Off The Grid

I turned this PVC cap on the lathe to bore a hole in it for the SMA connector and also to face off some of the curved plastic on the top. This gives a flat surface for the connector to torque down onto.

I desoldered ALL components off this board except for the "click click " swtich. Battery power is routed thru that switch.

Bam! Laundry room door!

3/4” conduit tee with a solar panel from a patio light and a rak4631 module. There is a battery in the solar panel housing. That’s how small these mesh repeaters can be.

Just looking back on a system we commissioned in late December 2025. He's used 78kwh (about $10) of electric from the grid since December. That was mostly due to him not running his batteries down below 20% in February. He'll be adding one more 16kwh battery this fall and I think he'll be 100% off grid. Once he gets to next March, he can decide it having the grid as an emergency power source is worth $36 a month.

Adding this... his power company charges him an extra dollar to send a bill in the mail and his minimum bill is $36 a month. So his bill got lost in the mail one month and the next bill showed a late fee and a back balance. So in addition to paying for a meter he's not using, he got a penalty because the bill was lost in the mail.

The mesh is picking up over here... we have three new repeaters in the area.

My wife just found a suggestion... make a small platform or box on top of a fence post and seed it with shiny things like coins or washers, dry peanuts and some cracked corn to attract crows... who will protect my chickens.

Here's a mesh node build entirely in a conduit body. 3 small solar panels mounted directly to the conduit body. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFknqGFajE

Here's a little adapter do hickey that will connect that solar light above to any 3/4" 19mm) pvc T or conduit box. I think I'm going to build repeaters inside a PVC 3/4" conduit Tee body.

The slick part about these solar patio lights is the solar panel and charge controller are built into the solar panel housing. This means that you have more room in the conduit Tee for the radio gear.

Anyone wanting the build a mesh repeater, heres a guide. This uses a solar patio light that Lowes no loger sells but as it turns out , I got about a dozen of these in the basement in a box. https://phillymesh.net/2026/07/10/harbor-breeze-node-updated/

Piggy play pen. Suspended a hose over the middle of their pen to make a mud out for them to root in. Also had to redesign the 55 gallon pig feeder. We also mixed half and half cracked corn and all feed sweet mix.

POV: Your kids' school has been diversified.✨

Just home school them.