Simple outdoor Meshtastic node build that I’m experimenting with.
I still need to figure out where I am going to mount it and how I’m going to power it (possibly solar). Hopefully I get enough range with this to see other nodes from my house. 
Discussion
Hi Phil
pls post the spec
Appreciated
The LoRa board is the RAKWireless Meshtastic starter kit. This board only has LoRa and Bluetooth (no WiFi or GPS) which hopefully will keep power consumption low so I can run it off of solar.
https://store.rakwireless.com/products/wisblock-meshtastic-starter-kit
The other parts just came from local electronics suppliers:
- 18650 battery & battery holder
- weatherproof enclosure
- 902-928MHz-3dBi LoRa antenna
Cool stuff. Just be aware that this board does not restart when the battery goes flat, and when solar picks up the next day the voltage rises slowly. I was quite disapointed when I found out. I wanted to deploy it in winter, and it didn't work out so well. Now that the days get longer and warmer, I will give it another try.
It’s coming up to winter here in Australia so I’m wondering how it will go on solar. I can plug it in to power if I need to but it would be nice to have it running completely on solar.
Does the board draw more than 1W sustained?
If it doesn't, a simple $0.10 reversed zener diode between it and the solar supply should work. Choose a zener with a breakdown voltage of about the minimum the board will start on. Maybe add an electrolytic or super capacitor in parallel to handle the start-up and transmit peak loads.
Then when the solar starts up in the morning it won't reach the board until there's enough juice to actually run it.
According to the data sheet it is 125mA at the highest TX power so that would be only 0.46W with the 3.7V battery (assuming that calculation is correct, it’s been a while since I studied electronics..).
I was actually thinking of using one of the pre-built solar charging systems designed for cameras that have a USB interface. Not the cheapest solution and maybe a bigger panel than is really necessary but I’m guessing it may already have the circuitry built in so that it won’t output anything until it can output 5V.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/orion-smart-5w-ip44-outdoor-solar-panel-for-security-cameras_p0261685
Yes of cource solar would be cool. But if it's in a location where you have power, that is going to be much more reliable. Even if you have power outages. If the voltage rises quickly as it usually does after a power outage, the node boots. But if the voltage rises slowly like with a solar panel and a battery, then this board will not boot. I had plans to deploy solar powered repeaters on a couple of mountain tops, but I'm still looking for hardware that would work more reliably.