Sooo. I just want to ask this to see if its even a reality: Is it possible to setup something like a raspberry pi as a border router, or some kind of bridge device so that other devices can join the particle mesh and interact with something locally (ie: without the cloud)?
Currently my understanding is that anything that isn’t a particle mesh device that wants to chat with the devices on the mesh, need to do so through the cloud API. Is this right?
I kind of figured there might be a way to have a device that isn’t a particle, be like a hotspot / wifi AP so that other devices can access things in the mesh network. Maybe I’m wrong. But that’s why forums exist.
Is this a fantasy? If it is, what are some ways people have been exploring for non particle mesh devices to chat to the mesh network locally?
@wandering_n, it may not be a fantasy but for now, it isn’t a reality. This is a much requested feature but I’m not sure what Particle’s plans are. However, we can poke and ask!
I would guess their plans are whatever road keeps as much traffic in their PaaS as possible. I mean don’t get me wrong, its a nice PaaS, but I was hoping there was an accessible option for something like a border router, right now it still seems like a deep dig.
Not quite. Once you have a Particle device hook your mesh up to a LAN (e.g. Argon, Xenon + Ethernet FeatherWing) you can talk to any of the devices without a need to go via the cloud.
You can directly talk UDP to any device or you can talk TCP with the gateway and have that pass your messages on (e.g. via Mesh.publish()).
So what I’m hearing is that to get, say, a tiny python script acting as a server or node doing something similar, on my computer sending a message visa UDP to my mesh network, I need an Argon, hooked up to my home router via ethernet? Kinda like a Hue Hub? (sorry I usually rephrase to see if I’m understanding because boards are $$$)
My understanding is that using an OpenThread Border Router should be fairly easy, just know one has figured out how to do it yet. Originally it was not on Particles To-Do List but things may have changed.
Hmm, I’d say its not really that accessible. I know some of y’all been poking at it for the last 3 or so months now. It would be good of particle to either make a device, or at least release a full out tutorial or something.
It's actually really accessible, I just haven't been able to give it much time (I am presently updating ~50 Machine Learning examples to the new version 1.0.0 of Tensorflowjs) . It is one of those frustrating things that a few engineers from Particle could probably do in a few hours, not really sure if I want to spend months working on it.
I mean accessible and easy are relative. For me its not that accessible compared to other things I’ve done. But yeah I don’t blame you, re: not wanting to spend months on it. Not when other networking solutions / implementations exist.
Uhm, no. Either a Xenon via Ethernet or an Argon via WiFi - not Argon via Ethernet.
But then the server Python server wouldn't be acting as a mesh node.
However, to me your OP didn't suggest you were particularly/exclusively looking for a way to add a non-Particle node but rather any means of communicating with the nodes without the need for the Particle cloud (as mesh node only being one option of many).