Nice. I’ve got the Anker version but it’s half the capacity at 1 KWh. It charges exclusively from 800W of PV input (though it can only handle 600W input) and can push out 2,000 W continuous and 3000 peak.

I’ve got a splitter from the PV that goes to both the Anker and a DC-DC converter which then goes to a few 12v -> USB power delivery adapters. Those can use the excess from the PV to charge power banks, phones, laptops, etc while the rest goes to the Anker (doesn’t seem to affect the MPPT unless there’s basically just no sunlight at all). Without the splitter, anything above 600W is wasted until I expand my setup later this spring.

All I can say for it is that it absolutely rocks! On sunny days, I run my entire homelab from it, my work-from-home office, charge all my devices, and run my refrigerator from it if I feel like running an extension cord). It’s setup downstairs, so I also plug my washing machine into it and can get a few loads of laundry done as well.

All from its solar input.

To give perspective with a 3000 mah battery I am still lasting days.

Is that connected via bluetooth or just running the LoRA radio? Curious if the V4 is any less power hungry than the V3. I never did a rundown test with one of my 3,000 mah V3 units, but my daily driver had a 2000 mah battery and barely made it 14 hours before it was throwing the battery low warning. I kept it connected to my phone the whole time under most conditions.

Same conditions but with the nRF-based T1000e, it runs for about 2 days on a 700 mAh battery AND has GPS (I didn’t have GPS on my daily driver node). The difference is amazing.

Could be any or all of that, yeah. You can also set the level of precision for your reported location, but I don’t think even the lowest precision settings would put it 1,000 miles away.

I live near-ish to an airport, and I’ll occasionally see nodes that are 1 or 2 hops and 100-200+ miles away. Best I can tell, the airborne node is legit relaying those which I think is pretty cool. Not really useful, but cool.

LoRa is a proprietary radio interface, so I don’t how how FOSS you can go with it, but the Meshtastic firmware itself is FOSS.

What are your use-cases? Are you looking for something to use as an everyday carry? An outdoor solar node to relay messages in your area? A node to use as a base station? All of the above?

For everyday carry, I semi-recently bought the SenseCap T1000e and I love it. I did a post about it here: https://startrek.website/post/34105873

Seeed (the company that makes the T1000e) also makes a nice outdoor, solar powered node: https://www.seeedstudio.com/SenseCAP-Solar-Node-P1-Pro-for-Meshtastic-LoRa-p-6412.html

They’ve also got a lot of options for various other configurations as well: https://www.seeedstudio.com/LoRa-and-Meshtastic-and-4G-c-2423.html

Those are all “turnkey” devices, but I’ve heard good things about the Heltec V4 if you want to go a more DIY route and make your own case and add your own accessories (GPS, accelerometer, etc).

It’s theoretically possible but probably not practical.

There is a maximum hop count of 7 which means there can be, at absolute maximum, seven nodes between the sender and recipient. The default, though, is 3 hops.

While the radios may, in theory, be able to work at the range of “a few states over” as the crow flies, terrain, structures, and line of sight would likely prohibit them from working in practice at such distances. You’d also need a reliable series of hops to reach from you to them. Again, at those distances, you’d very likely exceed the maximum hop count pretty quickly.

From what I’ve seen, large meshes are generally regional.

There’s a way to join meshes over the internet via MQTT but I haven’t messed with setting that up and in some cases it can potentially overwhelm a local mesh.

My knowledge is incomplete as to what powers and restrictions you get with an amateur license, but I think the only real reason you’d want to use HAM mode in the US is if you wanted to operate on US 433 or maybe the 868 MHz block. Not sure if HAMs have access to the latter one or not, though. The 915 block is pretty permissive here for unlicensed use, so that’s usually sufficient.

Also, if a node is operating in HAM mode, it may not be able to mesh with other nodes not in HAM mode due to encryption being disabled. I could be wrong about that as I haven’t read into that specifically, but to my knowledge it tracks.

AFAIK, you only need to use it in HAM mode if you want to use licensed frequencies, a higher power transmit (assuming the radio supports it; US 915 can transmit up to 1W/30db and many radios only transmit at 22db max), or to go beyond the airtime limitations (no limitations on US 915). HAM mode also disables encryption if I recall. Also AFAIK, you’re not required to use HAM mode just because you are a licensed HAM operator.

Sources: Have read the docs but am not a licensed HAM.

Any new contacts? I’d always guessed that boats would likely be running nodes.

the remainder of the post contains references to reddit which may cause apoplexy in some viewers. :-)

Heh, I always forget about client_base. My device in that role is still on firmware 2.5.0 from last year and doesn’t have client_base as an option. Gotta get it updated stat lol.

Check out the SenseCap solar node. It’s way under $200 and professionally built.

https://www.seeedstudio.com/SenseCAP-Solar-Node-P1-Pro-for-Meshtastic-LoRa-p-6412.html

Probably the best configuration for it is as a regular client since that will relay like a repeater but without forcing other clients in the mesh to use it (which would be problematic unless you’re in a super ideal position).

