GENRIP for Ultra Low Cost Wireless Deployments

Gregory Perry writes "A South Florida company just released GENRIP, an open source (as in GPL) project for Linux that turns low cost serial line devices (such as 900 Mhz radios) into IP addressable nodes; right now the technology is being used by various robotics groups to replace existing wired tethers on robots with wireless radio links, but the important thing to mention is the ability to use cheap radios to create wireless lan segments without the power and cost requirements associated with 802.11 WLANS."

Comments

anyone got a...

[Havoc'ing]

pringles can?

not a replacement

[nogoodmonkey]

They even state that it isnt a replacement for 802.11.

Unless you're moving relatively small amounts of non-critical information, GENRIP is probably not for you. GENRIP does not even attempt to compete with 802.11 wireless LAN equipment.

Re:not a replacement

[Jouster]

Yep, with my emphasis added:

Unless you're moving relatively small amounts of non-critical information, GENRIP is probably not for you. GENRIP does not even attempt to compete with 802.11 wireless LAN equipment. That's not what it's for. GENRIP is SLOW! For example, the MHX-910 radios give approximately 120ms round trip ping times, and an actual streaming throughput (using TCP) of about 21K, which is slightly less than your average 28.8K modems. While this is certainly not bad, it's not going to help you if you're looking for fast wireless connectivity.

Jouster

Give credit where it's due

[ekrout]

This GENRIP project is based largely in part on the STRIP project at Stanford.

(And no, the STRIP project is not the name of the film crew for Girl Geeks Gone Wild - Winter Vacation In SoCal either. It stands for STarmode Radio IP.)

Better not try anything to serious with it

[greechneb]

I can imagine having some critical item hooked up (for example an O2 tank for grandma) to a computer for monitoring of regulation, and teenager gets on cordless phone to dial her friend, and the 02 tank goes crazy with full force, blowing up grandma like a cartoon balloon. - Not a good thing

Man Hours is a Cost too...

[mr_gerbik]

Fine, the equipment may be cheap -- and it sounds like you get what you pay for. But what about the cost of man hours it takes to get this up and running. Not to mention the man hours it will take to support some hodge-podge solution to wireless. For all the trouble you will have to go to to get this crappy solution going, you could afford 802.11b that works out of the box on most distros anymore.

If you want to save some money cutting corners, then build some cheap pringles cantennas or something.

-gerbik

Low cost?

[cybermace5]

Have any of you priced serial radio modems recently?

We're talking far, far more expensive than even the more expensive wireless Ethernet cards. Check this out: Arrick's wireless links.. $650.

Perhaps there are some modules that, in a manufacturing situation, are pretty cheap. But you're going to have to spend a lot, unless you're interested in developing with TI's transceiver modules. Break out a very tiny soldering iron and a magnifying glass, those flatpacks can get pretty small (this I say right before actually soldering a similar sized chip).

Not necessarily cheaper.

[Hayzeus]

It should be borne in mind that a decent 900mhz radio modem is NOT generally cheaper than the equivalent 802.11b device. The real advantage (in mobile robotics) is that radio modems don't require the associated infrastructure to support an 802.11B device (like a PC, for instance) and can thus be indirectly cheaper.

Having said that, easily microcontroller interfacable 802.11b devices are (at least by rumor) beginning to show up on the market. I have no idea what the cost is tho.

Linux Has Had an Equivalent

[zentec]

Check your kernel sources. Enable the ax.25 kernel modules and you too can enable tcp/ip over serial devices.

Add in the supplemential toys which include a niftly "inted"-style super server and you can have it fire applications off on that serial lan, or use kernel routing to route to the Internet.

Spiffy.

Great range with the Microhard wireless modem

[Jon Abbott]

According to this document, the Microhard MHX-910 has a range 20 miles (line-of-sight) or more. I'm guessing (and hoping) this is omnidirectional. That could prove to be very useful in many applications where the omnidirectional range of 802.11b doesn't cut it!

Also, did anybody notice that the company's name, "Microhard", is the opposite of "Microsoft"? :^)