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Diff: NodeFOX
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-__Myself:__
-
-I am a student at LaTrobe Uni studying a Computer Systems Engineering degree in my final year. I've been a programmer since I was wee little tot, back in the old (http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/ Sinclair Spectrum) days when an upgrade from 16kb to 48kb rocked!
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-I spend most of my time doodling in Delphi, making PIC micro controllers smoke, researching this and that on the net and otherwise feeding my brain with large amounts of technical nitty gritty. I enjoy hacking stuff apart, forcing stuff to do what its told (not what its design for) and I usually build instead of buying (even though it usually cost twice as much in the long run).
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-__The Plan:__
-
-I have broken my plan down into several stages, and hope to progress rapidly (don�t we all).
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-''Stage 1 - Testing The Water''
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-A WLAN card, ex-galaxy modified antenna, a [Pigtail], some CoaxialCable hooked up in an attempt to connect to anyone/thing in my area. The oooh wow factor should be enough to keep me interested in stage 2.
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-''Stage 2 - Hey, Look At Me''
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-Using my WLAN with an (homebrew) omni directional antenna to allow anyone in the area to link up with me as share data about. Ohh look a network... This should be 24/7 until I hit Stage 3.
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-''Stage 3 - Keeping The Dream Alive''
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-Combing previous two stages to create something useful towards the whole Melbourne wireless scene. An omni to allow ClientNodes to connect to me, a directional connecting to another Stage3 nodes and some routing to allow my client cloud to connect to another client cloud.
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-This will turn my stage 1 developments into upstream links, I hope to have two upstream links connecting to different distant nodes at a similar stage of development.
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-I have been looking into antenna splitters which would allow one WLAN card to use two directional antennas to connect to two separate nodes. There are several issues to this however, such as the problems that occur with phasing and front-to-back ratios etc.
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-There is also the issue of noise, if everyone did this then the noise floor would increase due to the fact that a packet intended for an individual upstream node gets sent to both nodes anyway.
-
-''Stage 4 - On The Move''
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-A mobile node in my car. This should be simple enough, I already have a PC system in my car that I use for MP3 playback but it uses a character LCD and a hacked keyboard as the faceplate, so running windows apps is out of the question at the moment.
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-I picked up a (http://mule.sworks.com/keng/unisys.shtml Unisys CWD) book style PC system from a swap meet for around $50. This beast is small and compact, runs a P133, has room for 1 HDD and 1 expansion slot (PCI/ISA) it even had 10BaseT network so I just had to part with my cash. The power supply has now died, so I need to crack out the soldering iron.
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-This was the basis of my Car MP3 Player, but I think some more horses might be required, and TV-output is a must, a 6" LCD, a WLAN card, CD/DVD, etc, etc is on the shopping list.
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-I am running two batteries in the car, the second battery is in the boot and runs my PC, AMPS etc and is isolated from my main battery when the ignition is turned off, so I never have to worry about a flat battery. A 300W Jaycar inverter runs the PC (my homebrew DC-DC power supply fried my first PC, and since then its been collecting dust. It�s probably in good working order, but it was struggling to supply the amps I needed).
-
-I wrote some custom software to interface with WinAmp, a playlist database, the Character LCD and control everything.
-
-__The Hardware:__
-
-* 1x Compaq WL200 PCI wireless LAN card (2 cards for stage 3)
-* 1x Galaxy modified directional antenna (hopefully a 24dBi baby)
-* 1x Omni directional antenna (still looking into homebrews)
-* Cable/Connectors/etc
-* A Linux PC - maybe P166 or C300 got the mobo and h/w all laying about so no real drama what ever I decide to do.
-
-__Video Feed:__
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-I have got a board video camera that I�m considering sticking on top of my mast, maybe getting it to rotate (simple motor and gear job) and posting pics on a web site (probably a wireless one) - I might even make it interactive, little to the left.. no right.. whoa stop there. (Anyone know the legality of this)
-
-I've already mounted this baby on a pole and recorded a 360 degree video of the area to help determine line of sight, but will probably move soon so it was pointless.
-
-I am also considering sticking a camera in my car, now that would be cool. Live wireless video feeds at 100km/h.
