On Fri, Aug 07, 2026 at 02:24:59PM -0400, [email protected] wrote: > Greetings, > > Would I be able to propose another project? I am really interested in > radio networking, especially LoRa and LoRaWAN. Specifically, I would > like to use Plan 9, Raspberry PIs, and LoRa devices for low-cost > emergency communications in very remote areas without reliable cell > service. My goal is to create a cheap setup with applications in the > emergency medical services where I live (forested mountains with awful > cell service, very rural population, and no line of sight). Ideally I > want to be able to call an ambulance and provide geolocation data with > $50 of electronics without the use of a phone.
Yes that would be meshtastic, probably more likely meshcore now. In the first case it's peer-to-peer and ad-hoc: good for use out in the boonies; but every radio repeats all the messages, so the bandwidth tends to fill up too fast and it doesn't scale to large networks. MeshCore prefers fixed-location dedicated repeaters, but can get by with temporary meshes away from fixed infrastructure. IMO there needs to be a combination of the ideas, with automatic adaptation and as much compatibility as posssible. The reasearch to do that would be interesting, if you are into that sort of thing. Most of the devices are ESP32-based, and are used mainly with a bluetooth or wifi connection to a real computer. I have a T-Deck Pro: https://lilygo.cc/products/t-deck-pro Hardware-wise, reusing the USB-C connector for the antenna seems foolish and impractical and fragile, but if they would make a version with a real antenna connector it might be ok. In the meantime, the one with the color screen or the "pager" is probably more robust. I was thinking, wouldn't it be cool if Inferno could run on devices like that. It doesn't have enough memory for Plan 9, and porting either kernel to esp32 would be real work. There are a couple of other OS projects in the works for that device. OK I see you want to use a raspberry pi because 9 already runs on it. So then it's more work and more cost to assemble the pieces (some LoRA "hat" and a screen and some sort of keyboard), and probably less robust for real use. You might as well call it a cyberdeck at this point. But alternatively, the easiest thing might be to just accept that the ESP "companion" radio (the most common being the Heltec V3, but there is also a V4 that has built-in support for a solar panel to charge the battery, and another one that has GPS) is going to run existing firmware, and rather develop a client in the form of a file server. Make the message channels look something like an upas mailbox. I might get around to this myself at some point, since it's similar to my sbitx FT8 project. But then another obstacle is Plan 9 doesn't support bluetooth yet, does it? For the meshtastic/meshcore "companion radio" firmwares you have a choice to get the bluetooth or the wifi version; wifi of course takes more power and tends to rely on an access point, so it's not really meant for portable use. So what about working on bluetooth support? Just an idea, but maybe there's a reason not to... ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T92baacd994bf120c-M034975389fd6191ed5f570ab Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
