to use a phone/tablet in a stand-alone situation to enter a 2.4GHz AREDN network. It's pretty easy to use:
1. First put your phone in airplane mode.
2. Once the USB150 is connected to your smartphone's USB/Lightning port you will see the <...> symbol pop onto the top bar of your phone
* Certain Android phones can't do Ethernet over USB, but almost all with a USB-C port are capable, you just need to search the Internet for how to enable 'USB-C Ethernet Tethering' for your particular phone/tablet model.
3. Open a browser and go to: http://localnode.local.mesh
4. You can turn "Airplane Mode" off and put your phone back on WiFi/Cellular network and use them both with AREDN if your network settings are correct.
5. Rock and roll on AREDN at will.
6. Add external clip-on Yagi or parabolic dish and USB extender cables for higher gain.
-Damon K9CQB
To add the 'Clip on WiFi Yagi you can purchase it from Amazon:
REMO WiFiDirect BAS-2002 WiFi "LADDER"
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY87USX/
Then you have to modify/cut the antenna clip and add tape as a spacer to center the Inverted-F antenna (that is located on the end of the USB150's PCB) in the 'fed-element' area of the clip-on yagi.
The external parabolic is an old trick that many folks have used to extend/directionalize the range of their WiFi USB dongles. They use a USB extension cable and place the 'antenna area' of the WiFi USB dongle at the end of the offset arm of an offset parabolic dish (like DirecTV dish) or a direct arm of a grid parabolic dish.
Both of these techniques should use a spare 2.4GHz AREDN node in 'Pointing Mode' to adjust their antennas for optimum signal.
I will send photos soon of the modifications to the USB150 PCB antenna itself to add an external RP-SMA connector to it for use with real external antennas.
-Damon K9CQB