On: ESP 8266 Wi-Fi Repeater with Mesh Networking

[mschuster91]

Uhhhh. I'd take a look at LoRaWAN or SigFox technology, but that needs appropriate support in your IoT stuff.

The alternative would be a small battery-powered 4G hotspot like the Huawei E5573CS-322.

[escapologybb → mschuster91]

I had never heard of either of those two technologies but I would definitely do some googling now, thanks for the tip.

I would rather avoid a 4G hotspot attached to my wheelchair for a couple of reasons, chief among them is the data costs would be really high. If I were to extend my home Wi-Fi network I've already paid for my Internet connection, I'm just making my home Wi-Fi network WAY BIGGER than it was intended to be. :-)

[mcroydon → escapologybb]

The Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 (http://www.heltec.cn/project/wifi-lora-32/) and clones are a solid place to start if you want to investigate LoRa. Pycom (https://pycom.io) has several chips including one that does both LoRa and Sigfox.

Espressif also have a shorter distance but lower power option that uses WiFi tech called ESP-Now that is worth looking at: http://espressif.com/en/products/software/esp-now/overview

[bicubic → mcroydon]

Your links sent me down a rabbit hole of Iot stuff and now I'm super excited about it. Had no idea that lte-m is so widespread.

It's only a matter of time before it's easier and cheaper to get any kind of networked devices onto a carrier network than the users wifi. The implications are kinda scary though: does this mean it's only a matter of time before the majority of personal devices talk to their users with a telco/govement middle man network?