A Meshtastic node has been one of the toys of the moment over the last year, and since they are popular with radio amateurs there’s a chance you’ll already live within range of at least one. They can typically run from a lithium-ion or li-po battery, so it’s probable that like us you’ve toyed with the idea of running one from a solar panel. It’s something we have in common with [saveitforparts], whose experiments with a range of different solar panels form the subject of a recent video.
He has three different models: one based around a commercial solar charger, another using an off-the-shelf panel, and a final one using the panel from a solar garden light. As expected the garden light panel can’t keep an ESP32 with a radio going all day, but the other two manage even in the relatively northern climes of Alaska.
As a final stunt he puts one of the nodes out on a rocky piece of the southern Alaskan coastline, for any passing hacker to find. It’s fairly obviously in a remote place, but it seems passing cruise ships will be within its range. We just know someone will take up his challenge and find it.
I am working on something similar but instead of meshtastic I’m using plain old P2P LoRa. I just want to bridge a few relatives’ houses together on one network. All in a 5km radius
You should try HaLow. It’s wifi at sub GHz frequencies and people have achieved great ranges with that (though speed can be low)
I would be interested to see where your needs go beyond what meshtastic brings out of the box. Your description fits mt perfectly at first glance
Where up and running now 3 neighborhoods in one shopping center smooth sailing!
I iterated through multiple versions of outdoor nodes and my current favourite is a solution to be found on AliExpress that uses a D5 solar panel with battery charger that integrates a RAK4630 on a RAK19007 providing low power consumption. It can be had around 100 EUR with two 18650 cells included.
Building your own kit (solar panel, project box, Wisblock, antennas, pigtails, barrel jack, LiIon cells (e.g. 1S3P with BMS), mounting option etc. will not really come much cheaper than that.
If this one holds up it looks like a winner to me.
“D5 Solar Power Lora Node Repeater Extender 3,7 V 5 V Wisblock RAK19007 RAK4630 SX1262 Meshtastic Kit Radio Lora WiFi Antenne”
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005008489536197.html
I’m working on a DIY build that should come in under $50. I’m printing my own enclosure and making a J-pole antenna with a piece of house wire and a short piece of RG-58. To make the enclosure sun and water resistant I’m coating it in Plastidip.
I didn’t know about this device. Thanks Oliver!
Have you seen this one:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005009296831256.html
It looks to me like it offers more sturdy and convenient mounting than the one you posted. Also a bit cheaper.
With all of these models I would replace the antenna though. The Mikrotik 868 Omni antenna (or the 915 version for the Americas) is one that works well.
Hmm I don’t know much about meshtastic. Is it a popular tech? Who is using these nodes?
I mean if there is dedicated hardware on aliexpress surely there must be enough volume to warrant making these (unless they are repurposed?)
I guess I’m just having trouble figuring out what the average user of meshtastic in general and these nodes looks like. Are they a hobbyist? Some kind of professional in some industry that is not very visible? Outdoor enthusiasts?
FWIW,, my use case.
Rural property. Mesh of 19 nodes, where terrain limits simple LOS connect to server. Enviromental sensors, motion detectors, well pump and tank monitor/controllers, greenhouse mon/cntl, and tracking for my two dogs and two cats.
My wife wants to add a tracker to myself. Nope.
I’ve been running a few SenseCAP P1s and have been very impressed with them, may do some kind of review or hands-on for it in near future.
Did your iterations include testing during winter? I’m in England and our days get pretty short during December, is there enough solar panel for a short and cloudy day to put enough charge in the cells to last through a cold night?
Did not find info that will it protect battery if it is too cold to charge.
Battery will most likely fail very fast if it’ll get charged temperatures below freezing.
LTO batteries are better for nodes like this; better temperature range vs LiFePo4. Only hard part is chargers / BMS for the lower voltage cells.
Sodium Ion batteries are also good for low temperature. They are cheaper than LTO, but it’s still hard to find chargers for them.
The Coast Guard uses Aids to Navigation lights in parts of Alaska that are solar powered with LED lights that flash and are bright enough to be seen for several miles. Sorry I don’t know how far north the stock ones go, for custom ones I would imagine it would depend on how large the collectors were.
Unfortunately, after trying to deploy meshtastic for actual usage at burning man a few years in a row (always hoping it would improve sufficiently), I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s fundamentally flawed for all but the simplest of use cases. The routing just isn’t reliable, so messages are often never delivered.
Next year I’ll be trying Reticulum (https://reticulum.network/) — I think its foundations are much more sound so I’m pretty hopeful.
That’s exactly what i’ve been thinking about meshtastic After Reading few experiment report. I’ve never tried myself and not enough personal knowledge to spot if the protocol is flawed by design or bad config is to blame for undelivered messages.
That’s why my lora modules sit on my desk, waiting for spare “spare time” available.
Thanks for citing réticulum i was unaware of. The agrégation of several network interface seems really nice. But, which software can use it? After Reading few thing in their wiki, i understand that, for now, software must be written to use it? What is your plan ?