kinda neat... I'm sending messages to another mesher in Florence. Meshcore sent it the first time as a flood packet (ping pong off anything and every thing). Once I got an ACK from him, we had a path discovered.
Someone in the chat just mentioned something out "balanced neutral" , so I'm going to do a brain dump....
In the US wiring standard we have Leg1 (120v), Neutral (0v) and Leg2(120v). Ideally, the neutral makes sure that your 120v devices get 120v relative to the center point.
What if that center point is missing? Let's disconnect the neutral back to the pole transformer and play along... Imagine you plug a 120v toaster into leg 1 and a 120v coffee maker into leg 2. Since both devices pull about 1200watts, even if the neutral is missing you'll get 240v split evenly between the two devices. if we add another coffee pot, L2 voltage will drop to 80v and the leg with the toaster will rise to 160v. They both still add to 240v but they are "imbalanced" relative to the neutral.
If you have lights that dim or brighten when you run the hair dryer or microwave, look for a loose neutral connection in your load center. The clue is that 120v changes but the 240v stays the same when things are switched on/off.
Off The GridHumor aside, if you look at the transformer on your pole, you will likely see 25 on it. That's 25kva (100amp) service. Often in older neighborhoods they will service 3 to 5 houses from a 37kva transformer. Yesterday I saw a 50kva feeding three house trailers…
Hell, today with "green and smart" our homes use a fraction of what they did 10 years ago. Now most new heat pump systems come with soft start built in. SO it is true, a 12kw inverter would be enough on most homes. A second inverter as a back up is also a good idea.
Humor aside, if you look at the transformer on your pole, you will likely see 25 on it. That's 25kva (100amp) service. Often in older neighborhoods they will service 3 to 5 houses from a 37kva transformer. Yesterday I saw a 50kva feeding three house trailers and a commercial building.
I'm telling you this to push the point that it is very likely you can run your house on a 12kw inverter. You may need to install a softstart on your HVAC or buy an inverter with a good surge ability.
My house has been running for 6 or 8 years on two 6kw inverters.
Do not assume that because you have 200amp service that you need 200amps to run your house.
This is a typical "McMansion" generac pair of transfer switches. The customer thinks that having two 200amp panels is 400amp service. I detest them doing this because the service to the house is ALWAYS 25kva (100amp). And the generator is 24kw (100amp).
The issue is that code requires an outlet every 6' on the wall and they run out of spaces for branch circuits in a 200amp panel. This necessitates and second 200amp load center inside.
The folks at generac could feed their xfer from a single 4/0 cable from the meter can and THEN split into the two load centers. But then we couldn't sell that extra xfer switch could we?
This seriously complicates a future solar install.
I've said this a few times.... meshtastic's achillies heel is that every device is a repeater. When you have more than about 15 units in vicinity to one another, when one person transmits a message, for the next few moments the network is 100% saturated as every nearby station retransmits the same thing. It's great in a small group but not for >15 or so users.
I saw a post tonight about the Atlanta area "Atlanta area is all on MediumFast now. Most everything in GA above I-20 is MediumFast, below I-20 is still LongFast. Seems to be the dividing line."
Their solution is to divide the network into two different speeds which are incompatible with each other. 1)this makes communications over a large area impossible due to the different settings, 2)how is a user to know when to change frequency/modes? In the end, they will experience the same problem again as growth continues.
Meshtastic cannot scale. Meshcore does because it is more structured.
When you transmit a message in meshcore, it is repeated once by a high up repeater and potentially 100s of users hear that ONE transmission. It's a huge difference in efficiency and battery saving.
Today I helped one of our members setup a meshcore repeater. FYI, when you set up a repeater, if there is bluetooth on hte hardware it will be disabled. The only way you can get to a repeater to administer it is by USB to your PC or thru a remote admin session via another meshcore radio.
Meshcore has very sharply defined roles. 1)repeater. Only uses 900mhz radio for it's daily functions. Bluetooth disabled.
2)companion. This is the mesh unit you carry around with you. It will either have a keyboard like a black berry or it will bluetooth to your phone so you can type messages.
3)observer. This is a behind the scenes node. It never transmits, it only listens to the radio side of things and copies the headers of packets to a central server for analytics. This allows those websites with the cool laser beams to show the progress of a packet as it transits the network.
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