The goal of this project is to investigate budget options for long range mesh radios that support IvP4 or IvP6 protocols. In my search for alternatives to big (and expensive) names like Microhard or Doodle Labs, I came across the Digi Xbee SX and SX Pro radios. They communicate over 915mhz and claimed ranges of up to 65 miles. Additionally they offer “digimesh” self healing mesh capabilities.
What really makes these radios viable for future collaborative autonomy projects I have in mind, is John Goerzen’s xbnet project.
This is a simple driver written in Rust that adds a TCP/IP layer on top of the digimesh protocol. I’m happy to say that it works quite well too. Right now, speeds are in the 10s of kbps which is pretty far from the advertized max data rate of 250kbps.
Range vs. speed analysis and optimization to come. Also am currently comparing this option to 802.11ah Wifi HaLow solutions.
I designed a slim development breakout board for the radio module
Version 1 of that board
Version 2 of that board, ordering black PCBs from now on
All 5 of my prototypes operating in a mesh configuration. Will be exploring more complicated topology scenarios in the future
