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nband

Documentation · v0.1.0

Building an instrument that can be argued with.

The reason unexplained sightings stay unexplained is almost never that the object was exotic. It is that nobody measured it properly. Everything documented here exists to change that: hardware, firmware, database, analysis, and these pages in one repository on one version, with a drift check that fails the build when any of them disagree. Documentation that has quietly stopped matching the hardware is worse than none, because it is trusted.

Bands defined
14
Bands with a part
13
Entry build
$504
Tier 2 draw
12.8 W

Shortest path

Depending on what you are trying to do

Three routes through the same material. Every page also links to the next in reading order, so following any of these straight through works.

Deciding whether to build one

  1. 01What the fourteen bands actually see
  2. 02What it costs and what draws power
  3. 03How a verdict is reached, live

Building one now

  1. 01Order the parts for your tier
  2. 02Ten verifiable steps
  3. 03Configure and calibrate
  4. 04Read before powering up outdoors

Reading the data

  1. 01Live band-by-band charts
  2. 02What each table means
  3. 03Query it yourself

Start here

What the platform is and whether you want one.

The fourteen bandsWhat each band physically detects, how far it reaches, what weather kills it, and what it costs to open.for: Deciding whether to build oneHow verdicts workKnown-source subtraction, hypothesis scoring, and the four gates guarding the top of the ladder. Runs live.for: Anyone who wants to trust the archive

Build

Everything needed to put a node in the sky.

Hardware and BOMThree build tiers, every part priced from a named vendor page, and the diagrams generated from that same registry.for: Pricing a buildBuild guideTen ordered steps, each ending in something you can verify before spending money on the next.for: Mid-build, soldering iron downSoftware and configFlashing, the configuration file, trigger thresholds, and calibration.for: Node running, changing behaviourVariant registryEvery part the grid knows how to calibrate, including community substitutes, and how to register one.for: Building with different parts

Reference

The contracts everything else is written against.

Data schemaThe contract shared by every node, the database, the discriminator, and this site. What each table means.for: Reading or writing the archiveAPI referenceThe four signed endpoints a node speaks to the grid, and the public read surface.for: Writing a client

Live data

What the grid is doing right now.

The archiveEvery event recorded, the verdict reached, and the reasoning behind it.The gridEvery node reporting, and whether its clock is good enough to contribute geometry.Live telemetryBand-by-band charts with historical scrub and discriminator verdicts overlaid.

Participate

Extending the platform, and the rules that keep it honest.

ContributingAdding variants, drivers, catalogues, and documentation without breaking the archive.Safety and regulationOptical, radio, electrical, and radiological hazards, and the rules covering each.