Off The Grid

expected coverage area

Olanta SC

Another meshcore repeater up today in rural Olanta South Carolina. Used a drone to fly it up and it has magnetic feet to stick to the tank.

I sent a message from my phone (purple line starting in South Carolina). Watch it bounce all over.

Message traffic between Sumter SC and Florence SC

Minimalist mesh radio.

I got a 3/4" pvc plug with a mounting ear printed to adapt the solar patio light to fit a standard 3/4" pvc conduit Tee. The battery and on/off switch is in the solar panel housing. That leaves a lot of room in the conduit coupler for that small RAK4631 board.

I swappd out the 18650 battery that came with the solar light for a higher capacity 18650 but that one didn't have a nipple on the positive end. So I did have to put a bubble of solder on the battery holder terminal.

There's a drain hole in the bottom of the PVC Tee and a drain hole in the bottom of the solar panel housing.

How cheap can these things get? The Sense Cap unit I bought for $130 is based on the Xiao chipset.... it's literally 1/2" square and sells for $13. Add an external antenna connector and a $12 antenna alongside some solar patio light that uses a 4.2v battery and you are off and running for potentially $35-$40 per repeater.

https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-nRF52840-Wio-SX1262-Kit-for-Meshtastic-p-6400.html

Just did some experimentation with the meshcore radios this morning. I had to go back here in the group and edit a post I made that said to avoid the Heltec T096.

I have found that the FEM (front end module) on the Heltec T096 is finicky. It seems to either cause increased RX noise or outright mutes the receiver. You can issue the command SET RADIO.FEM.RXGAIN OFF to disable it.

example... with FEM RXgain ON, the noise floor was showing at -100db (unusually noisy.). I switched the FEM RXgain off and noise floor improved to -116db. You may recall that eariler this week I noted a 16db difference in link margin... I think I found it. At another point this morning, I switched FEM RXGain ON and the noise floor went to -120db which indicates a dead (muted) receiver. So the FEM module is flakey.

Actually the heltec with the FEM disabled seems to have a 4db receiver advantage over the RAK 4631.

Transmit test
RAK -> St Chs  6.5db
T096-> St Che  3.75db
RAK ->Oswego  10.5db
T096->Oswego   3.75db

Receive Test
St Chs->RAK  1.5db
St Cos->T096 3.5db
Oswego->RAK  9.0db
Oswego->T096 9.75db

Night vision rat killing.

I've never seen it and this is the first I've heard of it.

Here's a 38 hop packet. Meshcore is really viable for regional comms.

Hows this for a packet path?

Can you tell which inverter is overpanelled? Both identical 6kw inverters. The one with 2x panels makes predicable power all year because it makes full power from 10am util 3pm. The inverer with 1.25x panels makes varying amounts of power depending on season of the year. Around Sept and Dec 22 it will top out.