Wow, great conversation! My apologies in advance as I come up to speed. I’d created a Requirement Backlog list (Requirements Backlog - #2 by RajD) to capture Requirements - User Stories. Not sure if thats useful/effective, but we need a way of centralising, categorising and up/down voting and prioritising needs, so they can be later fleshed out and roadmapped. I’m happy to help solve that with you.
On comms;-
- whats the “real need” for Near Real Time NRT data comms and video?
- @WillStewart had a good suggestion to store/process locally on SD card. Then perhaps process and data-stream as/when the link allows, with adequee buffering. Or Return to Base (RtB) range and upload.
- Local WiFi as a platform protocol standard, could simply access a shared WiFi Hotspot from an cheap old Android phone, planted on the device over 4G/5G. User chooses/upgrades the phone/connection.
- Compute processing and storage could even be “offloaded” to the local mobile phone app over localised WiFi and results returned/replicated.
- Current State information to a secure MQTT server on a Pi, might be an ideal storage protocol. That could be asynchronously replicated to multiple data peers. MQTT peers hosted on local Pi, local Phone app, HomeFarm MQTT container server (docker), Internet cloud servers.
- Offers mobile phone localised control over Wifi, faster, when you come in range.
- Local WiFi hotspot can be shared with other low cost in-field wifi solar powered sensors as it passes them, to collect data on soil PH, moisture etc.
- Platform could integrate with Farm wide Mesh Wifi network (like Ubiquiti or starlink), or itself act as a Mesh Wifi AP.
- Pls BEWARE: frequency standards/restrictions in USA are different to many other countries. @bradstew mentions proprietary 900MHz RF. We’ve seen recent bans in Australia of smart/IoT devices from USA, regulatory controls which are strictly and heavily enforced and actively scanned. Hence global protocol standards are needed.
Just sharing my Farm Wifi experience:-
- I’ve used Shelley Cloud (https://shelly.cloud) 12v wifi relay controllers for pumps etc, at my farm which host their own little web server locally in the device. To update programmable configs/control, I bring into range an Android phone with 4g/5g sim card as a shared Wifi Hot Spot as I drive around, or place it near the wifi relay device.
- My eventual goal is for farm wide WiFi - I’d also concluded on Ubiquity Unifi Mesh like @taylor mentioned. Now I have a solar powered 12v 4G/5G sim Router connected to a Mesh network (Datto OpenMesh - EOL) WAP, broadcasting 50m before signal drops. Single 200w Solar panel with 120AH AGM battery has been fine.
- I’m to experiment placing an old parabolic sattelite dish at the right distance behind my WAP (Wireless Access Point) to boost my wifi broadcast signal about 3km Line of Sight, according to internet experiments. The Wifi signal for internet download inbound to devices is OK. But ofcourse device outbound to WAP for internet upload is not improved. A periodic Wifi booster, perhaps directional might work.
Kind regards,
Raj