Gristle King - A Guide to DePIN

Category: Off Grid

  • Does Your Helium Hotspot Need A Security Camera?

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    Nik
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    “Do you wor­ry about your off grid hotspot get­ting stolen?”  I get that ques­tion a lot.  My short answer is “No”.  In gen­er­al, I fol­low what I con­sid­er a few secu­ri­ty best practices: Make it hard to find. Make it hard to get to. Don’t leave your valu­ables unprotected. In the world of Heli­um off grids, how­ev­er,…

  • Lessons Learned From A Year Of Helium Deployments

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    Nik
    in ,

    It’s been a lit­tle over a year since I start­ed deploy­ing Heli­um Hotspots. In that year, after deploy­ing Hotspots both on grid and off grid on homes, com­mer­cial build­ings, and (my favorite) in the moun­tains, I’ve learned a ton about what to do, what not to do, and how to make the most of the…

  • Reports From The Field: Tracking With Helium

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    Nik
    in ,

    I recent­ly drove up to par­tic­i­pate in the USA Hike & Fly­’s Ojai race on Octo­ber 31st, both as an ath­lete and a provider of track­ing with Heli­um. The ath­lete side was fun, but expen­sive. I land­ed in the bush­es and tore up my wing enough to war­rant buy­ing a new one. Not cheap. Still,…

  • Helium Deployed: The Network In Action

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    Nik
    in ,

    Our pilot project is com­plete, and boy have we learned a ton from this one! While many are still focus­ing on earn­ing HNT for Heli­um Hotspot deploy­ments, the obvi­ous move for those of us inter­est­ed in longevi­ty is actu­al­ly USING the Network. Over the course of a week, sup­port­ed by Tom­my and Ryan at Lon­es­tar…

  • Is Helium A Better “Last Chance”?

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    Nik
    in ,

    I got into Heli­um acci­den­tal­ly. I was look­ing for a way to find and com­mu­ni­cate with oth­er paraglid­ers out back of beyond. I had par­tic­i­pat­ed in a Search and Res­cue for a well known paraglid­er out in remote Neva­da at the end of sum­mer 2020.  The miss­ing paraglid­er pilot (James John­ston, aka Kiwi) had GPS and…

  • How To Set Up a RUT 240 for an Off Grid Helium Hotspot — Prepare for Challenge!

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    Nik
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    With a gen­er­ous assist from the folks over at HNTen­na, here’s a step by step method for set­ting up your RUT 240 (the cell modem that allows an off grid Heli­um Hotspot to con­nect to the internet.) I’ll start by say­ing that off grid set ups are not for the faint of heart, the eas­i­ly…

  • How I Built An Awesome Lightweight Off Grid Helium Miner

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    Nik
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    How small can you build an off grid min­er? Can every­thing fit in one back­pack? How light can that pack be? Final­ly, why would you want a tiny off grid miner? And yeah, those are Pup­pies Make Me Hap­py sunglasses.  I’ll start with the last ques­tion. Why would you want a tiny off grid min­er? The…

  • How to take your Helium Hotspot Off Grid

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    Nik
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    It seems pret­ty straight­for­ward; gen­er­ate pow­er and a con­nec­tion to the inter­net, and you’ve got an off grid Heli­um Hotspot set­up. Still, you’ll have a few minor details to sort out, like what type of enclo­sure, how to mount it, how to make sure it stays weath­er­proof if you use an exter­nal anten­na, and how…