FANET forwarding

[mikechristiansen]

Hi @thezenox,
Your project has had some discussion on the GxAirCom facebook page since an article about your project was posted. It seems that many are looking for FANET message forwarding on many weather sites. Understandably running the LORA radio in RX mode will add power consumption to your project, but have you considered making this an option?
GxAirCom obviously provides for forwarding however I think the approch your project takes with power consumption has signifcant advantages.
Regards,
Mike.

[thezenox]

Hi @mikechristiansen
Currently I did not consider this feature. LLCC68 consumes about 5mA in RX mode and it is possible to set an interrupt on syncword match, so MCU can be in deepsleep.
With the currently used hardware always on RX consumes to much power, but a smart mode to enable it only when surplus energy is available should be possible.
With a bigger solar cell (e.g. 130x150) and battery (min. 2x 18650) always on should be possible as well.

[mikechristiansen]

Awesome, thanks!
Im currently trying to run GxAirCom (esp32s3) in this enclosure with a built in solar panel. https://store.rakwireless.com/products/unify-enclosure-ip67-150x100x45mm-with-pre-mounted-m8-5-pin-and-rp-sma-antenna-ip-rated-connectors?index=5131&variant=42861623738566
Runnign this with a custom PCB and 2x18650. Power from the solar is no where near enough, I think mostly due to the consumption from the MCU.
If you think your firmware could support forwarding, I would be very happy to design a PCB to fit this case and share it to your repo.
I the idea of smart mode sounds like an excelent idea, dynamically adjusting use to conserve power. I wonder if this could have a 3 stage approch, listning and forwarding 100% of the time when battery is >60%, listening and forwarding for 60seconds every 5 minutes when battery 60-30%, and no listening/forwarding below 30%. This way, the device can still forward packets from remote weather stations at least every 5 minutes to update websites such as windy, but still conserving power.

Appreciate your reply!

[thezenox]

If it is just for forwarding weather stations with a fixed transmission interval you could listen to them a few times to get known the transmission interval and then turn on RX just a few seconds before. This would save 95% of power, but requires a consistent and on point TX timing of the weather station (breezedude has that, on GxAirCom it depends on traffic and neighbor count).
When Battery is full and solar is charging, continuous RX would be possible resulting in general FANET forwarding (but requires 1% limiting).
I will have a look on than the next weeks if I find time.
For the RAK enclosure: An external SMA connector is not that good, avoid it if you can.

[bsiege]

Seems not implemented anyway. Made a feature request.
gereic/GXAirCom#191 (comment)