I am working on a solar node to put out in the wild as a repeater. I will use a 2000 mAH battery with a solar panel to allow it to run all night as well.
Some boards will not restart if they fade off due to decreasing supply and/or will not restart if they fade back on after a flat battery incident. Many youtubers will run a meshtastic board from solar and a 18650 (or four in parallel ). First you pick a board that has a really low running current.
You could easily use a timer circuit to do this. Although a more elegant solution would be to monitor when the sun went down via an optical sensor, run for a fixed amount of time then turn off and back on after light is detected again.
what do you mean by "drops to zero"? this part of the question is ambiguous. if you're talking about large voltage fluctuations, you can check your device's spec sheet if it acts just like a raspberry pi which turns on when it gets at a comfortable voltage, or does it have a fluctuation protection circuit as well. It all really depends on who designed the board / power IC
this is a good question - I'll try to do another video. My experience with these things dying tells me it won't turn back on if it goes to 0 and then comes back to 5 volts. but i'll test it.
OK, great video, but now I have a question. You say that the wisblocks don't like anything under 3.8v, so can you explain why most batteries used are the 18650 @ 3.7v?
agreed with the other two comments - the stock solar panel is 0.4 watts - way too small - needs to be like 6 watts or more to run a node for a long time
If someone was hostile to the network and captured a node they could intercept messages. That being said, recklessly deploying these could be dangerous
I am working on a solar node to put out in the wild as a repeater. I will use a 2000 mAH battery with a solar panel to allow it to run all night as well.
I've built a few based on 2000mah batteries. I'm just starting to run tests with them now.
@@innercityprepper please update us on how effective the ps is
Some boards will not restart if they fade off due to decreasing supply and/or will not restart if they fade back on after a flat battery incident.
Many youtubers will run a meshtastic board from solar and a 18650 (or four in parallel ). First you pick a board that has a really low running current.
I am actually starting to wonder if I could make nodes that shut off automatically for a few hours a day, specifically in the middle of the night.
You could easily use a timer circuit to do this. Although a more elegant solution would be to monitor when the sun went down via an optical sensor, run for a fixed amount of time then turn off and back on after light is detected again.
What happens if you drop to 3.7v and then ramp back up to 4v. Does it turn on? or does it stop until it drops to zero before restarting?
My question exactly.
what do you mean by "drops to zero"? this part of the question is ambiguous.
if you're talking about large voltage fluctuations, you can check your device's spec sheet if it acts just like a raspberry pi which turns on when it gets at a comfortable voltage, or does it have a fluctuation protection circuit as well. It all really depends on who designed the board / power IC
this is a good question - I'll try to do another video. My experience with these things dying tells me it won't turn back on if it goes to 0 and then comes back to 5 volts. but i'll test it.
Im building a solar node with RAK now. But im using a USB-C solar panel, so it should fire up again i when the sun is out again. Testing in progress!
OK, great video, but now I have a question. You say that the wisblocks don't like anything under 3.8v, so can you explain why most batteries used are the 18650 @ 3.7v?
Fully charged 18650s have 4.2v. 3.7 is nominal voltage of the cells
Also, the 3.8v he is referring to is for the solar circuit. The battery circuit will accept different ranges.
would be nice to bypass the LDO and run direct off 1s lifepo4
What about the solar panel that comes with the case they sell. A bit expensive but...
Too small
It’s not big enough to run it
agreed with the other two comments - the stock solar panel is 0.4 watts - way too small - needs to be like 6 watts or more to run a node for a long time
Are there users in the DFW area?
yeah there are - check out austinmesh.org and we've got some links to some maps that show the coverage up there
@@austinmesh thanks 👍
If someone was hostile to the network and captured a node they could intercept messages. That being said, recklessly deploying these could be dangerous