I’ve been working (intermittently) on a fully-autonomous Meshtastic solar node since July. The idea is that the node can be placed anywhere there is some sunshine, without regard to getting it power or data signals. I also wanted it to be cheap, because I’d like to scatter a handful of them around the neighborhood so that everyone on the mountainside can get a good Meshtastic connection should they so desire. Because the nodes are solar powered, our network will continue to work even with loss of utility power, phone, and internet service, exactly the situation we had after Hurricane Lala.
The bill of materials looks like this:
- meshtastic radio Heltec T114 $12 (they’ve gone up in price since)
- solar yard light, $10
- IP65 weather resistant enclosure
- 1.5 watt solar panel
- lithium-ion battery with charge controller
- external antenna $5 (but might not be necessary with our next batch of radios at $17 each)
I’ve been testing and tuning it on an 12’ high mast on my 6’ high back deck, but the dream was always to lash it to a culm of our giant bamboo, already at one of the higher points on the property.
I picked a culm and bent it down. Both were harder than I expected, as I had to pick a culm that wasn’t tangled in with others or blocked by the adjacent ironwood tree, then it had to be one that still allowed adequate sunlight to reach the solar panel (we’ll see) and put the antenna in a good position. They’re thick and tough, and it took a lot of strength to bend it down to where HA could hold it while being assaulted by vicious mosquitoes while I lashed it in place. Then we slowly released it back to upright position.
Time will tell if it improves my mesh connectivity, though it looks good so far.
Just for kicks, here’s a photo of Luna the Big Dog™ walking along a tree-lined road on this fall morning, with early sunlight slanting through the trees.
—2p