Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Solar Powered Hotspot
hode writes "Popular Science has a how-to article up on turning a backpack into a portable, solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Possible uses include providing Wi-Fi access for a road-trip caravan." From the article: "Its secret ingredient: the Junxion Box. Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device, and voil--instant Wi-Fi hotspot, with speeds averaging around 700 kilobits per second. To power the box, I wired it to a 1.2-amp-hour battery and dropped both into the Voltaic Systems backpack, which has a built-in solar charger."
I can't help but wonder how well this would work if it rained during your whole weekend camping trip? Since that would seem like the time you'd want to use it. ;)
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
Wasnt something like this featured at BurningMan? Seems an ideal case for something like this, unless your family roadtrips include browsing /.
There is truth in humor.
If you connect to it, you too can be arrested.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
1) This thing costs over $1000
2) EV-DO cellular internet service for the internet connection is $80/mo
Maybe it would be better just to deal with being away from the internet when you're camping...
"Scientists don't change their minds, they just die." -- Max Planck
Solar? Any real man would use the heat differential between the surface of certains parts of ones body and the outdoors. As long as it isn't too hot out, works like a charm. Added benefit, can be implanted (sorta) easily...
Well, if it takes 4-6 hours (from TFbackpack) to charge a cell phone, is the box going to be charged in real time from this backpack?
I guess I think that you wouldn't need the backpack to provide Wi-Fi to a caravan, as mentioned in TFA, and if you can't charge while hiking....
Obviously the mobile internet service required for this particicular hotspot is expensive, and you'd be mad to want to offer it for open access at your own expense, but what caught my imagination more from the article is the idea of a 'personal network' to allow all of your devices to talk to each other via wifi. As more devices we carry around become wifi equipped imagine if your iPod, phone, psp and camera are all enabled & communicating with each other, having them all on a common network and working to each of their strengths (the psp using the ipod for storage, viewing images from the camera using the psp then uploading them via the phone.. , etc) seems to have real potential and be something that would enhance the usability factor of each device greatly.
Business Voyeur
Definitely had me hooked until I saw the price tag.
Can pay someone to run back and forth to my computer for that much money.
-c
dit is zo koel!!
I can play counter-stike when camping! No more annoying so-called "fresh air" needed.
-Valiss
"Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device, and voil" So we need to obtain some of this "voil" for this configuration to work? What is the availability and pricing on this substance? ^_~
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
That's what Bluetooth was for, I thought. Why do we need this (hideously expensive) box to be a PAN when we have the (slightly less expensive and not needing an additional box) Bluetooth to di it already?
Hmm... I'd like to hear some information on range in actual operation for that roadtrip caravan scenario...
But imagine some wireless VoIP-type phones and using them for intercom services between cars in a caravan.
All very nice expensive electronic gadgets to make you a good target for a mugger...
"Scientists don't change their minds, they just die." -- Max Planck
voila. Viola is a musical instrument.
While a musical interlude is always appreciated, I believe the word you are looking for is: voilà
And lo, you've discovered the original idea behind Bluetooth. It even works pretty well. Unfortunately, the standard isn't the issue, nor is the bandwidth. Developers just are too lazy to take advantage of it. For a decent glimpse of the PAN concept, try out a recent Windows Mobile device (iPaq, Dell Axim, etc), a Sony Ericcson T610 and a bluetooth headset. You can use the PDA as a screen and data repository, the cell phone for network connection, and the headset for audio. Unfortunately, the headset can't be connected to both the phone and the PDA at the same time. Bummer. But it's a start! Remember- even Star Trek characters use three devices! Convergence is not a laudable goal!
My Systems
I've been making my own solar powered hotspots for years, all you need is a magnifying glass. Place it an appropriate distance from the ground and it becomes ideal for heating up small areas with only the power of the sun!
Better than "wallah."
*rolls eyes*
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
To get full internet connectivity, you have to be on a service plan with one of the 1xEVDO cariers. Currently, those are: ACS, Alltel, Sprint, Verizon, Bell Mobility (Canada), New Zealand Telecom (New Zealand), Telstra (Australia, even though they are still upgrading).
