Urbana, Illinois, Now a goTenna Mesh Ambassador City!

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It’s been a couple of weeks, but am pretty much over that gall bladder thing. Had a chance to check things briefly today and found that UMESH 2 was down again. Still scratching my head on this one and will keep a closer eye on it.We also have a lead on a relatively nearby 2-story house in order to carry on with recent efforts to double-up nodes a few blocks from each other to improve redundancy and provide alternative signal paths.

The solar panels for the next group of nodes arrived in New York last Sunday. Eventually, the PO will find an oxcart to get them here…

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Some updates on UMESH…

The 5 new solar panels arrived yesterday. They have a new and possibly annoying “feature” - a tiny alarm starts up from the output box on the back when the output falls below a certain level. It’s not loud, but I hope people find that it goes on all night up on their roof or that it sucks power somehow. The panles that arrived also did not bear the CE certification stamp that was on the first group. Seems to be all OK, but i do value the reassurance the certification provided.

I finally got a chance to do some more extensive survey work and was pleasantly surprised at how much recent additions, specifically UMESH 14, helped with extending coverage on the east side of Urbana. 14 is situated 2 stories up on a relatively high location. The new map shows the coverage out to Cottonwood Road, but I suspect it continues east of there. Total coverage with 14 nodes in place is about 14 square miles.

UMESH Coverage October 2019

https://drive.google.com/open?id=17xVkrhd14quoXqiQPBcPZebh5vPo7vF2&usp=sharing

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I had the chance to do more survey work at the south end of town this week. I’ve updated the most recent coverage map to add another 4 square miles of mesh, for a total of 18 square miles of mesh.

Updated UMESH Coverage mid-October 2019

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What size solar/ battery have you standardised on?

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We use solar panels that are at least 6 watts, but preferably 10 watts. The battery packs are 8,000 mAh.

That said, you may still need to do a lot of climbing, depending on snowfall and short days coinciding at around 40. North latitude or farther north. If you get snow when the batteries are low, you may face a power out condition and have to climb to do a Power reboot. South of 40 North, you should be fine, at or north of 40 North and it depends on conditions for a couple of months during local winter.

UMESH has been significantly impacted by just those conditions, plus my own creakiness and some vehicle issues. And it’s been going on for weeks, so I must apologize for local service being somewhat hit or miss currently. It’s the one significant fault of the current GTM build.

For UMESH relays that are impacted, I hope to get them back online when we get a break in the weather, with the easy to reach ones sooner and the others, a bit longer since I have to arrange for my climber to help with those. My days on the roof are just about over, unfortunately.

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Thanks that’s helpful. Are you using Voltaic panels & batteries?

I’m targetting 10w / 8000Mah for the UK

You might find some of the components here useful if you decide to go to for larger panels: https://my.aliexpress.com/wishlist/shared.htm?groupId=100000018985469

I think the MPPT is good up to 20watts.

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I have a few Voltaic panels in service. They’re good, high quality stuff, but the price is a little steep when you’re trying to get multiple relays up.

I have a variety of Chinese panels that power the bulk of my relays.

I have gone with a couple of different battery packs from China. The Voltaics seem to take a lot of power in Always On mode. I have a few, but use them mainly as backups.

For the UK, I’d say that 10w/8,000 Mah is probably a good minimum. Before you get too far, I suggest confirming with operation that they will be adequate. A bigger panel can’t hurt, especially where sun isn’t reliable.

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Are you using a MPPT? I’m hoping it will squeeze a bit more power out of the panels, particularly on cloudy/ low voltage days.

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I ended up with a couple of 18 volt panels for free due to a shipping error. I obtained a cheap MPPT but haven’t had much luck getting it configured to work right. No instructions were included,

https://www.banggood.com/MPPT-Solar-Panel-Controller-5A-DC-DC-Step-down-CCCV-Charging-Module-Display-LED-p-1089155.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN

I manage to toast a couple of my battery packs and the charging circuit on one GTM while trying to get the MPPT working. Not very encouraging results.

