A great new potential revision to the design, Waveshare has a module that handles PoE power for the Pi Zero so the splitter can be removed freeing up a little more space. It sits underneath the pi using pogo pins to connect the test probe points on the bottom of the Pi Zero so you still have all the USB ports available. This also means you don't need to worry about needing headers on the Pi. The newly freed space allows for a larger battery or even just a more compact enclosure.
I considered that for the build but saw some complaints of radio interference. The reports were of interfering with WiFi so LoRa might be fine, but it was enough for me to take it out of consideration, especially with deploying at commercial sites with other radio systems that could be affected.
@The_Comms_Channel solder the gpio to a transistor to pull it low (Or high, depending on the wisblock) and the other side of the transistor to the wisblock. Then write a small script, that toggles the transistor via a gpio pin after reboot. Edit: To the reset pin of the wisblock of course. So basically RPi GPIO-> npn transistor-> reset pin/button of the wisblock
@@The_Comms_Channel Yeah sadly true, but you could just "simply" solder a thin lead to the reset button. I need to check if you might be able to define a reset button to a GPIO inside of the Meshtastic firmware.
This is pretty impressive! Thanks for sharing! Just thinking out loud, for resetting the RAK, I think you can hack the board by soldering the reset button to one of the Raspberry Pis GPIOs and automatically perform a reset after boot. I'm not familiar with the RAK but If someone could share it's schematic, we can figure it out! Well done! Love your Meshtastic videos!
The pi side is easy but got a bit stuck on the RAK side. Here's the data sheet if it's helpful docs.rakwireless.com/Product-Categories/WisBlock/RAK19007/Datasheet/
@@The_Comms_Channel something went wrong with my last reply and can't see it. But I think the reset is connected to the NRESET of the Core module. I don't have a hardware to test but I'd try connecting the NRESET pin to the GND and see if acts similar to pressing the physical button before connecting it to a RPI GPIO
I'd have to double check, but it strikes me that it should be possible to use one of the IO pins on the pi to reboot the wizblock after the raspi reboots.
I am looking forward to seeing how you boot the pi so that the python virtual environment starts automatically. Mine boots, but needs a manual ssh to the pi to start the service. I followed the auto-boot instructions however get an error message. A movie on this will be great.
Sure thing! I tested with a Heltec and it worked fine for me. Some others had issues though, but they may have gotten a bad devices. Won't hurt to try if you have one already.
I’ve been running one on a pi/heltech combo for two weeks now. Works great. I just don’t recommend the hats currently I had too many issues with longer message sends (which is really necessary for the BBS)
A great new potential revision to the design, Waveshare has a module that handles PoE power for the Pi Zero so the splitter can be removed freeing up a little more space. It sits underneath the pi using pogo pins to connect the test probe points on the bottom of the Pi Zero so you still have all the USB ports available. This also means you don't need to worry about needing headers on the Pi. The newly freed space allows for a larger battery or even just a more compact enclosure.
I considered that for the build but saw some complaints of radio interference. The reports were of interfering with WiFi so LoRa might be fine, but it was enough for me to take it out of consideration, especially with deploying at commercial sites with other radio systems that could be affected.
I was literally just looking at this. Telling myself I need to set mine up. Read my mind!
🔮
Downloading to watch later. This is a project on my list
Feel free to reach out with any questions!
Interesting! I might have to adapt some things for the application here...but doable
Go for it! Feel free to reach out with any questions!
Set a GPIO pin on the pi to reboot the RAK once the pi has completed its boot.
It's trivial to control an SSR from a GPIO pin.
What about the RAK side?
@The_Comms_Channel solder the gpio to a transistor to pull it low (Or high, depending on the wisblock) and the other side of the transistor to the wisblock. Then write a small script, that toggles the transistor via a gpio pin after reboot. Edit: To the reset pin of the wisblock of course. So basically RPi GPIO-> npn transistor-> reset pin/button of the wisblock
@@WillTemeraire It looks like only the RAK19001 and RAK19011 have a pin header for reset 😞
@@The_Comms_Channel Yeah sadly true, but you could just "simply" solder a thin lead to the reset button. I need to check if you might be able to define a reset button to a GPIO inside of the Meshtastic firmware.
This is pretty impressive! Thanks for sharing! Just thinking out loud, for resetting the RAK, I think you can hack the board by soldering the reset button to one of the Raspberry Pis GPIOs and automatically perform a reset after boot. I'm not familiar with the RAK but If someone could share it's schematic, we can figure it out! Well done! Love your Meshtastic videos!
The pi side is easy but got a bit stuck on the RAK side. Here's the data sheet if it's helpful
docs.rakwireless.com/Product-Categories/WisBlock/RAK19007/Datasheet/
@@The_Comms_Channel something went wrong with my last reply and can't see it. But I think the reset is connected to the NRESET of the Core module. I don't have a hardware to test but I'd try connecting the NRESET pin to the GND and see if acts similar to pressing the physical button before connecting it to a RPI GPIO
Looking forward to the rest of the series 😁
Next video is uploading now 🙂
Been waiting for this one! 🍿😎👍
Enjoy the video and feel free to reach out with any questions!
I'd have to double check, but it strikes me that it should be possible to use one of the IO pins on the pi to reboot the wizblock after the raspi reboots.
I am looking forward to seeing how you boot the pi so that the python virtual environment starts automatically. Mine boots, but needs a manual ssh to the pi to start the service. I followed the auto-boot instructions however get an error message. A movie on this will be great.
Sure thing. I will try to do a movie on this later tonight or tomorrow
@@The_Comms_Channel I did setup my pi to be an AP, however lost settings on a reboot. Having it as an AP allowed me to SSH directly into it.
great video, but manual reset after power loss is a deal breaker for me - need better tech to reset on its own
Can use GPIO if you're good with soldering. Heltec seems to boot up fine in my testing as well.
Use a beefier Pi with a waveshare lora hat and meshticd. All in one. Just need a larger project box.
somone needs to build these and put on etsy.. id buy 10
Okay, why are we not using the waveshare poe/usb bonnet for pizero? Skips the whole splitter and connects with pogo pins
Reports of interference
Very interesting and informative. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful! More videos coming soon
curious for your thoughts on dietpi vs rpi lite for this.
Tested using Bookworm lite, but I imagine diet pi should work as well
Does the smaller Pi you use have enough power to be running JS8Call on it too? Or should I stick to a normal one?
Yep, the Pi Zero 2 W is powerful enough
Would this work on the solar build? Without POE?
Solar will be a struggle with the Raspberry Pi, but I'll be testing a few setups to see what's possible.
Can I use a heltech board for this instead of the wisblock.
It should work and others have used them. I just trust the WisBlocks more.
Thank you sir and if WisBlocks are more reliable I'll check them out. I do have some heltechs sitting around and I want to give this a go.
Sure thing! I tested with a Heltec and it worked fine for me. Some others had issues though, but they may have gotten a bad devices. Won't hurt to try if you have one already.
I’ve been running one on a pi/heltech combo for two weeks now. Works great. I just don’t recommend the hats currently I had too many issues with longer message sends (which is really necessary for the BBS)
Do you have a link for the ethernet/usb hat? Not seeing it.
Forgot about that! amzn.to/3YwpUQR
@@The_Comms_Channel thanks