-
-__The Dream:__
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-* 80G HDD Serving as local data dump
-* Maybe a game server or two (if there are none around)
-* Firewalling (of course)
-* A WLAN radio station would be cool, always wanted to impose my music style on others, doubt it tho
-* Several directional links to other omni nodes to provide some redundancy
-* Sat link to USA, UK, etc - when I win the lotto
-* Road maps, weather reports, traffic hazards, etc
-
-__Status and To Do:__
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-* Research, gotta be done - Currently In Progress
-* Get a wireless card - Ordered a Compaq WL200 via (/members/tib TIB)
-* Get Galaxy antenna - Organized.
-* Cabling - No drama, just need the $
-* Pigtail, reverse SMA to N
-
-__Other Bits:__
-
-Anyone using amps? The D-Link card is 30mW, directional is say 20dBi (including cable/connector losses), that gives us 3W EIRP, if its legal to have 4W EIRP can we amp it up.
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-This is not needed for directional, but with Omni's maybe, all comments welcome.
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-Omni - to - Omni setup (i.e. base AP to car):
- Tx Power = 20dBm (WL200)
- Tx Antenna Gain = 8dBi (omni)
- Tx Cable+Connector Loss = 2dB
- => Total Tx Gain = 20+8-2=26dB => 400mW EIRP (well below legal limit)
-
- Rx Antenna Gain = 8dBi (omni)
- Rx Cable+Connector Loss = 2dB
- => Total Rx Gain = 8-2=6dBi
-
- Rx Receive Sensitivity = -84dBm
- => Total Power Margin = 26+6+84 = 116dBm
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- Allowing 10dBm Fade Margin => 106dBm
-
- Solving: Path Loss (dB) = 10 log ( ( (4*PI*d) / lambda ) ^ 2 )
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- Gives us 5223 meters or ~5km LoS
-
-However if we can amp Tx power to 4W EIRP:
- => Total Tx Gain = 36dBm => 4W EIRP
- => Total Rx Gain = 8-2=6dBi (unchanged)
- => Total Power Margin = 36+6+84 = 126dBm
- Allowing 10dBm Fade Margin => 116dBm
- Gives us 16516m or ~16km
-
-Of course there are other issues that need to be considered such as:
-* the extra noise floor created by covering a larger area
-* is 11mbps really needed in the car? if 1mbps was acceptable the Receive sensitivity = -95dBm this gives us a range of ~18km without amplification
-* is LoS possible at 16km
-* the cost of amps vs. cost of travelling extra 5km
-* amps need at both ends for two-way communication
-* antenna on car will be more like 5dBi making things even worse
-
-__Tit Bits:__
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-Here are some various bits of info I have collected during my many www's on wireless do hickeys.
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-* Galaxy antennas come in two sizes (small 18dBi, large 24dBi)
-* Galaxy antennas used down converter (2.2Ghz to TV tunable) so cheap coax could be used
-* Common council laws (may differ) allow at max 3m from top of building or 8m from ground high antenna masts, higher than that requires permit.
-* [AlphaLink] look like releasing commercial wireless network
-* 2412-2463 MHz band, 4W EIRP max power. EIRP = antenna gain (dB) * power (W)
-* 4W EIRP = 36dBm
-* About 30 clients can connect to a single AP (6-8 is more typical)
-* Bandwidth is shared among clients (i.e. individual bandwidth = 11mbps/#clients)
-* Driving around looking for antennas IS scary and WILL piss other drivers off
-* Only 3 APs can share same air space before large performance drops
-* DWL-520 PCI card (and others) required PCI v2.2 motherboard
-* Lucent cards may need firmware upgrade to be 802.11b standard
-* Omni antennas have typical gain of 3 to 12dBi
-* Directional antennas are anywhere up to around 30dBi
-* Very few (if any) cards handle bridging mode
-* The following cards are NOT supported by *nix (at least not yet)
-** Netware AirSurfer+
-** Baystack 650
-** RadioLan 10Mbps 5Ghz
-** WebGear Aviator 900Mhz
-** IBM Wireless LAN Entry
-** Cards with TI chipset (22Mbps)
-* Prism II/II.5/III (2/2.5/3) have host AP linux drivers (with others it is possible, maybe?)
