[arm-allstar] ChiliNodz

[Don Backstrom - AA7AU]

On Thu 15-Aug-19 14:07, "David McGough via ARM-allstar" wrote:
> Hi, does anyone know what happened to the ChiliNodz project?

	I am not the developer, but I do work closely with him (and stayed in a 
Holiday Inn Express last night), so I can post the following:

	The good news is that the ChiliNodz project is still very much alive 
and kicking, with a more than a couple dozen happy beta-test users still 
on-line regularly with them  - all mostly in the Las Vegas valley (*) 
where the beta test has been running. We've only had one problem and 
that was resolved with a simple product replacement swap (don't have the 
problem unit in hand yet, may have been pilot error by user).

	(*) Listen to the roll-call on the HARC Sunday Night Net any Sunday at 
7pm PDT and you'll likely hear at least a couple check-ins reporting 
using a ChiliNodz:
	http://w7hen.com/calendar/
	http://w7hen.com/listen/
	http://w7hen.com/repeater/

	The not-so-good news is that the unit is still not shipping. Sorry. 
Given that they are still mostly hand-assembled/tuned/packaged/etc 
during this phase, production is very limited. Also, given that they are 
made by a couple of hams in central Idaho, allowance has to be made for:
- fishing season,
- river-floating season,
- wildfire season,
  -upcoming hunting season ...
- and rag-chewing, story-telling, etc etc ...
it will most likely be towards late-fall or early-winter before any real 
quantity shipping begins.

	We did, quite some time back, provide confidential evaluation units 
with our compliments to both David and Doug, and very much appreciate 
the feedback we got back. We have taken all that into account and 
further refined the design and are likely ready for a final product 
design lock-down now. All beta-units continue to work well, but we 
didn't want to ship until completely shaken out. Hamvoip is a really 
terrific system and we wanted to be the best we could be for use with 
Hamvoip!

	The *really* good news is that the early beta units in *VHF* are in 
process as well. We had a couple beta UHF users in LV test and  confirm 
that the unit could be used for *Packet Radio* with Direwolf! So, a 
"pocket packet" system should be in the works as well sometime soon with 
the new VHF units. We'll be running early tests with that in Las Vegas 
in early fall (after the intense heat subsides).

	So, yeah they work great, the lucky beta-users are still extremely 
happy, and sometime soon they'll be available for ordering. You will be 
*very* pleasantly surprised at the price point as well.

	Apologies for what might seem like an on-going tease, this is not a 
snipe-hunt, it is a real operational Amateur Radio product which makes 
HamVoip use even that much better. Unfortunately no on-line updates have 
been made since May to the on-line docs at:
	http://chilinodz.wikidot.com/
Look for further developments there.

	In closing, I think that Doug would probably prefer not to discuss 
third-party gear in detail here in his mailing list. I will make a 
single announcement later on when ordering/shipping is available.

	All the best,

	- Don - AA7AU