November General Meeting

Exploring the World of Meshtastic: A Journey into Offline Long-Range Communication

Speaker: Christian Falkenberg-Andersen, retired M.D. and tech enthusiast

Join us for an enlightening talk at CUUG where we dive into the fascinating world of Meshtastic, an open-source software that operates on ESP32 units with LoRa (Long Range Radio) capabilities. This innovative technology allows for long-distance communication without relying on the internet.

During the presentation, we'll cover various aspects of Meshtastic, including its core functionalities, modes of operation, and practical applications. We'll explore how data packets are relayed from sender to receiver, highlighting the flexibility of single or multiple "jumps" to reach their destination.

Our discussion will also include a tour of the Meshtastic website to provide valuable resources and insights for enthusiasts. You'll gain a deep understanding of how to set up your own Meshtastic LoRa network, with step-by-step guidance and tips.

Furthermore, Christian will share his personal experiences and projects involving Meshtastic, offering real-world examples of its capabilities. To make the presentation even more engaging, we'll have hardware demonstrations to showcase Meshtastic in action.

Whether you're a seasoned tech enthusiast or just curious about offline long-range communication, this talk promises to be both informative and inspiring. Join us to unlock the potential of Meshtastic and discover the exciting possibilities it brings to the world of communication.

Christian Falkenberg-Andersen was born in Denmark and emigrated to Canada at age 14. His parents lived on a farm and solving problems on the farm is likely where an interest in tinkering started. He completed a bachelor of science, majoring in biochemistry (University of Calgary) and taking a course in instrumentation for scientists sparked a very strong interest in electronics. Subsequently he got a second bachelor of science degree (in electrical engineering) and postgraduate master of science degree in biomedical engineering (studying the nerve conduction of a compound action potential traveling down a nerve, and using FFT to calculate the distribution of nerve conduction speeds for the axon). During his work on his master's degree he entered medical school and received a doctor of medicine degree. Subsequently he qualified for practising medicine with specialty in family medicine. He has recently retired from working as a solo family physician since 1999 in Market Mall. Currently, his activities include a lot of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi and Arduino single board computers, as well as 3D printing. Sewing, cycling (electric-assist bike) and kite skiing round out his activities.

This presentation and related notes are available in PDF format.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office

5:30 PM, Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

October General Meeting

Home Introspection with Barbed Wire & Duct Tape

Speaker: Raymond Burkholder

I wanted to see how things work natively, so being a programmer, I took bits and pieces and concepts from Home-Assistant, Node-Red and Domoticz and created my own app: Apparition.

It is an amalgamation of C++17 core code calling out to and being called by LuaJit code for sensor parsing, control and automation. Data collection is handled by Prometheus and charts are defined in Grafana.

MQTT queues as embodied by RabbitMQ form the backbone for message passing among collectors and devices.

BeagleBone Green and BeagleBone Black perform most of the data collection. There is an Espressobin thrown in there for good measure. https://github.com/rburkholder/bme680

Z-Wave JS UI interfaces with thermostats, AC outlet monitoring & control, Smoke/CO alarm and light Scene Controllers.

Zigbee2MQTT interfaces with Philips Hue lights, more AC outlet monitoring & control, and some PIR sensors.

There is a 433MHz SDR radio for listening to my DSC Alarm based sensors and some temperature/humidity thermapro sensors. A 915MHz SDR radio listens to my backyard WS90 weather station and my home water meter.

Raymond Burkholder is a Solution/Network/Datacenter Architect by day, a programmer/tinkerer and wannabe trader by evening: https://blog.raymond.burkholder.net

I have a couple one month old APC 1500VA SMC1500C UPS available for $650 each ($792 new). I am upgrading to some Eaton flavours and want to give these a good home. I can bring into the meeting for delivery.

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Fourth floor Synopsys office   ← note new location!
Same building, different floor — We're moving up in the world!

There is $2 parking after 16:00 one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

September General Meeting

Unix Video Night

The presentation originally scheduled for this month has had to be postponed. COVID is still a thing, despite our best efforts to ignore it, and our presenter, now retired from the medical profession, still prefers to do no harm. We wish Christian and his wife a speedy recovery.

In the meantime, we'll be viewing a number of short Unix-related videos at this month's meeting. Sure, you could just watch these at home, but then you'd miss out on the networking and interactive discussion — not to mention the pizza! So, please come join us for our first meeting of the 2023/2024 CUUG year. We look forward to seeing you!

Videos which we viewed or had lined up include the following:

• Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Explain UNIX (Bell Labs)
• Pushing the Limits of Technology: The Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie Story
• Richard Stallman on Software Freedom
• Linux Torvalds: the Mind Behind Linux
• Penn and Teller's Lab Scam
• Brian Kernighan: Where GREP Came From — Computerphile
• Tim Berners-Lee: The Year Open Data Went Worldwide
• Jimmy Wales: The Birth of Wikipedia
• Dan Bricklin: Meet the Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet

Place 800

800 - 6 Ave. S.W.
Plus-15 Conference Room

There is $2 parking available one block north-east of the meeting location, in the underground parkade at McDougall Centre.

5:30 PM, Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Snacks at 17:30. Meeting begins at 18:00.

Attendance is free for CUUG members, or $10 (cash only) at the door for non-CUUG members.

RSVP to office at CUUG if you plan to attend.

2023 Board of Directors

At the June 2023 Annual General Meeting, the following people were elected to the Board of Directors for 2023/2024:

• Alan Dewar (President)
• Rebecca Reid (Secretary-Treasurer)
• Peter Carless
• Alex Chow
• Greg King