Lo-fi adaptor

[cosmicschock]

Hello pinephone community minus exclusions

It would a cool potential to explore use of pinephone on lo-fi networks like Helium, this thread is for that discussion. Seeing a lo-fi adaptor on a future update of the pinephone or finding some hack for use of lo-fi on the pinephone as it exists is a desired outcome of this thread for me.

[marcih]

I had to do a double take there on "Lo-Fi", thinking you meant something to do with audio fidelity... :lol: I presume you mean "Long-Fi". The thread would also probably fit better in the PinePhone Hardware subforum

As for the question, I'm not familiar with the concept of "Long-Fi" (unless we're talking WISP PtP links) and the Helium website or articles about them don't provide much info. If it can use standard client 802.11n hardware that the PinePhone is already equipped with then it would probably just be a case of implementing their protocol in software. If they use specialized hardware (which I couldn't find for sale anywhere) then it may be THEORETICALLY possible as a hardware extension using the Pogo pins on the back of the phone. As for whether it would be practically possible or even viable for use, I have no idea.

[poVoq]

Helium seems to use LoRaWan, so likely it will be possible to use with the upcoming PineDio and also the LoRaWan backplate for the Pinephone.

But don't expect too much, LoRaWan is very low bandwidth.

edit:

As of today, only approved Hotspots can participate in mining $HNT. However, any LoRaWAN Gateway can be converted to route packets to the Helium Network for development and production applications.

So I guess the new PineDio LoRaWan gateway would first need to be "approved". No idea what that entails though.

[cosmicschock]

Helium seems to use LoRaWan, so likely it will be possible to use with the upcoming PineDio and also the LoRaWan backplate for the Pinephone.

But don't expect too much, LoRaWan is very low bandwidth.

edit:

As of today, only approved Hotspots can participate in mining $HNT. However, any LoRaWAN Gateway can be converted to route packets to the Helium Network for development and production applications.

So I guess the new PineDio LoRaWan gateway would first need to be "approved". No idea what that entails though.

Good to know about PineDio, I think that's cool.

Yeah low bandwidth but I was thinking about crypto transactions over the lorawan network so it shouldn't take that much bandwidth. Do you think a 'PineLoRaWAN' would be possible at some point? That is, some opensource hotspot hardware like Helium's that isn't subject to Helium approval?

[poVoq]

Yes all sorts of low-cost LoRaWan products are currently being developed by Pine64: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinedio

But in how far they will be usable with Helium remains to be seen. https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/ is the more popular LoRaWan network anyways, and doesn't come with a strange blockchain integration (up to you find you want that or not). But TTN should work with the Pine64 LoRaWan products without problems.

[cosmicschock]

Yes all sorts of low-cost LoRaWan products are currently being developed by Pine64: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinedio

But in how far they will be usable with Helium remains to be seen. https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/ is the more popular LoRaWan network anyways, and doesn't come with a strange blockchain integration (up to you find you want that or not). But TTN should work with the Pine64 LoRaWan products without problems.

Could lorawan be used somewhat securely? For example if there's a group in my city that all use pinedio/etc. would I be able to send encrypted packets just over lorawan?

[poVoq]

Yes maybe. It is encrypted by default, but some caveats apply: https://threatpost.com/lorawan-encryptio...ks/152276/