LoTek Coordination
Open hardware
Every LoTek network is built from five open designs, refined over seventeen years by the people who install and repair them. Every specification, part and revision is published here.
Designs
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LT-R · The household node
Stoop
The node on nearly every roof: a single 5 GHz radio and panel antenna in a weatherproof enclosure, powered from the host’s mains over one cable. Designed to be assembled at a build night and installed by two trained residents in under an hour.
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LT-H · The neighborhood hub
Gantry
A three-sector hub for tall buildings: three 5 GHz access radios to serve the surrounding roofs and a 60 GHz backbone radio to reach other hubs, with a Cellar battery module so the hub keeps running through a power cut.
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LT-P · The point-to-point relay
Span
A pair of directional radios that carry the backbone where hubs cannot see each other: over a highway, across a rail yard, from ridge to ridge. One Span links two points; most networks have a handful.
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LT-S · The street node
Lamppost
A compact node for utility and street-light poles, for blocks where no roof is available. Installed only under a city permit, by crews the city has approved.
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LT-B · The power module
Cellar
A lithium iron phosphate battery module with a charge controller and a solar input. Every hub has one; in networks built for resilience, solar-powered Cellars run hubs and relays entirely off the grid.
Open by design
The designs are licensed under the CERN Open Hardware Licence, strongly reciprocal (CERN-OHL-S v2). Anyone may build, modify and share them, provided that modified designs are shared under the same terms.
Changes are proposed by stewards and installers, tested on a handful of roofs in at least two networks, and adopted by the hardware working group, which stewards elect each year at the annual gathering. A new revision is always compatible with the mounts and cabling of the one before it.
Firmware is developed the same way. See the firmware release history.
Every design is meant to be opened, repaired and modified by the people who own it. The wider fight for the right to repair, and to own the devices we buy, is led by independent groups such as the FULU Foundation.