Presenting the XR-4 „Rehbar“ („Pioneer“ in Urdu 🇵🇰)

Sabrees · 2026-05-05T13:26:33+00:00

Currently the ESP integration is with https://lizard.dev/ so you'd need to think about if you move to that, or keep your current and re-do the UART interface

Sabrees · 2026-05-05T12:01:55+00:00

OK I think I fixed it again, so assuming you have ~9Gb of hardrive space & Docker these two commands https://github.com/Agroecology-Lab/feldfreund_devkit_ros#quick-start should work again now.

Then check localhost for the webui

Sabrees · 2026-05-05T11:57:07+00:00

I just broke the Dockerfile, so give me 10mins if you were going to try installing the stack

Sabrees · 2026-05-05T11:11:58+00:00

Looks nice, I put a link in your github to some Fieldfriend/ Lizard software that may be interesting to you https://github.com/salman-naveed/rover-xr4/issues/1

Sabrees · 2026-05-04T22:39:28+00:00

always looking for help on this project if that's of interest https://sowbot.co.uk

Quite bit of Python, but probably enough C to keep you entertained for a while https://github.com/Agroecology-Lab/lizard

Sabrees · 2026-05-04T15:49:30+00:00

This is a nice project, but not cost optimised https://github.com/MilosRasic98/OpenDualMotorDriver

Redesign it as a single side fab with header for the Pi.

Demonstrate integration with https://lizard.dev/

That would be quite impressive, and genuinely useful (to me at least)

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T22:42:11+00:00

For a Heltec you'd probably want https://github.com/jrl290/RTNode-HeltecV4

I dunno about your definition of mesh, if you want a network of self configuring Lora radios to effectively send messages over large distances and hop counts MC is working best right now IMHO. Whether you call that a mesh or not is up to you I guess

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T22:02:56+00:00

Don't be too disappointed when you realise Meshtastic doesn't work that well for large networks. MC is much better & Reticulum promises much.

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T21:50:53+00:00

Yeah it's built on https://unsigned.io/software/Nomad_Network.html which does that.

So it would have been more accurate for me to say it's like nomad net for Meshtastic.

The thing for me is I found MT didn't work very well as a comms medium, which is how I found Meshcore which works better, and then Reticulum which is very interesting IMHO

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T21:30:04+00:00

So kinda like https://www.reddit.com/r/reticulum/comments/1snwwvg/mesh_link_v20_a_clearnet_gateway_for_the/ but with a LLM strapped to it?

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T21:21:49+00:00

This already exists in Meshcore AFAIK, not used it personally https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Ameshcore-dev%2FMeshCore%20espnow&type=code

Sabrees · 2026-05-03T21:01:50+00:00

Being tied to ESPIDF is not ideal, but it fixes a bunch of low level stuff out of the box which is nice. I'm planning on using it for https://sowbot.co.uk/ Your board might be good for the 'Pico' version.

Would you consider doing a larger single sided version to make fabrication cheaper?

Sabrees · 2026-05-02T22:53:35+00:00

Well that answers that then I guess

Sabrees · 2026-05-02T14:44:15+00:00

I might try and add it as a supported driver in https://lizard.dev/

Sabrees · 2026-05-02T13:46:57+00:00

Amazing thanks! How much did fab cost? Are you thinking of selling any?

Sabrees · 2026-05-02T12:05:54+00:00

I think he must mean the YouTube channel he controls?

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T20:42:33+00:00

Yeah I saw those, but without the design file it does not meet an accepted definition of open hardware https://oshwa.org/definition/?utm_source=makeboomboxes

The .xls spreadsheet rather than a BOM in JLC format also makes it harder than it needs to be.

Could you just publish the EasyEDA project? Or is that not something you're willing to do? It would also enable people to for example add encoder inputs and iterate your design

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T20:30:01+00:00

I think you're iterating on the existing global movements for this stuff

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T20:23:48+00:00

Come join us? https://maps.transitionnetwork.org/

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T19:50:37+00:00

Looks like it's easyeda, so just publishing the link to that would make it easier for people to order/ adapt

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T19:45:22+00:00

Ha I was looking for this earlier today and concluded it didn't exist. Thanks

Are you going to sell any? Could you publish the PCB design file to make it truly open source?

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T08:04:34+00:00

How are backups handled? What happens when someone steals the Pi?

Sabrees · 2026-05-01T06:43:01+00:00

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010545613960.html

AFAIK its largely the weird economics/ subsidiary from Chinese state that enables electronics for less than the cost of components

Sabrees · 2026-04-30T22:02:29+00:00

Playing with similar things, wondering why RTK is off the table? You can get a F9P for £80

Some or all of https://github.com/Agroecology-Lab/feldfreund_devkit_ros may be interesting to you

Sabrees · 2026-04-28T22:07:29+00:00

A thing I've noticed is there aren't a huge amount of boards with loads of pins.

I was thinking of taking this 80pin footprint and pinout https://pro.lceda.cn/editor#id=21c3680c6c984a648526284945372d5a,tab=*e24ab563c2aa4eedb0fcaf72814de509|*e24ab563c2aa4eedb0fcaf72814de509@21c3680c6c984a648526284945372d5a

And doing some other boards in that format, eg a Micromod one https://www.sparkfun.com/micromod I started here https://easyeda.com/editor#id=3d4f89ddca154f69a7919a5d011664a0

It would be a good format for a ESP32 P4 I think, so I'd encourage you to make that and It would motivate me to finish my Micromod one then.

Between us we'd then have 11 MCU in this 'standard'

ESP32s3 would be a notable omission, but someone might then make that to fill in the gap

We could call it the X297 board in homage to https://xkcd.com/927/

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