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Thanks.

solar
solar1240×723 565 KB

Currently looking at these cheap solar lights idea is to throw away the LED and charge circuit and fit this nice controller instead.

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Interesting new idea. I have a couple of those type lights that illuminate the alley beyond our back fence. Some models do come in different levels of battery capacity, so choosijng the longer rated options could be helpful. The ones I bought had lots of extra room inside the case for adding components.

Some of these lights have aluminum cases or other metallic fittings that could limit RF getting out if you mount the GTM internally.

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It’s been awhile, but with all the uncertyainty in the air, not too much of a surprise. COVID-19 is a mass disaster in slow motion, so after many difficulties and a long wet winter, we’re working to get UMESH back up and going as a network. I know a few relays survived the winter, starting with the home node, UMESH 1. Many more went down and service has been spotty for some time. Here’s why.

First thing is that I’ve been having some heal;th issues related to long standing problems that turned more than usually nagging. I recovered from the emergency gall bladder surgery last September pretty well at first. Then my legs and balance seemed to get in conflict, a by-product of my neuropathy due to a back injury and some other more recent problems. I’ve been careful climbing for a long time, but this was a significant hit to my usual capabilities. Then I ran into an endocrine system issue that further sapped my strength overall. I’m being treated for that too, with some success.

And the MeshMobile has also been feeling under the weather, but that was eventually resolved after enough cash was thrown at it. It was fixed just in time for my mom to pass away last week, not unexpectedly, but an experience made more excruciating by the fact that they now treat you like you’re infected until proven otherwise. Once Mom went away in the ambulance, that was the last she saw or touched any of us. Near the end, they did get a video link up in time to say a few quick goodbyes by Zoom before she passed into unconsciousness. 4 of us were allowed at the visitation and 10 at graveside. We’ll have to gather after this mess is over to mourn together.

My family’s travails are nothing compare3d to what some are going through. Her test came back negative a few hours after she was gone, so quarantine for half the family was avoided. But other out there may have new and unique communications needs, which goTenna Mesh can be useful in meeting. And it’s tornado season coming right up, too. So despite a heavy heart, I’ve been working on the network the last couple of days.

UMESH 1, the home node was good after the long wet winter.

UMESH 2 needed the GTM restarted.

UMESH 3 remains pending, still surveying this one.

UMESH 4 was down. It needed a new battery/charger pack, then a restart.

UMESH 5 remains pending, still surveying this one.

I did a quick check further east, south, and west and additional nodes need attention. Some of these are challenging if service proves necessary. We’re working on things and will bring the mesh here in Urbana back up where it’s not working as soon as possible. If you’re interested in hosting a node, let us know and we’ll see what we can do. The need to gain access to service them makes us favor certain locations over others, but we consider them all as many factors come into ply when siting them. Having additional nodes within the same basic coverage area increases the redundancy and reliability of the system.

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MikeL,
I’m sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine going thru that amidst those circumstances.

I feel your pain in doing all that climbing to push a button. Let me know if you’d be interested in testing a GTM modified to restart. It’d take double the power but I’d be curious to see how it works in your situation. Your feedback would be all I’d ask for in return. Send me a message and I’ll get one in the mail in a few days if you’d like.

Thanks for doing the work you do. I hope your health improves!

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Thanks, rogeroverout! I’m sending a PM. Things have just been really frustrating lately on the power side of things, but this could alter that equation.

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Finally, I believe I have a cost-effective solution to the power supply issues that have plagued my do it cheap approach to building mesh.

The main issue was the mediocre nature of consumer grade USB connections. They are just impossible to waterproof. It wasn’t as simple as making a soldered connection to the solar panel when moisture took out the 5v converters on the back of these solar panels, as that provided power that spikes well in excess of 12v, causing the battery charger packs I used to store power to overheat.

Here’s the overall plan.

All solar panels will be rehabbed to provided a soldered waterproof connection that leads inside the node case.

The power lead will be wired into a simple PWM solar charge controller that has 5v USB output.

A charge cable will then connect the battery pack to the PWM controller.

Another cable will lead from the battery pack to the GTM to charge and power it.