One of the problems is that 1xEVDO does not contribute to the 3G convergence and really is a fork of a protocol. While 1xRTT is there for CDMA2000, GPRS and EDGE work on GSM-based networks. 1xEVDO seems like a very minor standard in terms of adoption, and its only benefit is lower capital needs for deployment. However, it does not really scale long-term.
To me personally, it seems 1xRTT and EDGE will eventually prevail.
id get robbed of that stuff in under 30 minutes
The main ingredient here seems to be the Junxion box. But can't you replicate that with a bridge device on any laptop? The EV-DO card brings in the signal. Any el-cheapo wireless access point broadcasts it, and the bridge (in software) bridges the two devices.
Now YOU too can impress Bigfoot and all his friends with your very own HotspotPack(noTM)! All for the low-low-low price of ... $1065.50! Some assembly required, backpack not included, not responsible for lost or stolen identities due to running HotspotPack(noTM) in unsucured mode, do not use HotspotPack(noTM) in conjunction with hooded sweatshirts/sunglasses, or burkas.
If you have alot of neihbors around with thier own WiFi routers, and alot of the channels are used up, how do you make sure you are not connecting to someone elses (which can be illegal.) Right now I live in an area with only country folk on Dial-Up where few people have wireless (other than the local school) so I don't have to worry about this yet, I evne get Adelphia's advertised permium broadband speed. But when my neihbors switch over, I am worried about connecting to their router, and I wouldn't really want to share my solar "hotspot" (not because I am greedy, I just don't let unauthorized machines use my network)
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
Price does not matter if your company is paying for it.
I saw something very similar to this in Las Vegas. They were using a back pack with linux, gps, and 2 evdo to transmit a live feed from an HDTV camcorder. And oh they also had a very fancy looking audio set up. I think the camera guy had to wear a battery belt and there was a fan blowing into the back pack.
They have at least $5000 dollars on 1 camera crew and they at least have two crews.
I went to their website. I didn't know what the website was about until I logged on. (It isn't a porn site.) It is a hotel finder specific for Las Vegas hotels.
Basically, they're using this as a marketing tool for their website. Where you follow them around for 100 days.
The feed it is clunky. And shitty in general for a feed that small.
If you really want to see it http://i4vegas.com/
I don't work for this company. Although I wish my company would let me spend a crap load of money for something that bad.
Is there a point at which we reach critical mass and all of us are continual interconnected all the time? At what saturation level do we achieve near 100% (for practical purposes) coverage in everyday life AND have the gear to tap into it at any time?
What if the standard for all mobile connected devices (cell phones, pda's w/ wireless, sat. phones etc) was that any unused bandwidth was offered up on public airwaves? Then your other devices could tap into whatever avail. bandwidth was floating around. With the right technology, you could probably reduce some of the need for wifi repeaters and cell towers in dense urban areas as every device out there could become a repeater/router. My pda could tap into your currently unused bandwidth on the cell phone in your pocket which, was in a shadow from the nearest cell tower, BUT was currently grabbing bandwidth from three other cells phones that were a few yards away and outside that shadow and also grabbing a piece from that laptop over on the bench that was connected through a different network and not in the same shadow....
man, I feel like mold.
That's not really a "How To". It's an idea (albeit a pretty nifty one).
What's next? Popular Science puts together a "How To" on building your own car? "You first get a metal frame, and then attach two axels to it. Then you get an internal combustion engine and mount it on the front. The secret is putting a fuel storage container near the back, connected through a hose to the engine. That will give it a range of hundreds of miles. We also picked up a set of four Goodyear tires and put them on wheels connected to the axel. PROJECT COMPLETED"
The Internet is generally stupid
it may be second in line, but both posts were at the same time, and only one slashdot post lies inbetween, theyre probably within the same second or two even. Redundant is a bit unfair.
