goTenna Mesh Network Map (imeshyou.com) features & enhancements

Would be nice to be able to click on two nodes and get an estimated distance between them on the imeshyou map.

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I was just thinking that, after this popped up on my screen.
https://lynqme.com/

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How about implementing some form of terrain based line of sight calculator that overlays the estimated line of sight for each node based on the users elevation above ground that they input for their node. This website is a great example of what Iā€™m suggesting: http://www.heywhatsthat.com

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Iā€™m new here, so I hope I donā€™t blurt anything that everyone else already knows and takes for grantedā€¦

Back on the micro-thread of an events page, one example of a bottom-up organization that has gone global and has a pretty good way of presenting upcoming events, locally and globally, is Geocaching (www.geocaching.com). You might glean some tips from their methods. I would also think that the two organizations would be somewhat simpatico in many ways ā€“ heck, you might even talk them into adding a cache category that involves goTenna Mesh devices or some such.

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Just went on a run/walk to test my distance from a stationary node in an urban area. I came back to draw my circle and realized I could either go 0.2 miles for the shortest distance or 1 mile across a park. I chose 0.2mi so that people donā€™t get their hopes up on the urban side.

Iā€™d love to have an option to draw a multi-point polygon around my node and/or report at which points I was able to get a ping through (which would provide an interesting geographic scattergram).

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Interesting idea! cc @michaelryap & @Rahul_Subramany

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I like your thinking, Chris. @Rahul_Subramany and I will consider it. Do you see the visualization as something thatā€™s automated or manually plotted?

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I like the idea of a custom area plot around a node. My suggestion would be to let the user define it as a minimum of any three (maybe four?) points, then apply a formula to define the rough boundaries. If the user could then add more points to further modify the plot, that would be cool. Iā€™d think youā€™d want to be able to utilize maybe up to a dozen points, but even more would be nice in a few more complex cases where the geography makes that necessary.

For areas where there might be many nodes close together, having contrasting colors applied would be useful , especially in cases of overlap (where the colors would form yet another shade), which we hope will be many because thatā€™s how things mesh?

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I can imagine a really beautiful data visualization resulting from that approach, @bbwr10coqsm. :+1:

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Manual
I think manual would be fine for the current population of early adopters and easier to set up coding wise.

Easiest
To start with letting the user draw the polygon with as many points as needed via their desktop browser, with maybe a map overlay integration to be able to add spurs for when a signal reaches another block because there arenā€™t buildings in the way. What ever amount of rigor of testing would be up to the user.

More Challenging
Second easiest would satisfy those of us with curiosity that want more precision. It would probably be a specific feature within the app for this specific activity or a second flavor of ping called ā€œsurveyā€ and logging into the imeshyou account via the app would be necessary to attribute the survey to a particular node on the map. Perhaps as a quality control a successful initial ping would be required so that we donā€™t get a lot of false negatives because of a paring problem.

The user of the node could walk the perimeter of the nodeā€™s range and each time a successful non-hop connection is made that point is logged. Each time a hop is necessary that is logged a different way and each time no connection is made that is logged a third way. Then if the user wants to disclose this, they could show on imeshyou a color coding of what one can expect range wise.

The value here is that it incentivizes users to provide useful data for themselves and for the community. Completists/perfectionists would have an incentive to fill in the gaps to eventually show what is effectively an area map for their own nodes and would be curious what other people are finding so may be more engaged with imeshyou.

Depending on how much in the way of resources goTenna wants to give these new data, goTenna could do some GIS work to score the quality of the mesh at a given point or neighborhood (would need some definition our could borrow from what Google or Next Door use). Those of us who are community minded might have an incentive to convince our neighbor to set up a stationary node to fill in a gap and improve our neighborhood score. Another data analysis I would be interested in is the ability to model (once more than 3 hops is available under future firmware upgrades), the likelihood that I could reach my significant other who works 2mi away or my buddy at a bar 1mi away. Users could be nudged to give thank you badges to people when they register new nodes along that path.

Automation
To me it would extend from the manual capabilities above. Surveying could be automated provided that the user had to verify that their target goTenna node and smartphone are plugged in and pings for surveys do not create annoying notifications.

Similar to the second scenario above, I envision the user getting things in survey mode and walking the perimeter. A sample would be taken every 15 seconds (the network seems to need about 5 seconds in my experience to validate a ping) and someone could get as many samples as they wanted and a time stamp would be available for the user to consider later (for cases where a ping worked once but not the second time). The data would be uploaded to imeshyou classified as I was describing above. imeshyou would then have an algorithm for drawing a polygon that predicts connection to a node with 80% confidence for a direct connection and 80% confidence for a mesh connection. (Iā€™m thinking: donā€™t over promise with a 50% confidence because people view disappointment more strongly than delight.) Another feature would be the ability to select two points on the map and predict based on existing imeshyou data what the likelihood that a message would make it.

