New project: digital mesh network walkie talkies

[btunning]

My son suggested we try to make our own walkie talkies... I thought it would be interesting to make digital ones, using a mesh network.

I've made quite a few projects so far (home automation, radio controlled cars, etc.) using arduino & electric imp, but haven't used a teensy yet, nor have done anything with audio.

I'm thinking a teensy 3.1 will be able to do much of what I need, it seems to have enough horsepower to record the audio input, and has a DAC I can use for output. I'm going to pair it with a nRF24L01+ transceiver for the radio part, an adafruit auto-gain microphone, and a basic speaker & amp.

Are there any suggestions for a project like this? For example, would I need the audio adapter board for the teensy, or is the teensy 3.1 alone good enough?
(I only need fairly low bit rate mono audio for this).

Can I read the analog signal straight from the mic (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1713) into an analog in on the teensy, or would I need additional components? (I'm aware there is an audio library for the teensy which probably has a lot of what I'll need)

Thanks for any input -- I'm excited to start working with the teensy!

 

[stevech]

XBee Series 1 can run free Digimesh. Plug and play.
RadioHead software library for the HopeRF RFM69 has a mesh capability. The RFM69 is lke $5. I've run this library and RFM69, 433MHz (longer range than 2.4GHz), at speeds up to a sustained 75Kbps. But you'd get by with, say, 16Kbps. The key is how agressive you get with the CODECs.

This would be in the highly advanced skills category.
The audio, I think, can be done with existing A/D and D/A in the Teensy 3. But if not headphones, you'd need an amplifier. And a mic with an amp for the A/D input.