This thing, as made in the article, costs over $1000, I would have thought a project slashdot would link to would have somebody rigging up their own solar panels instead of paying $230 for a bag with solar panels on it and setting up their own system (mini itx or some such) instead of paying $700 for a Junxion Box.
Too bad that if you opened the backpack in public, someone would probably shout "bomb!".
You can build your own EV-DO/Wi-Fi router for much less than the cost of a Junxion box.
BTW, you forgot the obligatory cs_office screenshot. (With the rest of the motivational poster parodies here
The lone hitch: Wi-Fi is useless without a hotspot.
Um, have they never heard of ad hoc networks? Plug in the EV-DO card into your PowerBook, open System Preferences, select the Sharing control panel, click the internet tab, and select "Share you Connection from to computers using ". Same idea, different steps on Windows.
I suppose it would be OK for passengers, but you know some jackass is going to start IMing, fragging, looking up pr0n and who knows what else, while driving. Which would be a worse driver? Soccer mom on a cell phone, or computer geek surfing the web.. thats a tough call!!
Kind of like what Blue Tooth was supposed to do? ;)
The rain volume is a bit of a myth, but the constant grey isn't.
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
...to surf the web where I, uh, do my business. Now I can surf where a bear does his business!
Don't trust anyone under thirty.
How about wrapping the whole package in solar cells, mounting it in the middle of a 1m diameter fishing net, and throwing it up into the trees? Do that with enough to put 3 APs in every 300' radius, all through the woods. Set a server connected to the network (maybe via a remote Pringles can) to ping each one, notifying when one has dropped off the network. Then go find it on the ground, and fling it up again.
Now you've got a rural area with a truly wireless network. It's easy to maintain the mesh. And these apps are cheap enough that a community can afford to do it, without a big cost per person.
--
make install -not war
hardly offtopic, even from me, the loser in the duel.
This is cool and all, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. The article is pretty short on details. It says it only lasts 3 hours? Is that 3 hours just off the battery or including the solar panels? If it's only 3 hours even when the solar panels are connected, then it's pretty useless... that doesn't make sense.
The junxion box though is very sweet. I set one up in my Boss's car recently. It's very slick and easy to setup, even though it's a little expensive. The other problem we had was the slot where the card goes didn't leave enough room for the pigtail connector on the card we had. (for some strange reason the connector was on the side of the card instead of the back) Had to order a special pigtail to hookup the antenna.
http://evoketv.com - TV Listings 2.0
This solar powered hotspot is $1,000. Maybe an alright price for a consumer product, but a little much for something you'd build yourself, here's a cheaper solution:
$189 - Gum Stix Connex 400xm-bt, a small xscale system running embedded linux
$25 - CFstix, an expansion board for the above system allowing connection of Compact flash cards
$70 - Netgear MA701 802.11b Wireless Compact Flash Adapter
Subtotal: $284
That ought to be a good replacement for the junxion system in this case, for 40% of the cost.
As for the solar power, you might want to use the same Voltaic Systems bag they used in the article, but you could deck out a bag you already have with solar panels and such and it might be a little cheaper. Hell, if you wanted you could put their solar panels and batteries in your bag, they sell them seperately!
Reading the title made me think of burning ants with a magnifying glass as a kid.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
This article seems like an ad. The project is essentially just plugging a Junxion Box into a Voltaic Systems backpack. If you were looking to make something like this, why would you choose to use something like the Junxion Box? Surely a mini-itx system would do just as well in this situation at a fraction of the cost (half as much?). Who on here was even familiar with this product before this article was posted?
The only drawback to the design that it looks too much like a bomb in a backpack. I don't think you want to walk through a train station with one of these.
This is very clunky and expensive looking. The PV cells don't look as though they're going to provide enough power except when it's very bright out and you have them pointed directly at the sun. EV-DO also doesn't work well, in a lot of places. It's still in testing. The $1000 for the equipment seems like it could be spent better on mesh wireless gear, or ham radio equipment. But hey! It's what popular science/tech magazines do! They may you say "cool!".
What happens when Verizon says "No More" and cuts you off? According to Verizon's TOS: Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess: NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess data sessions may be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email and individual productivity applications such as customer relationship management, sales force and field service automation). Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess is for individual use only and not for resale. Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess cannot be used: (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games; (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, without limitation, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, telemetry applications, automated functions or any other machine-to-machine application; or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess data sessions automatically terminate after two hours of inactivity unless used with a Mobile IP-capable device. We reserve the right to limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny or terminate service, without notice, to anyone who uses NationalAccess or BroadbandAccess in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts our network or service levels. We also reserve the right to terminate service upon expiration of Customer Agreement term. BroadbandAccess kilobyte usage may not appear on your bill http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controlle r?item=planFirst&action=viewPlanDetail&sortOption= priceSort&catId=409&rp
posting this without karma bonus to reduce the risk of being modded down.
the thing is downmods reduce karma. This makes people take them personally since if you lose too much karma the starting score of your posts goes down and you could possiblly even end up banned.
Out of interest if you belived your post to be offtopic why did you use karma bonus to post it at +2?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
That's not obvious. With all the miles of dark fiber in this country and "all you can eat" cell phone plans, you would hope that per byte charges would be a thing of the past. Indeed, only one of Verizon's plans are pay as you go, and Verizon sucks life. So, with a flat fee, what's the point of not letting other people use your bandwith? So you can have your $1,000 goodies to yourself? Those goodies are only valuable when they are attached to a network and the network is only valuable because other people are there.
As more devices we carry around become wifi equipped imagine if your iPod, phone, psp and camera are all enabled & communicating with each other, having them all on a common network and working to each of their strengths
I don't own any devices that don't talk to my laptop so wifi won't offer me anything new. USB and pcmcia card readers work just fine and take much less power than wifi. Still, the are all relatively useless without network access. What's the point of pictures that I can't share with my family? Even the largest music collections go stale. My laptop runs free software because that's the easiest way for me to share things with myself and my friends.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If you have an air card and are by some miracle in range of a cell tower, why would you plug it into a $1000 box requiring another $100 battery instead of just directy into your laptop?
...IP over power lines
I've had thoughts (only thoughts) that involve a model rocket, a co2 cartrage, a large mylar (radar reflective) balloon, and a national capitol.
Of course, I only advocate thinking about it and smiling -- absolutely not trying it to see if you can provoke a response.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
1. Go outside.
...That was way easier than their tutorial.
2. Stand in sun.
Being funny is my sig nature.
You get a Linksys WRT54G (or other hackable) router and put openwrt on it, put it in "client" mode (so it acts like a client) add an external antenna if needed so you can pick up some open wifi hotspot out there (left open for others to use of course) or starbucks etc... You can get up to 2 miles easy outdoors.
Then on the other end, you plug in a normal router, just pretend that the WRT54GS is a cable modem (it supplies the internet, DHCP and all that on it's ethernet ports).
Everyone logs into the normal router and off you go!
If you have a system that gets internet in the boonies, like satellite internet or something, just turn on connection sharing and connect a normal router to your ethernet. It should all run on a car battery without running it down for weeks so don't wory about solar.
The linksys and other router really don't take much power so you could run them off a large solar panel for 24/7 access.
Here's some links for lazy people:
http://openwrt.org/ClientModeHowto
http://wiki.openwrt.org/ClientModeHowto
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000690043237/
I don't really get it.. I RTFA, but I still don't understand where you are supposed to get your internet uplink from?
The solar cells are nifty but there are cheaper and more rugged ways to generate power. If you are mountian biking, use a cheap headlight generator set. Your body can put out a good 250 watts, almost 10 times the power needs of a good low power laptop.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
BYOWiFi - War driving is so 2001.
You heard it here first people!
The idea behind PV cells on a backpack is to store the energy in a battery, not to use it all the time. It would be nice if you could get that kind of power out of something the size of your back, but there's hardly enough sunlight hitting your back for that.
This is very clunky and expensive looking.
Expensive? Yes. Clunky? No. The whole setup looks like it weighs less than the average laptop and takes up little space in your backpack. I was impressed, though I think you'd be better off using your laptop as your router.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
I hate it when someone throws a bunch of buzzwords and sounds intelligent.
...and I am happy to have left the Cell industry as of yesterday.
EDGE is really just 4x GPRS, or "2.5G"
The upgrade path to 3G for GSM carriers is to UTMS/WCDMA.
For CDMA, the 1xRTT upgrade path is to CDMA2000 EV-DO.
Between the two, EVDO can fall back to 1xRTT IS95 seamlessly. UTMS can't, although it has a speed advantage.
1xRTT and EDGE are deployed everywhere. It's EVDO and UTMS that one should be looking for.
Whats amusing:Watching Nextel trying UTMS iDEN hybrid. Ping Reply: Please wait while the Nextel IP Address is found.
Scaleability (as far as speed) is only a minor factor in choosing an upgrade path. Carriers care about Capacity, netowrk reliability and footprint. For that, 1xRTT(IS95) and EVDO lay the smack on GPRS/EDGE/UTMS.
You're missing the EV-DO part. EV-DO cards are CardBus, and I doubt the Gumstix supports CardBus.
That's one of the problems with wi-fi - lots of dropped ackets
I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
I personally think that the image on the page of the backpack looks like something the bomb squad would attempt to detonate after forgetting it in the airport. hehe, "ITS ONLY A PORTABLE WIRELESS HOTSPOT" bombsquad waits... "OH MY GOD, GET HIM, HE'S ILLEGALLY SHARING INTERNET ACCESS!"
13 million whoo!
Uhhh... that's why there's an ad-hoc mode in 802.11.
Umm no? Did you read the article? The backpack is solar powered which is readily available (and granted a bit shady on a backpack imo). Furthermore, this is readily available internet via EVDO. Sure it is expensive, but it is legal. And while I may agree with you about bridging wireless networks, it is highly illegal as recent news pieces have stated. At least with EVDO (and with you sharing it) you are crossing no legal boundaries...
or even a camping trip...
90% of our Aussie roads have no cell signal at all. If you're in a town, there might be a signal, maybe, but there will be an internet cafe too. As soon as you're a few km out of town - no signal and if you're in the outback and you've got a cell signal - you're not really in the outback.
As for the solar powered thing, I think it might be much cheaper (though perhaps not as ecofriendly) to get a converter for the car cigarette lighter and plug into that.
And I already have a solar panel for recharging the car batteries (I have two), while parked in one spot for a while.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
I've thought that even today's existing WLAN gear can be used in a decentralized way, and I mainly see Managed mode networks as a means of corporate profit (selling an access point even when you could just connect computers directly via WLAN) and centralized control.
These are possibly stupid questions, as I don't have much experience with WLANs, but I hope someone could shed a little light on these :)
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Think outside the U.S. borders. Maybe you can get arrested for that in the U.S., but the world is much larger than the U.S. of A.
Simpy
Bluetooth sucks.
No, really.
The idea is fine, but implementation is poor. And what's worse, the economics aren't compelling.
Read old security reviews when Bluetooth was being designed and introduced, but the real barrier is that, unlike Wifi, which is just too useful (you don't have to trail 100 feet of ethernet cable), Bluetooth lets devices that are both with you to communicate when a wire is not too bad.
The security part means people like me (have money, like techie toys) avoid it. The economic part means that it isn't driven by regular folks (my wife, for example).
Yeah, those phaser/communicators were fugly in TOS.
I don't get it.
Hey! That could even be real backseat driving ... you stick the wireless lan in an RV, you stick a camera on the dash, a few servos on the steering wheel, brakes, throttle, and shifter, and cruisecontrol, put another few cameras on the sides and back, and then you walk around the back of your RV while driving it with whatever wireless device available, be it phone, pda, or laptop...
:) ... well maybe only 2, unless you start getting funky interfaces so you can use your feet, but I do think the limit is 4 if you can handle managing 4 sets of video feeds simultaneously for differing traffic.
you could even drive a fleet of RV's like that...
Gravity Sucks