The block diagram ended up being a lot simpler than I was fearing (I left off the unused ports, like +5V power in to the MPPT board).

I currently have the battery pack connected to the RAK because that allows me to see the battery voltage over #Meshtastic.

I'm not sure if the RAK's battery charging is as efficient as the MPPT board, or of it has the charging profile (adjusting current based on the battery's voltage), so I had the #battery pack over there at first. But being able to remotely monjtor the battery's charge is vital not and would be important for monitoring and troubleshooting later.

Now I have to wait a few days to see how well this works. In the meantime, I'll probably build another battery pack or two. I see no reason to leave off the secondary pack, at least for my prototyping. The final build may be smaller, depending on how big the box will be.

Besides, it may be appropriate for different nodes to have different battery capacities. An outdoor node in Montana should probably have more battery capacity than one in Texas if it wants to be online 24/7 in the winter.

#meshtastic #mesh #network #decentralize #radio #electronics #distributed #meshnet