39C3 LoRa Tinkering

The next Chaos Communication Congress (39C3) will soon take place in Hamburg. I’ll probably go again this year – it would be my third visit in a row. I was able to secure a ticket already, as I diligently volunteered last year.

Currently, I’m considering what exciting things I could do on-site this time. Last night, a project idea came to mind that I could still comfortably implement by the time of the congress. It relates to LoRa and Meshtastic. What do you think?

1. Project Idea

• In-house development of a LoRa Testorakel Info Terminal
• Implementation with Termux on Android and Bash/Python
• Unsolicited sending of a selection menu to new users (nodes)
• Interactive retrieval of specific information through subsequent messages

2. Functionality

• User initially receives the selection menu
• User sends a follow-up message with menu selection
• System responds with the requested information
• Process can be repeated

3. Menu Structure and Content (Examples)

• (W)eather: Current weather information for today and tomorrow in Hamburg
• (T)alks: Which talks are starting soon
• (A)boutme: Info about the legendary Testorakel (:

4. Technical Implementation

• 4.1. Development Environment
  • Termux on Android devices
  • Bash and/or Python scripts
• 4.2. Message Processing
  • Cyclical scanning for new LoRa nodes
  • Storage of known nodes for recognition
  • Interpretation of incoming messages as menu selections

5. Expansion Possibilities

• Logging of interactions for statistics
• Leaving messages for others (bulletin board)