-* Card must support infrastructure mode to be used as an access point
-* There are only three non-overlapping ISM channels, 1,6,11
-* radomes should have a drain hole to allow condensation to drain (?)
-* dont use spray/brush on weatherproofing sealant, very hard to remove
-* glue type heat shrink is good for weatherproofing connectors
-* be care with spray painting antennas, use non-rf absorbing paint
-* Avoid setting up links in Autumn as when foliage returns signal will be lost/degraded
-* use a flashlight to help determine LoS
-
-__Useful Stuff:__
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-* WirelessMathematics
-
-
-__Comments From Others:__
-
-TysonClugg> Why would you want to go all the way to 4W EIRP? If 600mW EIRP gets you connected, then using an amplifier would be excessive. There are lots of other things aside from power output that will affect how far you can link, such as [LoS], ReceiveSensitivity and FresnelZone to name but a few.
-{amps are not needed for directional links, but omni to omni?}
-
-SirFlakey>20dB on a 30mW card is 3W isn't it ? .. a 20dB power ratio is a multiplication by 100.?
-{yes, 3W my mistake}
+|| NodeMap:FOX || '''Owner''': Gizi (aka Mark)%%% %%%'''Location''': Craigieburn%%% %%% '''Status''': Gathering%%% %%% '''SSID:''' <[SSID]>%%% %%% '''Connecting...'''%%% Set your SSID to __nodefox.wireless.org.au__ and contact (/users/?Gizi ) for more information. (not yet) ||
+
+!! Node Log
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+10/11/04 - Updated this wiki page, finally!
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+
+!! Line Of Sight
+
+North - apart from a close double story building I can all but see Mt Ridley, not that there are any nodes up there anyway.
+North East - I can see way past the Hume Hwy.
+East - Past Epping to the hill at Mill Park Lakes
+South East East - Bundoora should be ok, Greensborough dips over the hill I think.
+South East - Plenty to see here, many nodes should have good LoS. The 'close' ones are 10-11km but most are more like 15-20km, this is really going to make obtaining a usable link interesting.
+South South East - I can see the city, the Rialto is 23.9km away! There is a line of trees that may make life painfull.
+South - Directly south is not so good, a small hill at Roxburgh Park(?) blocks my view.
+South South West - There is a small gap between two hills that may make a link to the Kelior and Kealba area possible
+West - I can see a water tower on a hill, I could almost throw a rock at it.
+
+Thanks to some time spent with NodeDB here are nodes I have LoS with:
+AAD CJA FUS FZJ GPR GSG HDD HLF HLN HMR HSL IIP
+
+These nodes are marginal:
+EDB FNQ GTJ GTR HVT
+
+These nodes are out of the question:
+ABD ABJ BCJ BED CBD DJJ FKX FPY FSS GDW GED GHH GPH GVM GZV GZx HBG HVG HZj HZM
+
+Panoramic picture on the way.
+
+!! Equipment
+
+I currently own...
+* Compaq WL200 PCI Card (with pigtail to suit)
+* Un-modified 18dBi Galaxy Grid Antenna
+* Entrasys/Romabout PCMICA Card
+* An old IBM P166 ready to be Linux-ized
+
+{http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/files/Images/picture.png Photo of node setup}
+
+!! Services
+
+None yet
+
+!! To Do
+
+* Modify Galaxy Antenna - should be done ages ago
+* Get a mast on my roof - TV reception sucks on rabbit ears, so should be easy to cough up for a mast, thinking 6m extension at this stage.
+* Get my hands on some LMR400 and some N Connectors
+
+!! Plans
+
+* I am looking at getting an Omni, but a 180 degree panel would suit my location much better - if anyone knows of cheap panel antenna drop me a line, the downpipe wave guides are looking good.
+* Get some of those cool green lines in Craigieburn.
+* I really would like to use my position to link two seperate mesh networks and contribute a backbone link to the group, but the distances may pose a problem.
+* From reading the Wiki NodeFUS looks like a prime node to link with.
+* Get my lazy butt to a meeting
+
+!! Problems
+
+I don't have any... cash... need cash... must have cash...
+I am surrounded by... a construction zone
+I need info on... everything
+
+!! Suggestions and Comments
+Feel free to add you comments. The more the comments the more motivation.
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+10/11/04 - Awaiting your ideas...
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