Project MOAN: Mother of All Nodes

As far as yagi antennas go I am going to call these people tomorrow and see if I can demo the unit linked below. It’s the highest dB of gain yagi I can find, let see how ridiculous range is with this monster! 17.3 dBi of gain :smiley:

http://www.truegain.com/media/TG-Y915-17_Datasheet.pdf

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Don’t worry I am also focusing on a smaller MOAN, just wanted to let y’all know that AND I’ll have an update about that tonight!

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@gua742 take a look at PLX’s “Legion 2 Solar” KS. might be an option for this as well? I’m happy to get involved too if you want some additional working prototypes, etc.

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@flickerdown you in Seattle?

I think this is the best mini MOAN solar panel, what y’all think? Watch the video and check out the link. My friend Collins and @Amon are going to harden it and see how it works IRL (in real life)…


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Hey y’all! Been crazy busy during the last week BUT this weekend I did some serious range testing with the MOAN unit. The good news: It was a crazy amount of fun! The bad news: I was not able to talk to the MOAN unit because the phone that was/is paired with the unit had a dead battery! None the less here is some video and pics of the craziness! Enjoy and there is of course more to come!

Pic of me exiting the aircraft (GoTenna shirt on of course!)…

We also messed around with some throat mics…

Me after landing…

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Break that record, George!

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You can get around this!

If you start a 1/1 conversation with a relay that has a paired phone, you can then disconnect the phone attached to the relay, and still be able to ping/send messages to the relay without a phone connected, as long as you don’t pair it to a second phone and change the GID. Starting a 1/1 chat between two phones shares encryption keys, and then you can continue to ping/send messages from a phone to the now unpaired relay which will store messages for delivery to the phone when it is re-connected.

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Hey y’all! Been busy as hell with work BUT I did take down the MOAN unit to waterproof it (sadly it’s not summer any more here in the PNW). Here is a video of how I did that and of course MORE TO COME! Next up: A higher gain antenna on the MOAN and better yagi antenna. Oh and of course: The mini MOAN!!!

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Ssssooooooo the antenna that is currently on the MOAN has 3 dBd of gain and for me that’s just not enough. So I just bought this antenna to put on it, yeah I went there :slight_smile:

http://www.arcantenna.com/laird-fg9026-65-inch-outdoor-rated-900mhz-fiberglass-omni-antenna-with-fixed-n-female-connector.html

http://www.arcantenna.com/documents/get/document/id/75/

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5 foot , 6db antenna! yaaassssss!

Ready for the mini moan to be operational as well. That is what I am angling to make. Thanks for all the write-ups and videos!

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Heh, So when will we get to a point where we can just send off Meshes to get the MOAN treatment done for us ^_~

Just saying, people that want this done and who can also do it successfully are not always the same people.

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@gua742 sounds like a good side-hustle :wink:

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Already sent mine in :slight_smile:

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As I’m sure you’re aware, you don’t get something for nothing. For the higher gain out towards the horizon, you are losing gain every where else. Is your installation relatively low to the ground? High gain antennas don’t do well on ridges looking into valleys. There, something like a normal lower gain antenna is better.

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I totally feel you @Magus. Want and ability are two different things. I do have an idea that will allow WAY easier external antenna placement. I am going to test this new method ASAP, just waiting on more units to arrive as soon as they do I will be able to have results inside of 72 hours.

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@jbowman90 I totally agree with you. It’s on my roof that overlooks a valley elevation of about 400 ft and a clear view to pretty much north, east, and south.

New external antenna attachment idea: @Jin_Gotenna @Rahul_Subramany @danielagotenna @jbowman90 @RogerOrange @dbfish @LAFD_CERT_Battalion2 @Magus @femmesh

What y’all think? Whatever the case it needs to be tested IRL (in real life) against the much harder method of attachment…

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Can you post a picture of the backside of the board please?

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:bulb: Here are photos from all angles.

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