[ale] Slightly OT: PI/Raspian Mesh Network Strategy?

[neal at mnopltd.com]

Thanks.  And thanks to all.   Address is 1826 Killian Hill Road 
Southwest, Lilburn, GA

Topography from back windows to the edge of the grass should be straight 
line of sight with nothing but a few trees.

I've done some quick research on "directional wifi antenna" and "outdoor 
Wifi Access point" and it looks encouraging.

I'd rather us spend $100 on a name brand access point we can blame, 
rather than me tinker with a mesh network of Raspberry Pi and gee, who 
do we get to blame?

The desired pattern would be covering the parking lot (vendors doing 
Square) and the tent, so it's all in a 100 degree spread.


On 2021-06-25 20:22, SpaXpert, Inc. via Ale wrote:
> Got an address Neal? I'd love to see the topography.  A short bit of
> on site wifi testing would be great here.  You were indicating : 150
> feet of grass/trees from the secondary building.  Wifi in a house can
> be a real pain depending upon how many floors, but out in open space?
> That's a game changer, especially with WIFI.
> 
> In open space I can get blue tooth reliably over 100 feet at the local
> airport (yep...!)
> 
> Doug
> 
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 9:16 PM Neal Rhodes via Ale <ale at ale.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> Again, got to get over a parking lot which WILL be in use.  Pavement
>> 
>> goes all around the building.  Once we get across the parking lot,
>> we
>> could run cat5 along the tree line to the tent.
>> 
>> On 2021-06-25 20:04, SpaXpert, Inc. via Ale wrote:
>>> Cat 6 is up to 300 meters?  That's over 900 feet, with good
>> quality
>>> cable.
>>> 
>> 
> https://www.belden.com/blogs/smart-building/real-cat-6a-cable-distance-limit-and-why-it-matters
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 8:39 PM Neal Rhodes via Ale <ale at ale.org>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I should have mentioned that cell coverage in the back field the
>>>> tent
>>>> occupies is lousy and intermittent.
>>>> 
>>>> On 2021-06-25 19:09, SpaXpert, Inc. via Ale wrote:
>>>>> This seems like a lot of overkill for a simple task these days.
>>>> All
>>>>> you need is a wifi hotspot from a cell phone, and use a device
>>>> like
>>>>> this:
>>>>> https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/terminal
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 7:16 PM Neal Rhodes via Ale
>> <ale at ale.org>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> So considering the following Physical layout:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Business Comcast
>>>>>> |
>>>>>> regular untinted Window in Building we can get Cat6 to
>>>>>> |
>>>>>> 100 feet of parking lot
>>>>>> |
>>>>>> Storage Building with power and overhang to protect from rain
>>>>>> |
>>>>>> 150 feet of grass/trees - could run Cat6 wire easily
>>>>>> |
>>>>>> Tent selling German beer with credit card readers needing Wifi
>>>> (do I
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> have your attention now?)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> And assuming we'd like for people to be able to buy beer, and
>> we
>>>>>> have a
>>>>>> modest budget for networking, are there reasonable mesh
>>>> networking
>>>>>> products that would work?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I have never put in a mesh network; if you read the fine print,
>>>> they
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> seem to assume all the nodes are clustered around a central
>> node,
>>>>>> not
>>>>>> strung out in a line.   (i.e. no backhaul)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I was initially advised to research ESP32 boards, but the paint
>>>>>> doesn't
>>>>>> seem quite dry on those.  More of a Proof-of-Concept than a
>> real
>>>>>> internet sharing strategy.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> OTOH, efforts to do that with Raspberry PI does seem like a
>> real
>>>>>> thing,
>>>>>> eg
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>> https://github.com/binnes/WiFiMeshRaspberryPi/blob/master/README.md
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Which is extra handy for us, since we put up about a dozen PI
>>>> units
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> people's homes for the Virtual Studio music thing, and aren't
>>>> using
>>>>>> them
>>>>>> as much now.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Has anyone does this and have results to report?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> regards,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Neal
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Ale mailing list
>>>>>> Ale at ale.org
>>>>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Ale mailing list
>>>>> Ale at ale.org
>>>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Ale mailing list
>>>> Ale at ale.org
>>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ale mailing list
>>> Ale at ale.org
>>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo