[MLB-WIRELESS] Mast mounted wish list

[Ben Anderson]

Actually there are plenty of people around that own electronics
manufacturing lines for hire.  We could design up exactly what we want and
do a short production run.
Probably won't happen unless someones willing to spend on a prototype, and
try and recover that cost afterwards in per-unit profit...

Instead of putting pcmcia etc onboard we'd have the option of directly
putting 802.11x chipsets on the board at a much cheaper per-unit cost (the
chipsets are about 30 bucks each in volume)

Alternativly, what about something like:
http://www.axiomtek.com.tw/product-info.php?cat=Embedded+PCs&model=AX10440
coupled with
http://www.axiomtek.com.tw/product-info.php?cat=Embedded+PCs&model=SBC84510V
EE

Dual ethernet, dual PCMCIA, low power, can be run off a single +5 rail


Some australian suppliers of the above, or similar equipment:
http://www.backplane.com.au
http://www.turnkey-solutions.com.au/da_axiom_embedded_pcs.htm
http://www.esis.com.au/


The pc104 dual cardbus controller is $275
a 300mhz geode pc104 all-in-one board (inc ethernet):  $575
pc104 dual ethernet rtl8139 - $178
pc104 dual ethernet 82559 - $278

These are stackable, so if you wanted a geode with 4 pcmcia and 3 ethernet,
simply plug 'em together for $1303, add your radios, and you're in business.

I bet there's a few people who think that's expensive -- for low volume,
it's cheap...  if you want cheaper use an old p133 (say 100 bucks)
pci-pcmcia (say 80), and 14 per ethernet.  You've lost low-power, you've
lost the small box, but you do have it cheap...

In the interests of proliferation of this tech, it'd probably be better to
make a software image on floppy (or CF if more space), and let 'em run it in
crap-boxes and run LMR400 up the pole, as I doubt there'll be many buying
the expensive option.

I like the idea of every pole having an omni and a high gain, so let's say
2x 10m lmr400 @6/m = $120...
130 for a high gain dish, 80 for an omni.
140 for a pair of radios, 160 for a pair of pcmia-pci (300$ - actually a
pair of dlink external AP's would be cheaper than this, and could be
pole-mounted POE easily)
So that'd be what $630 plus mounting hardware...  by the time you muck
around a bit, add a p133 etc, you're talking about a grand per node...  Is
there a demand for ready-built meshing nodes at that price?  (I suspect
extremely low volumes only)


What we need to do is get someone like dlink onside, give us full technical
specs (including firmware source) for the dwl900ap (140$) and write up a new
firmware for it that includes meshing at the MAC layer...  POE, meshing up a
pole, etc...
Anyone got any strong (!) contacts at dlink?  (perhaps even under NDA?)

Ben.





> At the moment it would seem that there are no products that I can find
that
> match all of the wish list. The soekris board probably comes closest.
>
> Anyone here own an electronics manufacturing line ?
>
> Lyndon
>
> PS I have been looking at Australian ISPs and they charge by the Mb. What
> the F*** is that about ?
>
>
>
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