Building a DIY Helium Hotspot

So I've been working on building a DIY Helium Hotspot at the house lately. Helium is another blockchain, this time based on moving small packets of data long distances wirelessly for the IoT (Internet of Things).

Think about the Bird scooters you see in any town; those things are transmitting information about where they are all the time, BUT they only need to send tiny pieces of information. If they do that over the cellular network (expensive), that's a larger cost than doing it through other forms of wireless communication like wifi (cheaper.)

The way the Helium network works is that you buy or build a "hotspot", which is a node in the network. Your hotspot broadcasts and receives signals from all these various IoT devices, and you get paid in HNT (Helium Network Tokens) for the service you provide.

It all seems interesting and curious, so along with the help of a good friend I decided to build a hotspot and mount it on the roof of our house.

Here's TJ next to the newly erected mast.

That little box at the top is what holds the DIY hotspot, here's what it looks like inside.

I bought a bunch of different pieces and parts to make it work. I didn't want to drill any holes in my roof, so I bought a non-penetrating roof mount and a long (23'!) mast to slide in.

I secured the mast with guy wires, had to drill holes in the mast for that. The mast was so long it didn't fit in my small shop, so I had to lug my 142 lb drill press into the backyard!

There was a fair amount of coding work that went into getting it all set up, here's TJ tapping away on the geekbox.

Overall this has been a fun project, excited to contribute to this IoT world and be a part of a growing network. You can check out Helium here: https://www.helium.com/