I’ve been testing HaLow on really rough, forested, no mobile signal, no power terrain in Spain and have a working POC (400m in bad ■■■ bush) . Actually it’s a mix of 2.4Ghz solar powered routers/extenders (Starlink was too heavy on power) and HaLow. I’ve tested using ALFA R(EU), AsiaRF AP & UM and even Anjielo 1km Extender (which was really bad) but I cannot get a HaLowlink 2 because I’m not an OEM/EMS. Any ideas when a Joe Public can buy one in the EU? I see they are for sale but not for the likes of me.
Thanks for this. I’ll keep the address for the future. I’ve moved onto how to power these devices in the wilds and it’s not easy keeping the weight down, minimising the fire risk and providing redundancy should the sun not shine. I think I have a lightweight (4kgs or so), fireproof solution with 4 days redundancy but I’ve yet to test it out. I’ve got my 400m HaLow POC in dense, sloping forest using either the ALFA R units or the AsiaRF kit. I’m going with ALFA due to (price + power costs) vs distance (against what I could achieve with 2.4Ghz solar powered repeaters). Next step is ESP32 (ESP-NOW lib) sensors on point duty. My showstopper is the EU regs regarding video, as I want to send back NDVI data and see 2 or 3 second standard def live streams (30kbps) as well (hence HaLow and not LoRa) and I’m trying to sort that as I type. Between ETSI and the EU I’ll probably end up screaming.
Just to let you know…I got absolutely nowhere with the EU or ETSI. I’ll have to do any “is it a fire” determination on the forest side (ESP32s with sensors, cameras, “AI” etc) and send a pic, GPS info back to my servers to send out notifications. I reckon I can get a good spread with HaLow > 2.4Ghz > ESPNOW data gardens, given I’ve proven a 400m radius from AP in deep forest with HaLow, add say 50m for 2.4Ghz, then whatever ESPNOW can give me. You can only have 2 HaLow hops max in the EU anyway.
My distance test results if anyone’s interested were (all EU models) …
Anjielo AP > Anjielo camera gives 400m (but is illegal in the EU)
ASIARF AP > ASIARF UHM worked straight out the box at 400m
ALFA R AP > ALFA R STA needed a 3dBI LoRa fibreglass aerial on the AP to give me 400m
On the bright side, I eventually found a device to give autonomous power to my HaLow units that isn’t a 30kg battery. It’s a 12v out, 15W solar panel/ 20Ah integrated lithium battery set up from China and they arrived yesterday after waiting months. I also bought little fire extinguishers to put in the battery casing and the weather proof HaLow unit casing, just in case of badness. In my book15w + 20Ah won’t be enough for 24/7/365 use, but it’ll allow me to test.
On the Gotcha front (I’m testing ALFA-R and ASIARF units as HaLowlink2 didn’t exist when I started this), having the 2,4Ghz antennas inboard of the unit is a PITA as I need a weatherproof enclosure for the units. The ALFA R units have external 2.4GHz aerials and that makes life a lot easier.
My backhaul is 2 tiny little 2sqm areas with mobile reception for my 4G 2.4Ghz solar powered routers. Starlink was too power heavy.
Back end is easy (.Net API end points and SQL server). I built it for my LoRaWAN project and I just need to tweak it a little bit.
That’s as far as I’ve got. Sorry I couldn’t get anywhere with the bureaucrats.
Hi, I am in a conversation called HaLow Emergency WIFI Network.
I would be very interested in your solution to keeping your devices powered in a isolated environment.
I am also looking for a solution that could be used with a building as the base for a home solution and covering 3 or 4 remote access points at delivery sites for “victims” of a disaster where the infrastructure (power and comms) are compromised…
However in Alibaba there is all sorts of new groovy stuff with bigger panels and battery set ups.
The one thing I did do, was to order little autonomous fire extinguishers at the same time and put one in the battery compartment of each unit in case anything went “poof” in the forest.
I haven’t installed these yet as I’m too busy with farming until the end Sept but they hold charge and haven’t blown up yet.
The big issue was power and there are solutions for that now. HalLowLink 2 didn’t exist when I tried this but the one thing I would say that units with inboard 2.4Ghz aerials aren’t much use when you need to stick the unit in a waterproof box. The solar units do have space in the battery compartments for a HaLowLink 2 size unit but the casing is metal.
The solution I decided on puts the panel on the south side of a tree and the unit in a separate box on the north side and with a little autonomous fire extinuisher in each box in case of badness.
I can get a 400m connection to a moving quad bike in deep forest. I use 2 4Ghz solar routers/extenders for backhaul as I have very, very limited mobile signal and Starlink is just too big and power hungry. Remember that I’m using EU HaLow models and models for other countries will be better.
I guess i’ll try to do “in buildings” install and place the units inside. This will limit the range but should provide an much easier install for me - if I can get the cooperation of the facility owners.
The antenna issue is something I had not considered - it is amazing what gets in the way and how easy it is to overlook some of this stuff.
