Current Position

Under Weather, Control: Click …[ 0 ] then Earth.
I see: Finding Current Position…
Doesn’t seem to complete
Still seeing above command

When I did it the first time, Firefox asked me if I wanted to share my location.

This makes me think the weather app determines your position from whatever browser you are using. Try a different browser and maybe check privacy settings.

Also, you have to have the rxOS running through your router (thence connected to the internet) to get a location. If you’re just connected to the Outernet Hot Spot you won’t get a location. Ken

Right now the Acer netbook is the client for Outernet setup. It’s wi-fi connects to the Raspberry Pi 3 built-in wi-fi hot spot running rxOS 3.1. So, no connection to Internet, I’m typing this on a Linux box on Outernet Discussions web page which is LAN connected to the router.
How would I connect the way you say?

I’m going to describe how I do it with the Alpha Lantern running rxOS Version 3.1 which should work with the Pi3. (Someone correct me on this if I’m wrong - - I haven’t used my Pi since the Ku-band days, and then it was the old Pi.)

Go into the Settings Dashboard and cursor down to “Network Interfaces”. On the right side you will see an Operating Mode tab. It is probably set to its default of “Create a Hotspot”. Change it as shown to “Connect to a Wireless Network” and enter the details about your local WiFi. Then “Save and reboot”. After the program cranks for several minutes, your router should assign your Pi an IP address on your system - - mine being 192.168.1.12.

Find the new IP address as you would normally do with either the “FING Program” or “The Advanced IP Scanner” from www.advanced-ip-scanner.com. Both are freeware. Then browse to that IP address.

Let me know if this works. Ken

Oops - - Brian just pointed out I posted my WiFi password. Thanks Brian, I’ve changed it. Ken

1 Like

Ken…

  1. Before I get started, how did I miss this procedure? I don’t recall it anywhere
  2. Doesn’t this defeat the Idea of Outernet? Where both the Server and Client are living a very poor location with no cable, dish, or Internet at all? Not even outside electricity. So, the Outernet person with his “Lantern” and solar cell, he sets up for the people around him, a server hot spot. The people or clients connect to his hot spot with a simple tablet and every morning they receive the latest world news. This info has been downloading all night at the server. And is now ready to be shared.
  3. I’m very new to the Outernet concept. Just a few weeks into it. I now understand it was started by Syed 2 years ago with Crowd Funding. Still not quite ready for show time. Nothing against you Ken for showing me another way to connect so my location would be in the loop to show up on the globe.
    I guess you saying I would now be connected through my router got me thinking.
  4. I’ll try it! :slight_smile:

Hello Donde

Not a problem - - many of us who are what I might call Outernet Pioneers, are into all sorts of different areas of exploration.

I know it might seem counter intuitive to need an internet connection to establish your location on a system designed to operate off the internet, but don’t forget, we’re in the test and try phase now. Syed and his engineering team, are a very smart group of engineering professionals. I’m just a tinkerer.

This new Weather Product works extremely well, and has been sort after for awhile by many living in remote locations or out sailing. (Not everyone can afford Intelsat’s BAGAN.) The “find location” button just turns the globe to where you are located - - you can do that with the mouse.

The other Outernet capability requiring an internet connection is their “heartbeat” function that reports terminal status back to Chicago over the internet and produces a display we can all pull up at www.status.outernet.is

Now, with regard to the Outernet Hot Spot versus connecting to a WiFi - - imagine being in a village with lots of people who could connect to the Outernet Hot Spot, but are not close enough (30 or so meters - - its not very strong and I have to repeat it to get it inside my house with a LinkSys repeater). It also has a limited number of available IP addresses it can assign. So the smart guys at Outernet decided to give the rxOS the capability to connect to a local WiFi like our computers do. Now all of a sudden, everybody on the network connected by the WiFi or an ethernet cable can see the Librarian. And if you have other WiFis connected to the network as access points, they can too.

Once you do this in a remote village with a robust network (but with no internet access), you can add a WorldPossible type Rachel Pi system https://racheloffline.org/ with its incredibly large data base to educate the entire community too. Of course there are other off-line data bases that have been created for remote usage on community networks, but Rachel is the least expensive with the largest content. In fact, I re-purposed my old Ku-band Raspberry Pi into becoming a Rachel Pi server and FTPed their entire 64 Gbit data base to it at no cost. I essentially have a remote village running in my house now when I pull the plug on Verizon.

