How to build a solar powered Meshtastic repeater from scratch

#meshtastic #solarpunk

[TX_Junk]

Looking into mesh, and found the perfect person to explain it to me. Great job, Will!
73 de AC5G

[LibertyEver]

Be sure to connect the antennas before connecting the battery and then solar panel to avoid damage to the transmitters.

I like that most of your bill of materials is from Amazon. I'm building a similar solar powered Meshtastic network with three nodes for family SHTF comms. I'm using a much larger 6W solar panel and three 18650 batteries per node to prevent brownouts that would require access to reboot it. I'm using 8.5 dBi antennas which are hopefully overkill but I've had too many low power comms projects where I wished I'd used better antennas. No GPS as I know where they are, but a temperature and humidity sensor in case I need to do some troubleshooting before climbing onto the roof. I'm designing and 3D printing the enclosures to fit the 45 degree solar panel, large antenna, battery box and PVC pole mount. It's a fun project, and based on the deteriorating state of the world, it may be very useful soon.

[slappomatthew]

one issue I see is it needs to be placed so that the solar is facing up which then makes your antenna horizontal when you really want it vertical.

[sirkyoj]

Very cool. I am going to build this. I was sure i would be soldering. Thanks

[mepro]

Could you please link the items you purchased?

[jimygerilius]

In frame is your friend...dont be shy.

[DistinguishedMenofCulture]

The problem with that installation is the solar panel needs to be angled for proper orientation to the sun, but the antenna needs to be straight up and down, which means you should have some sort of an angled adapter coming out of that box

[HectorReviews]

Great video! Please share a video of the app setup!

[RavenwoodAcres]

Good stuff, I am building my own solar setup.

[miltoneduardososa]

Cool video, thanks for sharing. I have two questions though.

1- What is the lifetime of a fully charged battery?
2- Have you tried the edge case in which the repeater runs out of battery, and then gets charged again by the solar panel. Is the device restarting automatically?

[electechyt]

Great project but GPS needs to face up, solar needs to face up and South too

[Lets-follow-HIM]

Thanks. We are all here grateful you took the time to show us this stuff. Dont read the lame comments.

[roosboom]

Very interesting video. Connecting the battery I Misses in this Video. Is that easy to do?

[georgebreckenridge]

I'm still looking for that antenna cable.

[jungy]

You didn't need to remove the cover to press that reset button... just plug in usb after you do the pressy thing~

[adamdude]

Oh this is cool! Have you mounted them anywhere yet? It would be awesome to have these mounted somewhere to the tops of mountains and then have a great way to communicate for free

[davidm]

As it's possible to set a static location in meshtastic, it would save power vs running a GPS module. Any idea if traceroute and other distance info would work on nodes with a static/fixed GPS location?

[SkyCreeper]

Did those enclosures come with the rubber gasket for the usb or did you add it? I have 2 of thse same kits and they dont have that.

Thanks for the vid. Im doing the same build. Im currently deciding on an antenna to use.

[hazeel]

"From scratch"... Man, everything is prebuilt and bought >:(

[SolarDrew]

Are those solar panels worth a darn? I read your site and you mention that you use a 12W panel with external battery. This video depicts otherwise. What say you?