Outernet Lighthouse

[wallyhts]

So i just order a lighthouse to play with $99 and $10 shipping I'm a data nut so i just had too.

All in one box that grabs outernet feed off G19 and stores in lighthouse (4gb) and then you connect via wifi or Ethernet to view library.

https://wiki.outernet.is/wiki/Lighthouse_receiver

http://outernet.myshopify.com/products/lighthouse-by-outernet-satellite-data-receiver

 

[Outernet]

I keep meaning to post an announcement here. To clarify, you can't view directly over ethernet; you'll need to be on a LAN if you want the data receiver to act as a NAS. But you can always access the content over wifi (the primary use case). The content that we are sending down is probably not of interest to you just yet, but the interesting part of Outernet's data service is this: https://uplink.outernet.is/

I would suggest using the free option, as there aren't that many people uplinking content just yet.

 

[drunk247]

I received my Lighthouse this week. I want to place it at a hunting camp where I have a small antenna farm in place. I was wondering how you add your own content to the device without uplinking it. If I had a copy of the wiki site on an external drive would the software on the lighthouse recognize it or is there some other setup involved? What about just text or PDFs? I was thinking that I could dump a bunch of books I have in PDF on it to have a library at my remote location. I've successfully gotten the "core" stuff via satellite so the device appears to be working great.

 

[Outernet]

I received my Lighthouse this week. I want to place it at a hunting camp where I have a small antenna farm in place. I was wondering how you add your own content to the device without uplinking it. If I had a copy of the wiki site on an external drive would the software on the lighthouse recognize it or is there some other setup involved? What about just text or PDFs? I was thinking that I could dump a bunch of books I have in PDF on it to have a library at my remote location. I've successfully gotten the "core" stuff via satellite so the device appears to be working great.

Ah....you're use case is just slightly ahead of our development roadmap. We will soon be allowing users to upload content to the Lighthouse over wifi. You can still do that now, but it will require a workaround. By the way, we will soon be releasing the source code for Librarian, so you can see exactly how everything works (and maybe even submit a new feature .

The workaround is to use an external USB drive.

First rename the drive to EXT_STORE then insert it into Lighthouse. The drive should be formatted FAT32,
Next power cycle Lighthouse.
You can now see under Dashboard the amount of storage that is available, which should be the same as the external storage.
Remove power from the Lighthouse and insert that EXT_STORE drive into a computer. You should see a director listing.
Add various files (PDFs, text files, images, videos) to this directory.
Place the USB drive into Lighthouse and power up the device.
​

I haven't actually tested this process in its entirety, but it *should* work. If it doesn't work now, then it will work next week or the week after (we do software updates over the air).

 

[drunk247]

Sounds good. I will give it a try this week when I have some time.

 

[drunk247]

Ah....you're use case is just slightly ahead of our development roadmap. We will soon be allowing users to upload content to the Lighthouse over wifi. You can still do that now, but it will require a workaround. By the way, we will soon be releasing the source code for Librarian, so you can see exactly how everything works (and maybe even submit a new feature .

The workaround is to use an external USB drive.

First rename the drive to EXT_STORE then insert it into Lighthouse. The drive should be formatted FAT32,
Next power cycle Lighthouse.
You can now see under Dashboard the amount of storage that is available, which should be the same as the external storage.
Remove power from the Lighthouse and insert that EXT_STORE drive into a computer. You should see a director listing.
Add various files (PDFs, text files, images, videos) to this directory.
Place the USB drive into Lighthouse and power up the device.
​

I haven't actually tested this process in its entirety, but it *should* work. If it doesn't work now, then it will work next week or the week after (we do software updates over the air).

The only way this has worked for me is to create a folder under the "files" directory in the tree. I loaded all off the data to that. It seems to just allow me to download the files from the lighthouse rather than display them in the library. That is ok for now. I am waiting for the core stuff to get loaded onto the new drive to see if there is a way to play with this and make it work. I haven't opened up the database yet to see what that looks like.

 

[wallyhts]

Got my light house hooked it up. (Easy as pie) it's been on for a few days and has all kinds of content. Very very very cool

However I did notice a bug I think you can't use the library on a iPhone or iPad I have to use the windows laptop to scroll Thur stuff.

 

[spongella]

I heard that the Outernet might be available some day on L-band, anyone hear about that?

 

[Cham]

How is the Lantern coming along?

