Meshtastic

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Does anyone know of a way to make a solar (no battery) meshtastic node? (piefed.social)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by mesamunefire@piefed.social to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz

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Ive had a number of these devices. And the number 1 thing that fails is the battery. It might also be where I am at. We have 110+F days that cause spicy pillows or failures after a year or so.

So I was wondering, is there a way to make a "daytime only" node that turns on where theres enough sunlight to power the thing, and then turns off where there is not enough sunlight?

I figure I could just get a 5V solar panel and hook it up directly to one of the nodes. I'm just nervous that it will under voltage the device over the long run if that makes sense.

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[–] sobchak@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've heard that RAK boards will get stuck in a deep sleep mode or something if the voltage goes below a certain threshold, and need to be power cycled or reset. Haven't tested myself, just something my local mesh group has said they experienced.

[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

I was all geared up to make my first solar node, got a rak and a solar panel, put an 18650 in it. I was doing some testing to see how long it would last on my bench without sun. I got distracted and the voltage got lower than the rak liked, and then it just... Never came back. Wouldn't wake up again, not with solar power or adding additional external power. I'd probably need to disconnect and reconnect the battery. But I never tried that, because the point was that I wouldn't be able to.

Before this, I had already been researching and thinking about different methods, and I had already wasted some money on some ill-planned hybrid lithium capacitors. I also had some disappointing range tests from the local hill. Plus I was trying to get my buddies on board and they were dragging their feet.

So this was the last nail in the coffin. You can't have a device enter a non recoverable state when it's 40 feet up in a tree at the top of the tallest hill in town. Just bad design.

That stupid thing is still sitting on my desk, almost a year now. I lost all interest, unfortunately.

I'm sure I'll come back to it, eventually.

But yes, in my experience, rak doesn't like low voltages, and will likely get stuck in an unrecoverable state.