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0 pointsjonah3y ago0 comments

An Iridium embedded modem is one of the things we came across in the wreckage of a small plane we were recovering the pilot's remains from[0].

It was for his Spidertracks[1] flight tracking system. (Which, with the ADSB track, helped us hone in on the possible location. The wreck ended up being right in line with the last few pings.

[0] https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/experienced-solvang-bush...

[1] https://www.spidertracks.com/

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walrus013y ago

there's iridium SBD modems for low data rate/non-realtime comms (like position trackers) and full featured iridium voice/data modems integrated into a vast array of products now, in the land mobile, aviation and maritime segments.

one thing iridium has actually done really well is provide the developer documentation to make this fairly straightforward, there's a set of 600 page PDF files with every detail you could possibly need to make a very tiny embedded linux system talk to an iridum modem over a UART.

jonahOP3y ago

The Garmin inReach[0] line of satellite communicators are another example of a 3rd party Iridium partnership. Given the size/form factor, I wonder if they're using more custom hardware than just an off-the-shelf module for their integration.

They're another example of exorbitant fees for tiny bits of data. (Though, being able to text pretty much anywhere on the globe on a tiny device is really nice - even with a 20minute RTT.)

[0] https://discover.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/professional/

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