$4 in parts
$8.21 in shipping (and 14-20 business days)
đŠ
I am so bad at this.
I hope when I finally get this #solar node perfected, I can provide value to a lot of people. Be it other builders, selling pre-built units, or at least the service provided to local #meshtastic user.
It's a box that you can snap onto the stock Heltec v3 to hold a battery.
The stock case has a hole to run the wires through to connect a battery, but then the battery is just flopping around in the wind. It's a terrible case design, but if you didn't find that out until you bought the case... the snap on battery box FTW
Overall, I'm pretty happy with this first print.
It looks perfect from most angles and will work fine in practice, but the tolerances on the cover were too tight. You can see the bending here:
I've adjusted the model to compensate.
#3Dprinting #manufacturing #meshtastic #mesh #radio #decentralize
Model updated. Have to wait for the cover to finish printing to verify no other changes will be needed. đĨ
The first print was salavagable (I think)
Tolerances were too tight on the snap-on connectors, so I had to shave a little off. Easy fix in the model. Battery is a VERY tight fit, so I'm going to adjust that (which is downright trivial). There's a chance this one will turn out to be too short to salvage.
Cover that will slide over the battery is printing now. That'll be the real test.
Support removal and cleanup was tedious, but that's just the way this one is going to be, short of redesigning how the two pieces fit together.
Sending out a call for help. Has anyone used the RAK16000 to measure the current of the board it's connected to?
I have it wired like so (RAK16000 is on the left):
VIN+ ---- Battery+
GND ---- Battery-, GND on battery connector of the RAK19013 (LiPo solar block)
VIN- (load) ---- VIN for the battery RAK19013
The device doesn't turn on.
If I connect a power supply to the solar side of the 19013, the device turns on. It does not stay on when the solar power is removed.
If I connect the battery directly to the 19013, the device turns on.
If I can't measure the current the device pulls, I guess I can use the 16000 to measure the current the solar is outputting instead? I mean, I guess it's something, but what I really wanted was to see the power draw of the device. đĢ¤
Have you done this? Can you point me in the right direction?
#meshtastic #rak #wireless #radio #mesh
https://docs.rakwireless.com/Product-Categories/WisBlock/RAK16000/Quickstart
I want to make sure it actually works in practice before I give it out. Remind me again next week and I should have it debugged by then and I can hook you up.
Sunday is my day off, where I have no obligation to myself or anyone else to be productive. So what did I choose to do today?
Design an addon case for the #Heltec v3 that can actually fit a decent sized battery. It's printing now.
Furthermore, it's modular, so you can just change the dimensions of your battery and it'll automatically update the model to fit whatever battery you have. Can't do that with an STL! #FreeCAD for life.
#meshtastic #radio
I'll post to the Shmoocon talk when it's posted (probably 6-12 months, it was just given last weekend)
This is for the new stuff. At least 4G (not sure about 5G). It analyzes the packets and looks for things like downgrade requests, null ciphers, and towers doinh IMSI identity requests.
See lib/src/analysis/* for the code.
No lookups in incomplete databases to cause false positives. Much better than the previous projects.
I now have a device that will detect IMSI catchers, and you can have one too for only about $20.
I'm not sure if I will be making a custom #3Dprinted case for this or not. I'm concerned with making sure it's weatherproof.
Mass produced boxes with rubber gaskets are much better at accomplishing this than printed pieces that snap together.
This is a prototype of the solar #meshtastic node that I'm building. Today I got to the point where I was able to flash the firmware on there and then upload the latest version of meshtastic.
Currently requires USB for power because the battery connector that RAK uses doesn't match the one on LiPo batteries. đ The solar connector will need yet another type of battery connector. đ I'll also be switching to the solar charging board that doesn't have USB-C.
Other than power, I also need to do a bunch of configuration. On the right we have a power meter so we can get an accurate measurement of how much power is being used in practice over a long period of time.
There's also secure remote administration over the mesh to configure and test.
The temperature sensor (barely visible, but it's there, between the MCU and power meter) will also need to be configured.
After I get the power connectors, monitoring and battery discharge protection circuit in place, I expect things to start going much faster. I've spent months ordering parts, wrong parts, and failing to order parts... but I think I'm going to have a really nice node when I'm done. One that I should be able to easily troubleshoot, maintain and extend.
I don't know about all that, but I do have a garden and preserve food for the future.
Not much posting about that this time of year though (I'm in the Northern hemisphere, so it's winter here).
#Warning to #meshtastic and #reticulum users who are #3dprinting add-on battery compartments for the stock Heltec v3 cases: the one on printables is TINY.
It doesn't even really have enough room for a 750mAh battery (which, BTW, probably comes with the power connector for a drone, not a #Heltec). The 750mAh #battery can be jammed in there, but we all know that's a bad idea if you want the battery to last. The #thingiverse add-on is very much form over function.
I may create my own design that is function over form.
"You need to loosen up and live a little
And if you got kids let them know how you feelin, for your own sake give a little
Oh, you don't want to hear that, you busy tryna stack"
https://genius.com/Coolio-c-u-when-u-get-there-lyrics
C U When U Get There
Probably "broken money". It's literally on my coffee table, but I just finished reading two other books and haven't dug into Broken Money yet, so I can not confirm
My introvert battery right now: đĒĢ
At least it was only one of your nsecs. #SilverLining