I was about to suggest a 3D printed solution, but I’m not seeing anything for the Elecrow/Thinknode m5 on Printables or Thingiverse. Only thing I found was a case for the M1.

What firmware version are you on?

I had to switch to the alpha version 2.7.16 because that kept happening on my Heltecs. I never got that message, though. It would just randomly disconnect and not reconnect again until I hit the reset button on the node and force-quit and restarted the app.

Prior to that, the only thing that changed or was updated was the app. My node was still running the 2.5.0 firmware from last March.

You sound like a good candidate for a router role, but just to be safe, I would generally avoid “router” unless coordinating with or organizing a coordinated community mesh. That would allow for the best placement without potentially adversely affecting the wider mesh. Client role will repeat just the same but without “overriding” other, potentially better positioned nodes.

The top of the mountain location, which would provide coverage for both sides, would be the ideal placement for a node in “router” role without consuming a hop to “jump” to the other side.

I’ll try that.

In your uses, is the battery life measured while being connected over Bluetooth or just how long the device runs on its own? This is the first day I’m running it through its paces and after 3 hours, it’s down to 83% / 3.98V. That’s with GPS, RX boosted gain enabled, and connected to my phone via BT.

Good to know! A full day is more than sufficient for my cases but good to know I can stretch it if need be :)

I did, and it doesn’t look puffy thankfully. I’ve got 4 more in the same case and will check on them soon. 3 of those 4 aren’t used often, though.

Excellent. I’m excited. It should be delivered tomorrow.

Question: Is the case able to be opened at all? Like, if I wanted to pull out the i2c and a power + ground to a second set of pogo pins? Was just thinking that the only thing I’d miss is the ability to send canned messages from the device. The 2.7 firmware lets you do that now with the one-button navigation. Thinking something like a 3D printed sleeve that has a little i2c OLED screen and maybe an extension of the user button

If you’re provisioning several or just like to have a good baseline for setting up future nodes, I like to use the Python client and make a provisioning script. I feel like it’s way uglier than it should be, but I’ve found that even though the docs say you can specify multiple config options in one call, they don’t all apply. So I have to do them in stages and wait for it to reboot between executing each config.

This is my baseline provisioning script for reference. I like to have a private default channel but then also set the radio frequency manually to the “default” LongFast of 906.875 MHz and create the LongFast channel as a secondary so I can communicate with people using the default config (which is very common). This also lets me relay for them (and vice versa) while not sharing my location and such with the public mesh.

#!/bin/bash
# Optionally set the device name and short name.  If not provided, the user info step is skipped
DEVICE_NAME=$1
DEVICE_SHORT_NAME=$2

# Admin key is optional but I set it on all of my managed nodes. If not using that, comment out the line further down where this is referenced
ADMIN_KEY="{PUBLIC_KEY_OF_ADMIN_NODE}"

# Use a private default channel.  
PRIMARY_CHANNEL_KEY="{BASE64_PRIVATE_KEY_FOR_PRIMARY_CHANNEL}"
PRIMARY_CHANNEL_NAME="{PRIMARY_CHANNEL_NAME}"


function wait_for_reboot {
  echo "Press <ENTER> once device has rebooted"
  read a
}

echo "Setting LoRa Region..."
meshtastic --set lora.region US
wait_for_reboot

# If device name and short name are supplied, set those
if [ -n "$DEVICE_NAME" ] && [ -n $DEVICE_SHORT_NAME ]
then
  echo "Setting Device Name..."
  meshtastic \
    --set-owner "$DEVICE_NAME" \
    --set-owner-short "$DEVICE_SHORT_NAME"
  wait_for_reboot
fi

# Set most options
meshtastic --set display.screen_on_secs 120 \
  --set display.units IMPERIAL \
  --set device.led_heartbeat_disabled false \
  --set telemetry.device_telemetry_enabled true \
  --set lora.use_preset true \
  --set lora.modem_preset LONG_FAST \
  --set security.admin_key base64:$ADMIN_KEY \
  --set lora.override_frequency 906.875 

wait_for_reboot

meshtastic --set-canned-message "Affirmative|Negative|Unknown|Acknowledged|Require Assistance|Check-In Good|Check-In Bad|Status?"
wait_for_reboot


meshtastic \
  --ch-index 0 --ch-set psk base64:$PRIMARY_CHANNEL_KEY --ch-set name "$PRIMARY_CHANNEL_NAME" \
  --ch-index 1 --ch-set psk base64:AQ== --ch-set name "LongFast"
wait_for_reboot

meshtastic --set-time

Out of curiosity, what case are you using?

Most of my nodes are using the HT Pocket case. My EDC one was the one without the external antenna, but the bulk of my other nodes use the same case with the external antenna cutout.

The fit is pretty tight in that model, but I love how compact it is. It also has a belt clip model I printed which is nice for strapping some of the antenna-clad units to trees when we go camping.