Monday, August 12, 2013

Latest iteration of the Mesh Extender

We finally got our hands on some nano-USB memory sticks, and have adjusted the radio placement in the MR3020 routers we are using, so that the lid can go back on without duct-tape, and the whole unit looks much sleeker.

Also, we have some smaller and surprisingly complementary styled rechargeable battery units for them, that even have a percentage charge remaining indication.  All for $17.50 on ebay!

The result is as shown in the following photos.



The battery packs even have a 2-digit LED display to tell you how much battery capacity you have left -- very handy for in the field.






The ability to directly wire the RFD900 into these units simplifies the wiring amazingly, and really is one of the big enablers for being able to assemble the prototypes at an affordable cost:

The biggest outstanding challenge is finding a nano USB memory stick that is both reliable and works sensibly with OpenWRT.  Verbatim ones don't seem to work with OpenWRT properly, while SanDisk ones might still have the "go read-only and die" bug that others have reported.  Time will tell...
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownAugust 13, 2013 at 2:11 PM

    WHAT a match - it's almost as if the makers have been working together! Is that "66" ("99" ?) a sticker or 7 segement capacity indicator? Thoughts on solar charging ?

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  2. Paul Gardner-StephenAugust 13, 2013 at 2:17 PM

    It's a 7-segment capacity indicator -- I forgot to mention that in the post, so will probably update it. As for solar charging, no reason why not. Maximum power draw is about 3W, and typical is probably around 1.5W - 2.5W. These particular battery packs have one fault, however, in that they cannot charge and supply current at the same time.

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  3. phone boosterSeptember 30, 2013 at 4:01 AM

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