Have a look over here:
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AFAICT there is currently no way to setup an Argon as non-gateway and also no way to create a mesh network with multiple gateways.
Putting both limitations together, you won’t be able to set a mesh up between two Argons.
Support for both should be comming but just isn’t there yet.
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Oh, that would do it. Can I setup a Boron as a non-gateway or did I need to get a Xenon? If no then crap, I only got those two…
At the moment, I believe if you want to utilize the mesh network, you need a Xenon.
Well darn it, how did I miss that 
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It wasn’t stated during the pre-order. Only recently (last 30 days) did they update the mesh pricing and announce that HA mesh networks (High Availability = more than one gateway on the mesh) wouldn’t be available until a later date. Although I understood the need for a Xenon from the pre-order descriptions, it wasn’t perfectly clear and others are had the same impression as you. Don’t feel bad, but if you need mesh now, you have to order a Xenon (and wait until sometime in December to get it as they are backed up with orders at the moment.)
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Thank you for everyone’s help!
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Can we get some Manager or other Particle people on this thread?
@will @zachary @zach @avidan
@rickkas7 @KyleG @AndyW
Multiple Argon Mesh ability is really needed as per this in the pricing.
Which has this quote:
All Particle customers will get 10 free gateway upgrades for prototyping and evaluating Particle Mesh. All local communications between mesh endpoints are free.
With 10 free gateways, you could build:
One giant network of 100+ devices
Is this feature a high priority?
Presently my Xenons are not working (flashing green) but my Argons are stable, I need to be able to add more Argons to my mesh network for this product to be useful at all.
Please tell me this is a high priority and not some feature that is 6 months away.
The product I have at the moment is in no way a mesh, more like a bad string of xmas lights.
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Better take those Xenons out of the black foam since it can be conductive. The Yellow LED on the one closest to the Argon in the picture should also stop flashing once you remove the foam.
Supposedly the foam can damage the Xenon or any device worst case.
I just took my Argon and 5 Xenons down for now until RC26 is released and then we can resume testing from there. To many flashing green lights around the house. Dont want to have a seizure.
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Seriously, why ship with it ?
I was using the foam so that I would not have any random electrical shorts. Take off the foam and I have better connectivity.
As always thanks @RWB
So here is my $1000.00 opinion of the connectivity problem, you can test it on your devices. If any Xenon is reset all the other Xenons have to re-connect to the Argon. If you pull the plug on one Xenon all is fine until you re-plug in that Xenon then all the other Xenons have to re-connect. Potentially this could be a reoccurring loop of device reseting and not being able to reconnect. Solve the need for all the Xenons having to reconect if one is reset and you solve the connectivity issue.
Also When the Xenons reset they seem to do something to the Gateway that then needs to be fully rebooted before the Xenons can attach. I have seen that before with the Argon that a simple reset is not as useful as a full reboot (unplug and re-plug in).
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Because ESD is a real issue and the slightly conductive foam helps dissipate electro static charge during shipping and when stored.
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We will be adding support for networks with multiple gateways after resolving the high-priority stability issues that are being tracked in the following thread.
That includes a fix for the “Xenons cannot always reconnect to the Cloud after a gateway update / reset” which is the leading cause for Xenons that are stuck in a flashing green state.
One additional note is that the pricing you referenced is only applicable for customers who participated in the preorder pricing and have contacted support for grandfathered pricing. The link you referenced is an artifact from the preorder campaign that has been updated.
All pricing for new customers is current at http://particle.io/pricing
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From that page I found:
FREE Device Cloud access
for first 100 devices
Looks good to me. Now that the connectivity has improved with version 0.8.0-rc.26 firmware any idea when 2 or more gateways will be able to use the same mesh network? I have a ton of testing to do on it.
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Hey there @rocksetta – that is the Device Cloud pricing for Wi-Fi devices (Photons, Argons), that are not acting as gateways in a Mesh network. Mesh pricing (post-preorder) is accessible by toggling the rocker to “Mesh” and selecting either “Wi-Fi gateway” or “Cellular gate-way”.
Building support for high availability networks is near the top of our list along with Bluetooth API support and Sleep mode support in the Device OS. We need to certain that stability continues to improve before strongly prioritizing new features, but recognize that perhaps the most important new feature for many of our Mesh customers.
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Ouch!
Actually @will. I still don’t understand the above pricing. Does the bottom line in the above image
Free Device Cloud Access
for the first 3 months/network
mean that you are only billed if you keep your network up for more than 3 months?
(of course with your credit card ready to be processed)
So could a developer setup a network, prove it works in under 3 months, cancel that network, not get billed, and then setup another network to test some other concept?
That’s correct. Just like for our other cellular products, the first three months of Device Cloud service are free. If you create a cellular-based network that you use for 3 months, you will not be charged until the 4th month begins.
You only get 3 free months per device, so if you create a cellular network for 3 months, cancel it, then restart it using the same device, you’ll be charged for the 4th month.
If you use a different device, it will also receive 3 free months of Device Cloud service.
@will can I get a link to the issue that is tracking this? I’m about to deploy a new network so if this comes available my product would certainly benefit. I looked at the issues and didn’t find anything.
Thanks, Aaron
Sorry for resurrecting this, but the title was most applicable to my related question: In light of the discontinuation of the Xenon, the concept of scaling a Particle-based ecosystem of devices for specific environments by just adding a new mesh node when a new need or product idea arises should be reconsidered. Is there a way to have Argons talk amongst each other to create redundant and flexible network links, as was the theory behind the Gen3 Mesh concept to begin with?
For example, is it feasible to have dozens of Argons as remote sensors taking readings, relaying via BLE or Wifi to nearest Argon and on to the gateway. Should I be looking elsewhere for low-cost, low-power end points and just think of Particle devices as a gateway or one-off / stand-alone IoT device?
Still trying to regain my balance as I just discovered the deprecation of Particle Mesh today, so I haven’t researched alternatives or fully grasped the implications.
-RC
@RobotChicken, at this time, a BLE Group library was created by one of the fine folks at Particle to create a mesh-like environment using BLE. However, due to memory limitations, it only supports three nodes at this time. Some folks are looking to Lora for the mesh part while leveraging an Argon or Boron for the cloud connectivity.
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Very helpful, as usual. Thank you @peekay123.
Edit - Whoah, serious benefits to using 900MHz: “Our initial tests with default library settings: over 1.2mi/2Km line-of-sight with wire quarter-wave antennas. (With setting tweaking and directional antennas, 20Km is possible).”
-RC
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