[DisasterRadio] TTGO boards with Disaster Radio now on Aliexpress

samuk at disroot.org samuk at disroot.org
Mon Nov 25 14:49:20 PST 2019


Hi Kris

> How complete is the hardware linked to on aliexpress? It looks like the PCB, antenna, breakout
> pins, and power jumper is included -- so all that's missing from the complete Disaster.Radio box is
> the housing, solar panels, battery storage, and all interconnects for the prior two?

Yes all the components are there, however it's closed source hardware. 

The previous versions of the board had fairly limited range due to some poor design choices, this one looks better, but it will be interesting to see how it performs. There may be a performance boost from replacing the shipped antenna with something better, as I suspect the supplied one is crap.

I'm planning to have a go with capacitors rather than batteries for longevity, it will only work in the sun, but batteries seem like the component most likely to fail.

> As a side note, I would love to introduce folks in the mailing list to Althea. 

Looks good, have you tried it out?

Thanks

Sam



The name refers to
> both the organization and their open source mesh networking software. Their organization model
> incentivizes decentralized, locally-owned internet infrastructure by paying providers through
> blockchain. Their software automatically routes traffic to the most reliable, affordable nodes. The
> model is incredibly interesting! I know some of y'all are already aware but I thought I'd spread
> the word!
> 
> Again thanks the link to the new pcb and I look forward to understanding what is and isn't
> included.
> 
> Kris with a K
> 
> On Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at 8:38 AM grant <ggallo102 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey Sam,
>> 
>> Thanks for taking initiative on this.
>> 
>> I personally do not have a problem with this idea, as long as it works. I would like to tag a
>> release (0.0.1?) and provide them binaries so that they are shipping it with firmware from a
>> particular commit. They should also be able to flash the SPIFFs with the web app, we could provide
>> binaries for that as well. Then, you wouldn't necessarily need an SD card.
>> 
>> SD cards need to be formatted to fat32 for ESP devices. To prepare the SD card, you need to build
>> the javascript app (following the readme
>> https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/tree/master/web) and then copy the contents of
>> web/static (`index.htm` and `bundle.js`) to the SD card. It's a fairly straightforward process, but
>> I should create instructions.
>> 
>> It's great that they are willing to make a small donation with every sale. SudoMesh would be the
>> group to receive those, and they do have a bank account, I would dm Jenny about that.
>> 
>> The one addition I would make to the listing is a link to either the website, disaster.radio,
>> and/or the github repo in the description.
>> 
>> This group generally operates on a consensus basis, so I'd be interested to hear what other people
>> who have been involved in its development think.
>> 
>> p.s. I would also be cool to display something on the OLED screen when it ships, haven't gotten
>> around to that idea though.
>> 
>> -grant
>> On Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at 9:23 AM <samuk at disroot.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all
>>> 
>>> Yesterday I emailed TTGO/ Lily to see if in principle they could install the disaster radio boards
>>> they ship. After a bit of linguistic miscommunication they went ahead and did it.
>>> 
>>> So it's now possible to order the boards pre-flashed here:
>>> 
>>> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000396836096.html
>>> 
>>> I didn't intend to do this without asking the list, so apologies if I've overstepped.
>>> 
>>> If you really don't want to do this, then I can ask them to remove the listing. I realise that
>>> fully open hardware is needed in the medium term.
>>> 
>>> They are willing to donate a $1 for every board sold:
>>> https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H856d5793d514415187b910e3fd4a3139w.jpg
>>> 
>>> Assuming you're happy to leave the listing up, where should we send this trickle of donations? Do
>>> you have a bank?
>>> 
>>> This does leave the task for the users to configure their SD card, is that as easy as formatting to
>>> ext2 and copying index.html to it?
>>> https://github.com/sudomesh/disaster-radio/tree/master/web/static or is it more involved than that?
>>> 
>>> Let me know what you want to do about the listing, and if it stays up, where to send the money.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> Sam
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> DisasterRadio mailing list
>>> DisasterRadio at lists.sudoroom.org
>>> https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> DisasterRadio mailing list
>> DisasterRadio at lists.sudoroom.org
>> https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/disasterradio
> 
> --(509) 591-7942
> kris.keillor at gmail.com


More information about the DisasterRadio mailing list