Setting up a Base Station

We aim to make the setup process for the base station as simple as possible, however, at the moment, assembling and setting it up requires some basic software and hardware knowledge. We aim to improve this in the future.

Hardware

The currently recommended hardware for a Base Station is the following:

  • A ESP32-C3

  • A UBlox M8N Module or newer - There are many counterfit M8N modules which do not contain the flash memory needed for a required firmware update; confirm before building the Base Station that your module has a flash memory module, and that the firmware version is up to date!

Assembly

Assembling the Base Station can be done either with a breadboard or a normal prototyping board; we do not yet have a finished PCB design. The following pinout is configured by default in the firmware:

  • UBlox RX to ESP pin 10

  • UBlox TX to ESP pin 9

  • (Optional) External MOSFET to power-cycle the UBlox to pin 8

Software

The Base Station Firmware is compiled using the ESP-IDF; several compile-time configuration options must be configured:

Config Option

Description

WIFI_STA

The name of the WiFi station to connect to.

WIFI_SECRET

The WiFi secret/password to use.

OPENAGPS_SERVER

The OpenAGPS host server to connect to. (For the project-hosted instance, this is api.openagps.net.)

OPENAGPS_TOKEN

The token used to authenticate the connection to the host server.