 

[Outernet]

Got my light house hooked it up. (Easy as pie) it's been on for a few days and has all kinds of content. Very very very cool

However I did notice a bug I think you can't use the library on a iPhone or iPad I have to use the windows laptop to scroll Thur stuff.

The new firmware update (which is available over-the-air) should correct for the problem you are seeing. We are putting version 1.4 on the data carousel later today and if you leave your Lighthouse on, then it will auto-update. The problem you are experiencing is related to how iOS handles iframes.

 

[Outernet]

The only way this has worked for me is to create a folder under the "files" directory in the tree. I loaded all off the data to that. It seems to just allow me to download the files from the lighthouse rather than display them in the library. That is ok for now. I am waiting for the core stuff to get loaded onto the new drive to see if there is a way to play with this and make it work. I haven't opened up the database yet to see what that looks like.

Correct, that has to do with how we currently associate metadata with each piece of content that is in the library. We're moving away from this model, as it is too labor intensive. The following is what we are moving towards, which should be available in about a month: https://wiki.outernet.is/wiki/NGFM_user_interface

 

[Outernet]

I heard that the Outernet might be available some day on L-band, anyone hear about that?

Yes, we are actively working on L-band. We'll begin testing in Europe late next week. The frequency will be around 1550 MHz.

 

[Outernet]

How is the Lantern coming along?

Definitely coming along! Of course, much slower than what we had been hoping for. We'll be publicly releasing--and open sourcing--the main PCB plans this week. We'll have an update on this to our IGG backers on Wednesday.

 

[spongella]

Outernet, will your satellite transmissions be circularly polarized? I assume so since many of the other satellite transmissions on the L band are circular. I have a dish pointed at 15.4W but not sure which one you'll be using. Best of luck in getting your system up and running on the L band! This is all so exciting!
By the way Outernet, check out the September issue of The Spectrum Monitor ( www.thespectrummonitor.com ) magazine as there is an article on Outernet reception.

 

[Outernet]

Outernet, will your satellite transmissions be circularly polarized? I assume so since many of the other satellite transmissions on the L band are circular. I have a dish pointed at 15.4W but not sure which one you'll be using. Best of luck in getting your system up and running on the L band! This is all so exciting!
By the way Outernet, check out the September issue of The Spectrum Monitor ( www.thespectrummonitor.com ) magazine as there is an article on Outernet reception.

Yes to circularly polarized. Depending on the part of the world, it will be LHCP or RHCP. We may end up having two forward channels with one being very low speed (2.4kbps) and the other being bursty (up to 1Mbps). The bursty one is still up in the air. The low bitrate channel is the one we've been working on for the last year.

 

[. Raine]

Definitely coming along! Of course, much slower than what we had been hoping for. We'll be publicly releasing--and open sourcing--the main PCB plans this week. We'll have an update on this to our IGG backers on Wednesday.

Open sourcing - does this mean that we'll be able to build our own?

 

[Outernet]

Open sourcing - does this mean that we'll be able to build our own?

Yes! You can absolutely build your own PCB, but it wasn't really designed for hand-soldering. It's based on the Beaglebone Black; the AM335 requires an 8-layer board. Although I have not written the IGG update yet, the project files for the compute board have already been posted to Github.

https://github.com/outernet-project/lantern-compute-pcb

The Main Files directory is where you'll find the schematic, BOM, and step files. The Project Outputs folder contains the gerbers.

As a quick description of the board, this is basically a BBB *without* hdmi out. Since we use DVB-S for data delivery, as opposed to video consumption, we didn't have a need for the more expensive TI SoC. The board does have DVB tuner/demod, as well as a wifi module.

 

[. Raine]

Yes! You can absolutely build your own PCB, but it wasn't really designed for hand-soldering. It's based on the Beaglebone Black; the AM335 requires an 8-layer board. Although I have not written the IGG update yet, the project files for the compute board have already been posted to Github.

https://github.com/outernet-project/lantern-compute-pcb

The Main Files directory is where you'll find the schematic, BOM, and step files. The Project Outputs folder contains the gerbers.

As a quick description of the board, this is basically a BBB *without* hdmi out. Since we use DVB-S for data delivery, as opposed to video consumption, we didn't have a need for the more expensive TI SoC. The board does have DVB tuner/demod, as well as a wifi module.

Cool! Although a 8 layer board is probably beyond my equipment, I do have hot air soldering stations, a BGA station and of course hand soldering stations, but 8 layers is pretty thick!

I almost picked up a Beagle Bone a while back for a project, but went with a Pi2 because I'm more familiar with them. I'll look through the link you posted, thanks!