Why mesh networking matters brandon satrom

Circuit Break Podcast #151

Why Mesh Networking Matters – Brandon Satrom

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Brandon Satrom and the LANoT

Parker talks with Brandon Satrom of Particle about the future of IoT and then design and prototype an IoT device.

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December 19, 2018, Episode #151

Brandon Satrom is back to discuss the future of connected devices with Particle Mesh Networking.
  • Brandon Satrom
    • Developer Advocate for Particle, an IoT platform company
    • The founder of Carrot Pants Press, a company dedicated to educating makers
    • Loves to talk about Javascript, open source, microcontrollers, robots, and what ever new shiny tool or technology that is currently distracting him
    • On the MacroFab Engineering Podcast Episode Number 122, Brandon discussed the Particle Photon and built an IoT breathalyzer with Parker live on the podcast
  • What is currently distracting Brandon now?
    • Why mesh networking matters (as opposed to putting Wi-FI and Cellular radios in every IoT device)
    • Existing mesh networking standards (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Lora)
      • Closed vs. Open standards
    • Thread/OpenThread and why Particle built OpenThread into 3rd gen devices
    • Mesh Christmas Tree project
      • 5 device network with a gateway and 4 edge devices
      • Particle Blog detailing more about the project
      • One edge device publishes multicast messages to all other nodes, which light up neopixel strips when those messages are received on each device
      • The goal was to see how low latency UDP-based mesh messaging was
      • Researching theory around “the color of sound” and added a mode to the firmware that converts the frequency of a played note into a corresponding rgb value on the color spectrum. Kinda.
      • Working today on a mode that ties the Adafruit Neotrellis into the network to create a “tree synth” mode where you can mash buttons and make the trees light up
  • Questions from Jarret from our Public Slack Channel
    • Could you have a sportsgame of some sort, and hand out each spectator a little LED/LCD with mesh chip, and have all 10k systems attempting to figure out where they are in the stadium, and maybe also connect to a base station, so they all receive color information and turns the audience into a huge display?
    • What is a good distributed power system for mesh networking?
    • I’ve started logging metrics for my indoor garden, but currently I’m using a million phone chargers plugged in everywhere and that kinda sucks
  • Update on the Carrot Pants Press?

Visit our Public Slack Channel and join the conversation in between episodes!

Brandon Satrom of Particle and Carrot Pants Press.

Brandon Satrom of Particle and Carrot Pants Press.

Brandon Satrom giving a talk at the ISTA conference.

Brandon Satrom giving a talk at the ISTA conference.

Particle mesh controlled Christmas tree lights build by Brandon Satrom.

Particle mesh controlled Christmas tree lights build by Brandon Satrom.

About the Hosts

Parker Dillmann
  Parker Dillmann

Parker is an Electrical Engineer with backgrounds in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year he designed and produced an Atari 2600 video mod to allow the Atari to display a crisp, RF fuzz free picture on newer TVs. Over a thousand Atari video mods where produced by Parker from 2006 to 2011 and the mod is still made by other enthusiasts in the Atari community.

In 2006, Parker enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin as a Petroleum Engineer. After realizing electronics was his passion he switched majors in 2007 to Electrical and Computer Engineering. Following his previous background in making the Atari 2600 video mod, Parker decided to take more board layout classes and circuit design classes. Other areas of study include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, FPGA development with VHDL and Verilog, and image and signal processing with DSPs. In 2010, Parker won a Ti sponsored Launchpad programming and design contest that was held by the IEEE CS chapter at the University. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Spring of 2012.

In the Summer of 2012, Parker was hired on as an Electrical Engineer at Dynamic Perception to design and prototype new electronic products. Here, Parker learned about full product development cycles and honed his board layout skills. Seeing the difficulties in managing operations and FCC/CE compliance testing, Parker thought there had to be a better way for small electronic companies to get their product out in customer's hands.

Parker also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components.

Stephen Kraig
  Stephen Kraig

Stephen Kraig is a component engineer working in the aerospace industry. He has applied his electrical engineering knowledge in a variety of contexts previously, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing, audio electronic repair, and synthesizer design. A graduate of Texas A&M, Stephen has lived his adult life in the Houston, TX, and Denver, CO, areas.

Stephen has never said no to a project. From building guitar amps (starting when he was 17) to designing and building his own CNC table to fine-tuning the mineral composition of the water he uses to brew beer, he thrives on testing, experimentation, and problem-solving. Tune into the podcast to learn more about the wacky stuff Stephen gets up to.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!

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Brandon Satrom and the LANoT

Parker talks with Brandon Satrom of Particle about the future of IoT and then design and prototype an IoT device.