[ale] Misc ramblings of a diseased mind

[Richard Bronosky]

I used to use 2 cell phones (free minutes within same network) as a
baby monitor so that I could work in the garden while the baby naps.
Then I realized that walkie talkies would be better. They now have
Duplex and VOX walkie talkies. I think that motorcyclists use these
for "interbike" communications also. Having to push the button on a
half duplex system would be a deal breaker.

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 11:51 AM, tom<tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
>
> I'm back from a road trip to see grandchildren and children. Too much time
> spent driving means too much time for the mind to wander into ideas and
> questions. This being one of the more intellegent groups of people
> around...
>
> Due to vehicle size, there were a couple of times when we needed to convoy
> rather than ride the same bus. While cell phones have some use here,
> answering the "Is anybody as hungry as I am?" type questions, lets face
> the fact that they are expensive to use for much longer conversations
> while traveling, increase the risk of accident for their management when
> there is a single person in the car, and are not really a general
> solution despite being in almost every pocket/pocketbook around. I have
> seen a hacks book suggest setting up a two car communications system with
> laptops and ad hoc settings on the wireless setups, but I don't think that
> the setup would scale at all well to a three or four vehicle convoy of
> family/friends/what have you. At least the hardware would be frequently
> available.
>
> With a family reunion coming up in December, having a nice multi-vehicle
> convoy voice-com system with moderate range, decient privacy settings,
> and ease of use, would be an interesting item to have. Two approaches have
> occured to me, but neither feels quite right.
>
> First one would be something setup with an Arduino type controller using
> XBEE mesh networking type connections. Of course, I'm in over my head at
> this point, and would probably need to hire somebody to design and
> implement if I _needed_ it. Or turn it over to the general public (like
> ALE) and see if anything turned up if I don't _need_. It's an idea but
> poorly concieved at the moment.
>
> Second would be to do mesh networking with Linux and VOIP technology. Put
> things on a thumb drive, tell people to bring lappies and possibly USB
> style networking equipment, and go nuts. 'Course I don't know much of
> anything about getting mesh networking going, and even less about things
> like security and range so...
>
> Off the top of my head, I suspect I'd like to shoot for the ability to
> have ranges of near a mile over the highway between any two vehicles,
> automatic reconnection, voice level bandwidths with a little extra for
> comfort or expansion, encrypted links for privacy since this isn't CB, and
> the ability to automatically scale up to multiple (shoot for 20?)
> vehicles.
>
> Anybody here find either idea amusing enough to make a useful comment?
> A ticket for the Clue Train? Even a snide comment?
>
> As usual, thanks to all members of the list for the use of their
> bandwidth. I do appreciate it.
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-- 
.!# RichardBronosky #!.