While drilling the holes is certainly and option, I think we’re looking for a solution that would result in far less @Danielle_Naven or myself wielding power tools in our new beautiful office. But don’t tempt me with a good time.
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See the weather ready relay node discussion. I’m using the Pelican 1060 box which houses everything without drilling a hole. Including Mesh, Nexus 6 phone and a solar battery pack 24,000 mAh. Up and running for 3 days now in my test environment in the backyard. Have had rain for the past two days and no water in the box.
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Thanks everyone for the feedback, I’m going to look into some of these options.
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We are interested in the use of the go tenna mesh for emergency preparedness, and wold be interested in nay information on outdoor use of the devices. We are currently working on getting antenna height by using telescoping flag poles with automobile wheel mounts, and drone. this is a new area for us. You can see some our STEM/STEAM videos at youtube channel mecatx… We are teaching the 3, 3, 3, radio plan to our mentored students and boy scouts. Thanks for what you are doing to help society.
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Hi @dan, what area are you in? Your programs sound interesting.
I have a son and I’m thinking he might find radio operations interesting. I’m also hoping to building a mesh network for emergencies.
hi my name is marie I m from Peru I just bought gotenna mesh but I don t really know which are all his advantages maybe you can help me
We are in Central Texas and welcome young students interested in STEM subjects. We will probably be demonstrating some of this in Oct. for the Boy scouts JOTA and JOTI.
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Finally replaced my 3D printer that went up in smoke.
Anyway, here’s the completed rail mount and fin for the Gotenna Mesh.
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So here’s a thought… all of the above designs seem to focus on a ‘cradle’ for the goTenna, in its original casing. What I haven’t seen yet, is a design that uses the snaps on the goTenna casing to secure it in place, ala “twist-lock” style, or other attachments.
Using the snaps would not only create a good, secure connection, but would also allow the bulk of the housing to remain exposed. Less material == less interference to increase the gain and signal of the device.
Thoughts?
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I like the idea, having already done my share of hacks that seek to cradle and protect the device. However, particularly for automotive applications, the switch cover isn’t really watertight enough IMO to leave exposed. If you do that, might as well enclose it anyway, because getting a good seal above or below the jack to keep from leaving it exposed will be difficult.
And that brings up another point. You actually want the USB cord attached in some cases. I use mine to supply continuous power up to the node enclosure so I have a stationary relay in operation at all times. It’s just easier to enclose the whole thing to start, then figure out a running total seal later.
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This isn’t specifically related to 3D printed mounts but i came across a very interesting way of deploying the gotennas.
This type of solution would allow you to field deploy a gotenna a few metres up in the air and have the pole roll up nicely for storage.
I’m not sure how easy it would be to get a hold of these as civilians (or how affordable they would be) but i’m thinking this is the ultimate way for a mobile deployment solution.
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This is so cool! And very interesting for our rooftop stationary nodes we are going to deploy to 100+ small businesses who are participating in a Superstorm Sandy program we have with the city.
Curious to see if anyone has used a particular type of pole to help mount their goTenna Mesh device? Trying to strategically think how we could get these devices up as high as possible on these roofs.
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This is a great, portable idea to get a higher mast for temporary better reception in lower-lying areas.
You probably won’t get 100 feet up before the wind and mass will cause the fabric to “kink” and fold over (like those air-fed blowing/waving characters in front of car dealerships), but you might get a good 20-30 feet up, which could just be enough to get your message out, or receive others in a pinch!
If there were strategic buckles or hook-and-loop fasteners every meter or so, it could keep the shape as you added length to the mast, which could add to some durability. Slightly corrugated might even hold the shape better at greater heights, as would overlapping the edges as you extend it.
Interesting idea!
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This just gave me another idea… if you had another stable pole already in place, telephone pole, flagpole or other object, you could affix your GTM to the end of the wrap, ‘snap’ it around the existing pole and slide it up the pole to give your GTM tx/rx height, instead of trying to make a freestanding pole with the wrap itself.
It would wrap partially around the pole enough to give it rigidity, and you could shimmey your GTM to the top, without fear of having your wrap fold over or fall.
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we are testing a 30 foot telescoping flag pole that is light weight. We have a mount that goes under the tire of an automobile.or a heavy umbrella mount can be used. ( for temporary use )
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I concede that I am more of a mechanical/electrical engineer than an RF one, so could one of you guys give me a hand. I am looking to design a 3d printed parabolic reflector with a similar attachment scheme as my previous designs for the goTenna mesh. I can calculate easily enough the correct focal point, I am just wondering what the ideal location/tolerance to place the gotenna. I am not willing to take apart my units so if someone could give me the exact location of the radiating element within the case, that would be great.
I will of course post this all on thingiverse when I am finished.
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Here’s a pic of the undressed GTM. The ISM antenna is at the top of the case, taking up about 25% of the total length of the board or 7/8" out of 3.75".
The Bluetooth antenna is in the lower half of the case, but I think irrelevant to this?
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This is exactly what I am looking for! Thank you!!
Amateur radio folks doing “SOTA” activities (basically climbing up a mountain and tossing an antenna up to see who one can contact) often use lightweight telescoping fishing poles, like this one on Amazon… https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FFQOSW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They are very lightweight, so good for transport to temporary GTM installations. The downside is that they are very thin at the top and thus will wobble quite a lot. I’m not sure if that would be a real problem or not. But these things are pretty inexpensive.
This is awesome!
Hope to get a 3-D printer soon and this will be one of my first projects.
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