Unrelated. A second automated data collection feature Iā€™d like to have that would complement or replace the locations registered in imeshyou has more privacy implications and is a lot more data intensive but would be interesting: A user in survey mode and a goTenna connected via bluetooth could have the goTenna app log their location every 15min to draw a map of where they are during the survey period to capture people who keep an active goTenna in their car or in their bag when commuting. The data points could be used for a secondary layer for imeshyou to give you a sense of the probability of nearby nodes at a particular location by time of day.

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ā€¦logging into the imeshyou account via the app would be necessaryā€¦

This is a great vision, Chris! (And, one that we share.)

The value here is that it incentivizes users to provide useful data for themselves and for the community.

Great insight: this basic, and powerful, human instinct will be a key driver for achieving advanced network effects.

Users could be nudged to give thank you badges to people when they register new nodes along that path.

Great idea. System feedback and positive validation has been very much on our minds during recent roadmap planning.

Similar to the second scenario above, I envision the user getting things in survey mode and walking the perimeter.

I love this idea. It reminds me of BERGā€™s early work ā€œsurveyingā€ and visualizing wifi networks. If you arenā€™t familiar, this video is worth watching.

Thank you for sharing this, Chris. Weā€™ll consider it! :+1:

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Todayā€™s imeshyou.com release brings some behind-the-scenes updates weā€™ve prioritized so that the site can handle the next stage of awesome user-requested and next-level features!

Here are a few highlights from this release:

  • Mesh nodes on the Network Map load a lot faster thanks to back-end optimizations and a simplified node rendering algorithm.
  • Mesh Community (a.k.a. this message board!) is now open to anyone on the internet for reading. (An account is still required to create or reply to a thread, DM other users, and ā€œheartā€ othersā€™ posts.)
  • Squashed a few bugs.

Weā€™ll be back soon with more updates! Share your feedback, questions, and ideas with us as usual ā€” weā€™re listening. :slight_smile:

In meantime, Iā€™d love to introduce everyone to @hobotroid He joined our team a few weeks ago and weā€™re excited to finally have a full-time engineer dedicated 100% of the time to developing imeshyou.com and Mesh Community!

The Network Map and this discussion board started as an experimental side-project, and youā€™ve all convinced us thereā€™s a lot more to do here. Get ready, all!

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IMG_5303

Iā€™ve spent a lot of time in and around the Memphis class B airspace over the last year building time at 1200ā€™-3000ā€™ after work. I have been carrying my gotenna mesh with me. Got a call out list for high birds? (high bird - term for aircraft based repeater networks)

Can I get a gotenna with wings over airport M01?

Justin

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Weā€™ve added a Network Activity board to imeshyou. Use the activity board to keep in touch with whatā€™s happening in the Mesh world, track imeshyou stats and access exciting goTenna Mesh news & updates.
Login to https://www.imeshyou.com/ and check out your personalized Network Activity board.

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Would be awesome if integration of map with the Gotenna app and could share location real-time, dynamically if you wanted (opt-in) and be advised when others came within likely tx/rx range. Especially if allowed for offline caching of known public powered relays.

Will the Samurai Wallet teamup providie any ability to incentivize establishing powered relay nodes?

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Yes that is coming later this year :slight_smile: Weā€™re working on it!!

No, thatā€™ll just be for btc tx, but join our blockchain thread to talk about the other part which weā€™re working on separately :wink:

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Please add to the GoTenna app UI to show if the message has been send/received directly or via a node. If so how manny.

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RogerOrange,
The app UI shows the sender whether or not the message was sent via a stationary node. Youā€™re already familiar with what a message looks like if not via a relay. Hereā€™s what it will look like with 2 relay nodes.

IMG_1372

This message went the full length of the network to my test rig located near the south end relay node from the transmitting unit located where it can peek out the basement window in the right direction (southeast) via the center relay node.

You can see that right before the test message I sent, a ping before midnight showed the test rig was available, then two pings after midnight showed it wasnā€™t. Reception of my test message was confirmed, though, as there is no message with a red check right underneath that it was a unconfirmed message. If that happens, though, try moving a few feet one way or another and tap the message to resend it.

Below that is the timestamp, with 4 circles lit, one on bright, and the text under that saying ā€œMeshed via 2 nodes.ā€ That shows exactly what I think youā€™re looking for on the transmit side - when it does happen for you. On the reception side, you donā€™t see this, you just get the message, but Iā€™m not sure that matters so much there and I donā€™t know whether itā€™s possible to generate it there or not.

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Awesome! Now we know what to look for!

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Are there plans on sending out emails to those who have placed nodes on the map as a sort of ā€œare you still thereā€ check? Right now thereā€™s no indication of the age of nodes or if theyā€™re even active. Perhaps a monthly reminder email with a simple YES NO node active question could be placed and possibly a filter in the imeshyou website on nodes that have responded in X amount of months.

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