I am writing because I have to make a recommendation to my Colonel about upgrading our particle devices to Mesh. Currently we have all of our lighted systems using the Electrons. My boss is interested in the Mesh devices. But before I make the pitch I need to verify my understanding.
Q1. What is the expected range of the Mesh Only network for each chip without using crazy antenna setups? I will be putting these on lamp posts all throughout the base. But there are some instances where the separation could be as much as .7miles.
Q2. I am aware that these are very much in Alpha Stage and firmware is still lacking at the moment. So could I in theory replace all my Electrons with Borons. And at a later date write firmware to disable my cellular on most of the chips to use mesh only and reduce costs monthly?
The Photons & Electrons are so stable compared to the MESH devices that it doesn’t make sense to switch over to the MESH devices until they get them working better and sleep modes working on the Boron.
My MESH devices are still sitting in a box until their firmware is more stable.
The MESH will not give you anywhere near .7 miles range. You would need RFM95W or XBEE 900 Pro HP or XBEE Xtend 1w radios for that range.
Roger That. That's sort of why I was thinking to disable the Cell on some but not all. Maybe some of the signs are close enough for Mesh only and some are not. So Cell could be the link.
I agree with you to a point about having the items boxed up until firmware is improved. But In the meantime I have been playing with mine trying to understand them better.
Once the device OS for mesh devices becomes comparably stable to Gen2 then you could definetly replace the Electrons with Borons for their lower power demands.
But for mesh you’d need to do some local tests. Also when you intend to have multiple gateways in your mesh you’d be falling into the HA category which isn’t quite there yet.