What a great idea for a student project. Give them some mesh and have them make their own parabolic reflector with toothpick proof of the Focal Point.
Thanks @zonker for all the likes. Biggest challenge coming up:
I have bought several (on back order) OpenThread USB dongles and now need to get them going with the Border Router and hook them up to the Particle Mesh devices. Probably a big waste of money as the mesh devices will not play nicely but needs to be attempted. Be really nice, but not likely, if Particle released an OpenThread version of their Mesh firmware.
Just found this quote I read a while back but could not find the link:
The Thread devices in this Codelab are a specific kind of Full Thread Device (FTD) called a Router Eligible End Device (REED). This means they can function as either a Router or End Device, and can promote themselves from an End Device to a Router. (I think this would be equivalent to an Argon Gateway)
Thread can support up to 32 Routers, but tries to keep the number of Routers between 16 and 23. If a REED attaches as an End Device (child) and the number of Routers is below 16, after a random time period within two minutes it automatically promotes itself to a Router.
I think this means if you have more than 23 Argons in a thread, any more Argons will probably downgrade from gateways to the equivalent of a Xenon as endpoints, unless for some reason the network senses it needs more Argon gateways.