[Commotion-dev] Fwd: [serval-project-dev] Community Mesh project using Commotion and Yun-based Mesh extender?

[Dan Staples]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[serval-project-dev] Community Mesh project using Commotion
and Yun-based Mesh extender?
Date: 	Wed, 11 Jun 2014 08:48:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: 	Andrew Jawitz <ajawitz at codeforamerica.org>
Reply-To: 	serval-project-developers at googlegroups.com
To: 	serval-project-developers at googlegroups.com



  Hello All,
    My name is Andrew Jawitz and I am familiar with some of the
Commotion devs but not so much with the Serval community.  I've been
working on a project that seems to draw bits and pieces from Serval,
Commotion, Dragino and the Arduino Yun.  In fact, its getting hard to
keep track of which project does what anymore:)
   Basically, I've been interested in using mesh networking as a
potential solution to a variety of issues I encounter in rural parts of
Maine in my capacity as Brigade Captain of Code for Maine, a Code for
America Brigade <http://brigade.codeforamerica.org> with members all
across the state.  I originally became interested in mesh as a possible
solution for tracking public sector vehicle fleets
<http://www.openvehicletracker.org>, like transit and snow plows, but
after discovering Commotion, I started advocating community wireless
more generally.
   Most recently, I've been getting a lot of interest from various
officials in my home town of Harpswell for setting up a mesh node on an
unused water tower behind the town fire station.  Hopefully, this will
develop into a full fledged deployment soon, but my reason for joining
this forum involves questions I had about the Mesh Extender.
   While researching the vehicle tracking app, Itested a vehicle tracker
using an old WR703n travel router
<https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=185438>w/OpenWRT, a 3G/USB
dongle and a GPS receiver.  So I was especially excited to see that
Arduino was using the same chipset for the Arduino Yun!  While waiting
for the Yun to be released I looked for ways to flash the firmware onto
the WR703n only to run into major problems with flash ram.  Then I
discovered the Dragino MS14 (v2.3) is essentially the same thing only
with more RAM and GPIOs. This time, the Dragino devs even compiled their
own version of the Yun firmware
<http://wiki.dragino.com/index.php?title=Getting_Start_with_Arduino_Yun>, which
can be used to connect the router with a standard Arduino Leonardo board
to make a virtual Yun.
   Since I knew the COmmotion routers were also based on OpenWRT my next
step was to research whether or not the Yun firmware could be merged
with Commotion to allow an Arduino to function as a mesh node in of
itself.  Such a device could be used for anything from vehicle tracking,
to environmental monitoring, to smart grids etc... I learned about the
Serval Mesh Extender project after seeing this post
<http://blog.arduino.cc/2013/10/11/arduino-yun-as-a-possible-mesh-extender-platform/>
about
using the Arduino Yun for the Mesh Extender from Oct. 2013, but I
haven't seen anything since.  Reading through the notes it looked like
development was focused on using the "Mesh Potato 2" which was awaiting
release apparently when the notes were written.  Only recently did it
occur to me that the "Mesh Potato 2" looked an awful lot like the
Dragino MS14 that I've been working with!

  But enough with my Bio...  Can anybody give me a status update on
porting the Mesh Extender firmware to the Yun?  Am I correct in assuming
that the Dragino and Mesh Potato are the same thing?  If so, might it be
possible to merge the Serval firmware with the Dragino version of the
Yun firmware as a first step? Furthermore, is the Mesh Extender
compatible with Commotion?  How crazy is it to strive for a
Commotion-compatible Arduino?

   If someone can point me to the relevant development forums it would
be greatly appreciated.  Over the course of my research I've amassed a
lot of hardware that could be very useful for testing purposes.  I have
three Ubiquiti devices running Commotion (Pico, Nano and Bullet), the
Dragino and a Yun running Linino and several older home routers
including a WR703n, MR3040, RT-N16 and WL-520GU running generic OpenWRT.
Not to mention a whole range of XBees (series 1+2) Arduinos,RPis and
RTL-SDR gadgets that could be put to good use.

    Thanks a Bunch!
   -Andrew Jawitz
    Brigade Captain
    Code for Maine
    www.code4maine.org

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