Off-Grid Digipeater Build Intro
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- āđāļāļĒāđāļāļĢāđāđāļĄāļ·āđāļ 3 āđāļĄ.āļĒ. 2024
- We're redoing our off-grid solar powered digipeater and decided to do a video this time around so you can follow along with us and build one of your own. I know a lot of my new subscribers are interested in Meshtastic, so I explain what it is in a way someone familiar with Meshtastic will understand.
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I def found you with all your meshtastic videos, but I'm also a ham, so looking forward to this series as well. Keep up the good work.
Glad you're looking forward to this series as well! I'll keep the videos coming!
I think the big advantage to APRS over Mesh is (for now) wide adoption and implementation. Since APRS has been around since the 80's, there is near nationwide coverage with Digis and Igates.
I think Meshtastic has the potential of getting to this level of coverage faster since it has a lower cost of entry, both in licensing and equipment costs. We just need to get people to put up nodes and leave them up and not take them down or get frustrated because there is not traffic now. It has to be understood that the network needs to be built be the early adopters before the network users will come. But build it...and they will come!
All very good points!
Meshtastic has the added benefit of being encrypted, which is illegal for amateur radio (but shouldn't be).
I appreciate that you explain the terminology as you use it. I jump in an out of the ham hobby over the years and don't always remember what I learned last time around.
I know the feeling!
I am underutilizing the digital side of my license and looking forward to this series.
Nice video , God bless.
Glad you are giving some attention to APRS! Can't wait for the rest of the series. I've been interested in doing this myself so I will follow along.
Gotta give Packet/APRS some love!
Being a former amateur radio operator who forgot to update his licence I appreciate the packet and APRS content good to know that packet radio still exists in the world as APRS took over the scene a long time ago. I am not even sure if the national system here in new Zealand has packet on it after middle night like it did 25 years ago. Thanks for the info update on Kenwood having packet built in, that's cool
Still alive! I'm looking to make more packet radio/APRS content and hopefully get more people interested in it!
digirig is working on a small physical usb type a plug-in form factor, serving as a general usb sound card for tnc operations. that way all you need is one audio cable to interface with your radio. hopefully we should see it in the coming months.
Saw that! I'll probably use it in the build whenever it becomes available!
Thanks ð
Sure thing!
I wish Icom would include a TNC into the ID-52, I would buy one in a heartbeat. I just can't justify the price they are asking for no TNC. The D75 is more but it has everything! The ID-52 is a beautiful radio though!
They're both great radios indeed, but I'll admit I rarely touch the ID-52 since getting the D75. Such a great radio with many capabilities.
Pi 3B+ are available still as well. They do not get hot just warm.
In addition I think they are the best to use for Allstar Nodes
Nice idea, i would just use RPi sound output and GPIO for PTT, lowers cost and complexity even more.
Good idea but I believe it won't work in this case as we need audio input as well for TX. Wish the onboard sound card did both.
@@The_Comms_Channel Ah, yes sorry, i see now. It is Audio out + Video out jack, not Audio I+O jack.
Nice
Thank you for the support!!
i think you should be able to do the same with an old cellphone. it would end up costing WAY less. no need for a rasp, TNC, digirig, router.... the cellphone can do it all and even has the capability to net connect with either wifi or cell.
I have other plans for the Raspberry Pi that we'll get into in later videos
Cool build, can I get a parts list please? I want to build something similar and would like your solar details if you can share them.
I'll put that together and include it in the next video!
Why not just use a hg-uv98 HT which can function as a digipeater all by itself. Then pipe some power solar into it, may hack its battery to make it bigger. Cheap, easy.
Most Chinese radios are hot garbage and the receiver overloads when having a large antenna hooked up to them. Also, that radio isn't a true digipeater. It only does APRS and we need a TNC that does true packet radio. We also have more complex plans that a radio with a digipeater can handle. Otherwise, we would be using the Kenwood TH-D72.
Interesting radio though and didn't realize it did KISS over Bluetooth. A shame it's APRS only.
Or for the easiest turnkey digi get a n7500 and old android phone...if you provide internet you have an igate. Less than $200 and no tnc's or cables to mess with.
I run one as an igate and another in the vehicle as a digi when on foot in the mtns.
I've been wanting to play around with the n7500. I'll have to check it out. I have some stuff that requires software/scripts on the raspberry pi for my plans
Change the router to a Teltonika router
I'll check them out.
You are so anti hardware TNC. Have you ever owned one or more? There is a reason Kantronics is still around today. They work VERY well.
I have nothing against hardware TNCs. I have a few and even go over soldering one in my earlier videos.
and small beacons etc can do software TNC too, on freaking microcontroller which is already there anyway. Look up this project - ATmega-TNC. An ATmega8 based UI TNC.
took me 5 seconds to find exactly what i was saying in previous comment, so either it is confirmation bias or HW TNCs are scam, you choose. It uses ATMEGA8, JFC !
I ran software TNC on Pentium 4 so there is absolutely no reason to buy HW TNC today. it is scam. You nee computer to send data anyway, so why not use same computer for virtual tnc ? Because HW TNCs are scam thats why. Were 20 years ago, they are today. Welcome to SDR age which started 20 years ago.
as a electronics project to help people understand how things work/worked np, as a product IT IS scam.
And having HW TNC limits what can be sent to and from radio. But by having software modem, you can change (digi)mode just by pressing a button.
for gods sake dont build anything he makes a tutorial video about, he gets pissed
You spelled âhe rightfully calls you out when you steal his design, donât credit his content, and try to profit off his work at $300 per deviceâ wrong.
I fixed it for you. ð