[atlas] Low cost, low energy consumption probe

Hi Michel,

For the $dayjob, I have access to today 13, soon even more locations with good (redundant) internet connectivity but very little compute hardware. To the extend that there is no hypervisor, however I personally really like the Atlas project. Will this add great value to the Atlas project, possibly not as the locations are kind a meh / non-exotic. So I perfectly understand me requesting a bunch of probes would be an issue.

As such from personal pocket (depending on cost on the total #) I'm happy to source/buy a bunch of probes. For instance, if it would work, I would be happy to buy some TP-Link MR3020 (the V3 probe), which seems to be ±22 euro here, and some USB sticks (and POE to USB cables) and last enroll them into Atlas. 

Happy to discuss offlist further.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet,
Stijn Jonker


> On 21 Dec 2022, at 13:51, Michel Stam <mstam at ripe.net> wrote:
> 
> Hello Stijn,
> 
> What kind of locations are you looking at for your probes? We don’t bite if asked, but yes is not guaranteed :)
> 
> The v5 hardware probe is a custom design based off the Turris Mox.
> 
> If we would do something like this we would need to split the Atlas application from the OS firmware, which for hardware probes currently is bundled. This to some extent ensures that the probe is not doing anything else (security).
> 
> There’s a couple of considerations to be had here, mostly with regard to support and security.
> Can you detail why you want to BYOP (Build-Your-Own-Probe)?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Michel
> 
>> On 19 Dec 2022, at 18:10, Stijn Jonker via ripe-atlas <ripe-atlas at ripe.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Ernst, Hi Others,
>> 
>> I would be interested as well maybe even exploring the USB model/option. However I would be keen to pursue only if it would be low maintenance as the current HW probes (i.e. config via portal, sw updates covered etc). To be fair I think an additional option might be that instead of sending out probes for free, that somehow you can order a probe directly or via Ripe or some reseller by providing a kitlist. As I would be keen to deploy some additional probes here and there (think ±12 locations at the end) but don't dare to ask for additional probes...
>> 
>> So maybe instead of reinventing the wheel, @ripe would it be an consideration to provide an kitlist/place to purchase the previous or current V5 HW model?
>> 
>> -- 
>> Met vriendelijke groet,
>> Stijn Jonker
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On 19 Dec 2022, at 16:42, Ernst J. Oud <ernstoud at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I have probes running on VMware (CentOS), Ubuntu (native) and on Docker for Windows. These small PC’s consume a lot more than the Ripe supplied HW probes.
>>> 
>>> So I looked for a cheap and *very* low energy alternative.
>>> 
>>> TP-Link sells the WR802N mini travel router for around USD 20 (o.a. on Amazon) that runs the latest version of OpenWRT fine and the Atlas probe SW has been ported to it. With some acrobatics I managed to turn it into an excellent alternative. Runs fine, energy consumption 700 mW (!). The device is as small as the Ripe supplied probe.
>>> 
>>> Since the flash memory of this device is too small for some of the required libraries, the acrobatics involved copying them to RAM and putting links to them in flash. This means that with FTP after a power outage a couple of files need to be copied to the device and that one command must be given after that.
>>> 
>>> There is a more expensive version with a USB port so that a USB stick can be used to store those files. Will investigate that option.
>>> 
>>> If someone here wants a detailed write-up let me know and I will invest the time to write it.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Ernst J. Oud
>>> -- 
>>> ripe-atlas mailing list
>>> ripe-atlas at ripe.net
>>> https://mailman.ripe.net/
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> ripe-atlas mailing list
>> ripe-atlas at ripe.net
>> https://mailman.ripe.net/
>