Any way, now I’m into exploring what Outernet content delivery can do, and am leaving the technical detail to others. My Alpha Lantern is running just fine. Ken

Ken …Thanks for the great tutorial. By learning, questions become more educated. Right now and for a number of hours, I have been stuck on d4e8.Weather.tbz(100%) Haven’t done a log out or anything except Update Settings. If I had the Internet in the loop as you describe, would the “heartbeat” report this back to Chicago? Good SNR, packets counting, 9958 packets, 88 failed packets. 48 hours prior, no problems. This stuck packets has been ongoing with many I’m sure. I’ll wait for your reply.
Don

Don’t mind about about downloads. Seeing download now after 6 hours!
Maybe really downloading all this time, but didn’t see it.

Will new Lantern be for sale soon? What will it do that I can’t now?

Sometimes, Don, downloads take time, and the system occasionally has some technical glitches. Just let your set up sit for a day or two downloading packets and things will start to appear. They only transmit 20 Mb per day on the Intelsat birds, so programs take a very long time to arrive. Texts and PDF come down quicker because they are generally less than 100 kB in size. Using Outernet’s Filecast Center We Moved! you can send your own files to the system to be broadcast if they are smaller than the 100 kB limit.

Outernet has a transmission scheme that mixes all the data, and the rxOS program in the Lantern CHIP, Raspberry Pi or OuternetInABox extracts it allowing the Librarian to display it.

I think with an internet connection you would appear as one of the balloons. I’m a balloon over Washington, DC, Outernet Corporate is a balloon over Chicago, and Seasalt is a balloon over the Philippines.

Syed is the CEO of Outernet, and will see this exchange and add his inputs. I don’t know about new Lanterns - - I just just jumped on the Alpha Lantern bandwagon when he announced it. Bottom line is if you have SNRs above 2.0 dB and you are download packets, your system is working. Ken

Right now, all looks good. Chugging away at 61% and climbing. Thanks for your help. I have confidence now I have a working system. SNR lower 6’s.
I’ll just cool it and enjoy.
How big is a packet in bytes. I have heard 128, but not sure?
Don

Keep the faith - -good things take time :sunglasses:

Syed - - I don’t know the answer to Don’s question. Please help out. Ken

You do not need to do all this. Just visit “my.outernet.is” - it should take you to your Rxos receiver. Looking up IPs is so August 2016. :smiley:

Yes indeed it does. I;m sure I missed that point somewhere along the line. It goes to the Librarian Read screen and keeps refreshing to that screen until you click somewhere else quickly from the first display, or click a place like “Recent” on the bottom most repeated screen which wipes out the repeats.

I know you already know about that problem and plan to fix it in the next rxOS release, but want to mention it again for those new folks who don’t know that. Ken

Just to manage expectations: There’s only four of us: hardware, software, operations, and myself.

We do have some enclosures now, though I’m a little iffy about selling them. I’ll take some pictures a bit later. We’re definitely moving away from including solar, once we fulfill all of our backers. The use case is an always-on system, so that users are constantly downloading. I think the best way to think about the next product is like a tv antenna that just always stays up, but the difference being that this antenna is about the size of a DVD.

GM Ken,
Didn’t work, Tried it twice. Had to re-burn SD because Outernet never showed up again in the Taskbar of PC. Using normal Netgear router. In first time setup, I never saw it ask for Country. It does in Network Interfaces. I entered United States.

Network Interfaces

Connect to a wireless network
Security Protocol WPA
Access point name NETGEAR
Password (my password)

It never seemed to Save or Reboot
Never saw anything different on the left side.

Now back to normal using hotspot. Waiting for data … :slight_smile:

Are you using a CHIP or a Raspberry Pi3 should work on both as Pi3 has built in Hot Spot/WiFi? The settings look OK - - maybe try it again.

Abhishek, am I wrong somehow on this process. I have a CHIP (Alpha Lantern) and I successfully went thru the process several times today to prove out the automatic reset back to Hot Spot when the WiFi goes away. Ken

No, the process is exactly how you described it - it should have worked. As you already suggested - retry. If it does not seem to “Save and reboot” - thats already not ok. It shows a message after a few seconds that its saved the settings, and then goes for a reboot.

Hi Ken,
Finally it works! Got no response after I hit Save and Reboot. The button seemed to push in, but nothing happened for long time. All I noticed no more connection of netbook to the RPi board. Doesn’t show up on wireless list anymore. So, after fooling around doing this and that, I finally see the Outernet on my Linux box! The one I always use and typing this. I see:

wlan0 wireless IP address: 192.168.0.102
Default gateway: 192.168.0.1
IPv6 address: fe80::ba27:ebff:feed:133b%wlan0
Interface name: wlan0

And I can see everything else on the Dashboard. WOW!
To see myself on status map, is this the right link?
https://status.outernet.is/
How do I know which balloon is mine. The map doesn’t show much. Just the spot in the world for each server.
Can you see my status and IP? Maybe I have the wrong link?
This is sure a lot easier than staring at my 10" netbook!
Thanks

Where do you live?