Using the Particle Photon and Electron as a DIY Cellular Hotspot

Is it possible to use the Particle Photon and Electron to make a DIY cellular hotspot? I know it will be slow and that is not an issue.

You mean a WiFi-Cellular bridge?
I’d say: “Essencially yes, but …”

  • the SoftAP feature is currently confined to Listening Mode which adds some limitations
  • v0.6.0 should bring some improvement there
  • I think to remember there was a thread in this forum in a similar direction
    e.g. Photon to electron communication?

That is exactly what I want to do.

So has their been any progress made on creating a Photon to Electron bridge wifi hotspot?

Nope, since one prerequisite is still open - as mentioned in the other thread.
But it’s milestoned for 0.6.0, so keep an eye on the issues I linked to in the other thread too.

I can’t wait until that milestone is reached! :smiley:

The Particle devices are great for connected embedded projects… I’m working on a few projects myself with the Photon and Electron. But, to me it seems that they aren’t the best DIY solution for a wireless bridge.

I’ve actually made a wireless bridge with:

  • Raspberry Pi (<$40)
  • Edimax USB Wifi adapter ($7, but if you buy a Pi3, Wifi is built-in)
  • USB cellular modem (prices vary widely depending on cellular technology)
  • Enclosure (<$10)
  • SD card (<$10)
  • Power supply (<$10)

It’s been about a year since I did it, but I recall that it took about an evening to setup after googling “raspberry pi hotspot” or something along those lines.

Aside from the cellular modem, you’re talking about the price of an electron… and you can configure everything you’d ever want as far as firewalling, DHCP server/clients, NAT, port forwarding, IPSec, tunnels, etc, etc…

Jeff

Could the Electron provide an internet connection to the Raspberry Pi and if so how?