Update posted by: Kent Petty, KL5T
Date 2/11/2022
Thanks to help from Eugen (KL3RR) and Mike (KL3HY) this afternoon we solved the issue with a very important addition we’ve been working on to improve the capability of our Anchorage area mesh network.
On the mesh we use a really useful application called “MeshChat”. MeshChat is indeed a “chat” or texting service, but it ALSO provides a file server to us. Now, while the file server has been nice, it was limited in size to just 500 kB because the application was installed directly onto mesh nodes, thus there is limited storage space. Oh…yes…I forgot to mention that we do install multiple iterations of MeshChat for redundancy purposes…..the cool thing is that each instance syncs with all the other instances in case of a node failure. Back to the story.
To improve MeshChat and to give a real, useful file server capability, you can ALSO install it on a Raspberry Pi. Why is that important? Because we are no longer limited to 500 kB of storage space and are limited only by the storage capacity provided on the Pi. In our case, 23 GB! So, in the end, we have indeed upped the game considerably by adding this important capability. “AKMeshChat”, as it is identified on our mesh network, is available to any user on the mesh.
So, thank you Eugen and Mike for the terrific help today! Couldn’t have done it without you.
If you are interested in learning how you can get onto our mesh network and/or be a contributor to services that we might want to put on the mesh, please drop a note to info@kl7aa.org.
Thanks and 73
Posted by: Kent Petty, KL5T
Date: 2/7/2022
This is a call for assistance with a very important Emergency Communications project that involves a Raspberry Pi4 and our MESH network. We are attempting to run a software application that is known to be fully operable on the MESH, but we are having some difficulties with what appears to be permissions.
This may be a simple fix….we hope…for the right person.
There are other Raspberry Pi projects that also might be of interest as well that are associated with our MESH network.
Please contact Kent at treasuer@kl7aa.org if you are willing to give it a go.
You will be named a hero!
Thanks in advance and 73
