I bought a Dronecell from Pololu a few years ago for a drone project. But it’s been sitting in a box since then.
I am now in need of a WiFi hotspot. The project would only send a few Kb per month, but I don’t want to use my phone as a hotspot, because that would mean leaving it near the device.
Does anyone know if the Dronecell could be set up as a WiFi hotspot, or does anyone have a suggestion how might build a low-cost hotspot?
Hello.
Wow! We have not carried that Narobo DroneCell in over 10 years now! Unfortunately, we can only offer limited support for it, and I do not see any mention of WiFi hotspot capabilities in the getting started guide or datasheets, which you can still find in the “Resources” tab of our old DroneCell product page. I do not have any specific recommendations for an alternative.
Brandon
Would the WiFi hotspot have to forward data to the internet? Or could it be a stand-alone data logger?
Challenge accepted.
It’s actually the other way around.
I have a medical device (CGM) that sends blood glucose data to my Home Assistant server from a web API. I publish the significant data to monitors around my home over MQTT. This way I can see my current readings at a glance. Without opening a phone app.
What I would like to do is receive the same MQTT messages on a similar device in my car. I can do it with my phone as a hotspot, but as I said, I don’t want to tie my phone up. I would only be receiving 6kb per month. I thought about LoRaWan, but I have no assurance that I would always be in range of a gateway.
Other ideas would be appreciated.
I’m not familiar with MQTT, but I have used an Arduino MKR1000 as a hotspot, and I see there are MQTT libraries available. Nowadays I’d investigate whether a MKR1010 would be more appropriate.
How did you connect the MKR1010 to the Internet to make a WiFi hotspot?
Oh sorry, I meant WiFi access point, not hotspot. It was a MKR 1000 (not 1010) and it just presented an access point to which my remote could attach.
That said, there are examples of connecting a MKR 1000 to the internet via WiFi, but I’m not sure that is sufficient for you.
