SHD Brick and ISAC Node
Idea and Inspiration
Inspiration
The game series Tom Clancy’s: The Division features agents who are activated in national collapse event to protect the assets and institutions of the United States. Their basic loadout is typically street/work clothes and a very small collection of tech from the Strategic Homeland Defense agency (SHD). The primary tech shown in game is the SHD Brick and Watch. The brick appears as a shoulder mounted unit with an external antenna.
Idea
Much like national collapse, attending conventions and other large events pose issues with local interpersonal communications (eg: finding and keeping up with friends). The goal here is first about location and communication and secondarily about having a cool cosplay item.
The intent is to create a personal location device that is easily wearable and allows for location sharing, communications, and automatic network mesh negotiation.
Parts and Pieces
- 5x LoRa radio module $83.40 (Lilygo T3S3 with SX1276 915Mhz)
- 4x GPS USB Adapter $31.98 (VK172 G-Mouse USB GPS/Glonass Dongle)
- Meshtastic Python Library
- RaspberryPi (already had some on hand)
- 3d printed case (example by Guido666)
Narrative and Build Log
I ordered a bunch (5) of the T3S3 modules on 2024-01-10, I guess I have been thinking about this project for a long time.
2025-01-16
Some connection testing using Meshtastic software on Android and PC to connect to the modules and send text messages between devices. Additional research revealed the python library which looks similar to the pubSub methods I’ve seen for Discord bots and similar.
Ordered some GPS recievers (VK172 G-Mouse USB GPS/Glonass Dongle) to connect via USB to the Raspberry Pi to manually provide location information to the Lilygo devices.
2025-01-17
As far as 3d printing a case, there are multiple versions available by different people, but most appear to be based around adafruit pixel or other LED rings, none appear to be intended for any kind of functional radio setups.
Started build log and project file.