Experimentation with the PWM controller I have on hand shows it greatly improves the charging reliability of the node. I’ve had this in operation for almost two weeks now with not a single hiccup. My test site has a purposely limited amount of daily sunlight, so if we’re good there, it’ll be good on the sunny rooftops that typically host the nodes.

As the controllers arrive, we’ll prep nodes to go up by rebuilding them as noted above, make one climb to swap in a known good node at each site while bringing down the old, then rebuild the node for use elsewhere. This process should begin in about a month after things get here and I hope we’ve got the rehab process essentially complete by the end of September. Then we’ll switch back to expanding the local mesh. If you’d like to get involved or want to host a node, send me a message.

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And heard some bad news from one of the node hosts today. We experienced a bad hail storm last week and during the estimate to repair his roof the insurance estimators found the solar panel of the node he hosted bashed up.

I’d almost bet that there are more damaged panels out there. The hail here at UMESH 1 was golf ball-sized and quite intense. I do have about three spare panels if I scavenge the ones on the as-yet un-sited nodes that I plan to swap in for good ones.

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An update is overdue. My apologies. COVID has scrambled life’s priorities for many and has contributed to this slacking. But that’s just a part of the issues I’m facing here. So a review of that and some solutions that may be on the horizon follow. I’ve finally caught up with several big projects that came up with the pandemic, so hope to turn my efforts back to the UMESH effort in coming months.

It’s been a little over a year since my gall bladder and I parted ways. For the better to be sure, but age has combined with recovery from that and my several physical issues to make climbing a questionable practice for me. In terms of how this affects UMESH, I either have to enlist more young climbers or start putting nodes in less favorable or easier to reach places. I have a fellow who’s been a great help, but it’s unfair to throw everything on his back when climbing resumes. If you’re interested in helping, send me a PM.

Then there’s the issue of power. While I seemed to have a practical solution at relatively low cost, when it aged it didn’t hold up well. Consumer level connectors like the USB mini just don’t protect the circuit well enough. The charge circuits on the battery packs tend to become randomly iffy, compounding things. Soon enough, power is lost and the need to climb to set a hard reboot back to life. Bad enough in the summer and just about impossible in the winter.

I bought several solar charge controllers, which seemed promising with their USB connections, in order to better manage the charging circuit. In the end, they just don’t work reliably with the low draw that charges the solar battery packs. I think these could work if I used a 12v battery pack instead of the 5v ones I’m using, but a low cost good quality source for such hasn’t been identified.

rogeroverout offered another solution he’s built and used with success in Idaho which involves hacking a small board onto a GTM that is left in pairing mode. While it uses more power, it’s very reliable in restarting a GTM. I need to sit down and wrap my head around it to better understand it.

Whatever solution turns out best, it needs to be cost effective. I need to fix more than a dozen nodes and hope to again add on to them once that’s accomplished. Sorry for the downtime.

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It’s been awhile and sorry for not updating sooner. Now that I’m scheduled for back surgery, things are finally working toward some sort of resolution on a number of nagging health issues. Unfortunately, I think even a best case outcome is not going to leave me able to climb again, although that’s a remote possibility.

At this point, the UMESH is spotty, if in service at all. Given the inability to service nodes on a regular basis, it seemed better to just let things lie for the time being. Now that I do have some sort of personal resolution on the horizon, the shape of what I can offer in terms of UMESH comes into better view.

If someone steps forward to coordinate and operate the existing system, I’ll be happy to facilitate that. Many nodes are reasonably reachable, while several are a pretty challenging climb and may have to be abandoned in place. However, a city-wide system is on hand, it just needs the usual finger on the power button to get it back up. You can direct message me through the system here if you’re interested in this possibility. Although some of the same technical issuers remain, I would like to see this public asset continue to serve the community.

One principle that I think would be good to observe is to emplace future nodes where the node host can themselves deal with the need for power cycling. This will likely require a denser network than before, where I found ways to place nodes advantageously for best coverage, but which left them pretty inaccessible in many cases. Ultimately, how things go together in the future will depend on the wants and needs of those who take up this project.