HALO TD-XPAH Long Range Wi-Fi

HALO TD-XPAG is a long Range Wi-Fi Platform with a little weird name 🙂

Halo TD-XPAH is the first development platform and open-source hardware IEEE 802.11ah long-range WIFI.

The platform is designed and manufactured by Teledatics Inc, USA.

The IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi protocol builds on Wi-Fi 6, adding the ability to reach a minimum of one kilometer (one-half mile) from access point to client. 802.11ah is designed to support up to several hundred clients per access point via Restricted Access Window, a form of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). It also supports 802.11s mesh networks where distant nodes can link to and hop through nodes closer to home to extend range further.

This innovative open hardware IEEE 802.11ah WIFI can provide easy and accessible long range connectivity platform to the makers, engineers, researchers, experimenters, and developers.

Features and Specifications

902 – 928 MHz Wi-Fi 802.11ah
Built with ARM Cortex-M0 & Cortex-M3 MCU
2MB Flash / 752K RAM
4x 9-bit ADC
32x GPIO
2x SPI
6x High Precision Timers
4x UART
8x PWM
3x Watchdog timers
RTC
XIP from flash w/ 32K RAM cache
10-pin ARM JTAG interface
Powered by USB-C

Thousands of Connections Concurrently

You will be amazed to know that the creators of the nrc7292 801.11 ah chip have experimented on the Halo TD-XPAH device, and they have found out that almost 370 clients obtained connections with a single access point. Simultaneously, showed the bitmap images as well.

High quality wireless communication

The Halo TD-XPAH source is able to perform a variety of functions. This development platform is used to test the following cases:

Long distance wireless camera
Distributed air quality sensor system
Remote solar field monitoring
Ad hoc emergency communications
Long range airborne drone link
Wide area soil moisture & plant health monitoring solution
RS-485 wireless communications drop-in replacement for copper wiring

Work With Any Wireless Internet Connectivity

If you are a creator or experimenter, then you can see that the Halo TD-XPAH works to solve the connectivity issue.

There are plenty of WIFI hardware networks that provide either a WIFI access point or the WIFI client.

The Halo TD-XPAH solves this problem by supporting both the WIFI access point and the WIFI Client by using the 802.11ah chip in the product, the driver support to the Linux kernel is made available.

As a result, the Halo TD-XPAH can work as Access Point (AP) over the USB bus or as Linux 802.11ah client.

IEEE 802.11ah will not be available on your tablets, smartphones, laptops, and PCs in the near future but with Halo TD-XPAH, you can attach it to the external Linux system, for instance, a PC or Raspberry Pi, and use it as a USB WIFI Dongle.

Operates with any Wi-Fi mode

Teledatics has made sure its supports for standalone and external host mode

As per the company “Most Wi-Fi hardware products function as either a Wi-Fi client or a Wi-Fi access point. A few offer both features, but these hybrid client/AP platforms usually need to be attached an external system. During the TD-XPAH design phase we made sure that both Wi-Fi client mode and Wi-Fi access point mode are supported. We worked with Newracom, the creators of the 802.11ah chip used in the product, to add driver support to the Linux kernel so that the TD-XPAH can be used as a Linux 802.11ah client or AP over the USB bus”

“But why stop there? What about using the TD-XPAH as a standalone product? To solve this, we included support for the FreeRTOS based SDK and standalone mode. The two modes, standalone or USB dongle, are configured via a set of on-board DIP switches. And both modes, standalone or USB, support running as both a Wi-Fi client and a Wi-Fi access point. And, yes, both modes support 802.11s mesh networking as well. We designed the TD-XPAH to be used in any Wi-Fi mode, with or without an external system, configured via on-board switches with mesh networking to boot.”

Halo HD-XPAH supports the Mesh Networking

The Halo TD-XPAH can do the mesh networking unlike common networks which will not do the same.

In mesh networks, several devices, and nodes are connected with the other nodes and devices. It provides you with a dynamic en-route system where nodes easily come and go, and supply convenient network connections.

Unlike the Halo TD-XPAH, a typical mesh protocol will not provide you with a sustainable connection at your homes and offices and get disrupted all the time, regardless of fixed networks.

hATs to connect with existing networks

IEEE 802.11ah uses a new set of sub-1 gigahertz frequencies that are incompatible with traditional 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi 6. This means that, although 802.11ah is a Wi-Fi protocol and compatible with standard TCP/IP networks, 802.11ah is not available on current devices such as smartphones, tablets or PC’s.

While the TD-XPAH can be used as a USB Wi-Fi dongle attached to an external Linux system, such as a PC or Raspberry Pi, attaching to existing networks is complex and requires expert network knowledge.

Company is also offering a 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi Gateway hAT and an Ethernet hAT as solutions to attach to common networks and also as examples of how to build TD-XPAH hAT accessory boards.

By adding either of these hAT’s to your TD-XPAH device you can connect to traditional networks over either 2.4 GHz standard Wi-Fi or over a standard Ethernet connection.

They also offer an Environmental Sensor hAT that provides remote feedback on air temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and volatile organic compounds (VOC) levels.

Support & Documentation

From where to buy HALO development board?

The board is currently available on crowdsupply. You can buy the development for 109$, shipment extra. There are other hAT boards available for Air quality, Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

I hope you found this post useful.

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