Wow, #Crowdhealth is really marketing hard to bircoiners! https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/bitcoin

Meanwhile, double tapping reset doesn't put node 2 into UF2 upload mode. And even if I flash the bootloader on there to get it into that mode, flashing the meshtastic uf2 on there doesn't result in it booting.

This hardware was great out of the gate, but now it's nearly non-functional.

So if you were thinking about following in my footsteps, I'd suggest you don't buy anything from RAK until/unless I can get this resolved.

The tides are starting to turn against RAK Wireless. I'm running into problems with both nodes now. 🙁

Node 1 was working just fine, but now it isn't running with the solar/battery power boards (19013). It will run with a 19012 (same thing + USB-C).

But it gets even weirder. If I power it using an IO extension board (5804) with a micro USB cable, it doesn't appear to boot unless that 19012 board is connected. There's nothing plugged into the 19012 board mind you, but just having it connected seems to be vital.

And if the 19013 boards would also make it work, I could rationalize this, but they don't.

So, like, what? Both my 19013 boards went bad at the exact same time? Seems highly unlikely!

I haven't flashed the firmware, changed any settings or anything. I just woke up and this is the state it was in.

Wow. Thanks for the hook up!

I'll try to zap you again when your lightning node is up (I'mgetting errors getting to the .well-known files)

Yeah, good point. I have an ammeter circuit and it shoul be able to be used to measure a secondary battery.

Depending on how it is connected, it could impede with powering the device (as I found out the hard way). But if it's independent of the primary battery charge/discharge, it should work.

The limiting factor right now is the solar power at 5W. To get more, it'd require a solar panel, MPPT board and battery. But then you could chain them to get as many as you want.

Minimum cost per 5W panel/9.5Ah battery is roughly $35 (again, lower if buying in bulk).

I don't have number on power draw, so I can't say how many days without sun this could last. I plan on getting some measurements from the field to answer this question.

Some back of the napkin math says my #solar node will probably cost $200 in hardware if everything was bought new (I'm reusing solar panels and batteries), excluding development costs, of course.

One node could cover a small town (e.g. 200,000 people) if put 100 ft up in the air.

I think I could get it down to $100 per kit if going as cheap as possible (smaller battery capacity, smaller antenna, not as much expandability/customization, etc.). However that $100 number **does** include a battery and solar panel!

If bought in bulk, both of these numbers could come down by at least 10% by saving on shipping costs of components.

#meshtastic #electronics #radio #mesh #decentralize #distributed

Okay, I'm a couple days later than I should have been, but it's now done. Herbs, vegetables, flowers, and fruits are all done! 🎉

You said you shouldn't be sending anything sensitive "in this way". What way did you mean?

I expect it'll be a proprietary feature, so you should not be *directly* affected

Client side scsnning can read things sent over Signal, Matrix, Nostr DMs or any of the two dozen other secure messsging programs.

There's no private way to send anything to anyone who has client side scanning

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

For those who run custom Android ROMs like GrapheneOS, remember that this will likely affect you indirectly. Anything you send to a stock Google Android user will be scanned.

And if Apple hasn't already done this, they'll be the next target.

nostr:nevent1qqsw3qzwtlvlkcygnrcyddk0ym0v4y2wswxseuz64lw6tlsm4x0jztqpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5hsygyrl7xd6z5ejsvx58uvgv3xn8fsx77nm6a3hltt2nm44fv3t3fakgpsgqqqqqqsafed3n

The dev kit docs don't seem say anything about checking signatures. That kinda implies that it's up to the person using the SDK to do so.

Right now the main lessons learned are:

- Pay close attention to the RAK wisblock parts!

- Ditto for power connectors (JST 1.5/2/2.54)

- The pins on the JST connectors may be backwards from one supplier to another

- Don't order a battery-only MPPT board

Wow, even with cloudcover and it being winter (less hours of sun and more atmosphere absorbing the energy of the light we do get), my #solar node went from completely dead to 6%.

I'm not sure if it died overnight, but it was still on at midnight, which is far better than I expected.

I'm not sure how replicable it'll be since I hand made the solar panel and battery pack, but I'll share what I've learned.

I'm still trying to figure out the parts list. I have a new MPPT board that arrived and I want to connect, that might cause me to swap out the power board on the wisblock ir even switch to an entirely new baseboard. I can share them with you when I'm done though.

You just motivated me to complete my seed inventory today!

I currently have my #solar #meshtasic node in my kitchen window. It's completely cloudy, the panel is at a terrible angle, the light is going through a UV filter from the window, and it STILL has enough power to run.

I'm not sure it's got enough juice leftover to also charge the battery pack, but I'm impressed it can even power on given the compete lack of direct sunlight.

When I get the next iteration of it going, I'll set it up outside and take a picture.

I talked to a power supply engineer and he confirmed the MPPT board I bought is a cheap one that can only charge #batteries.

He also pointed me to a high quality MPPT board that can tie together #solar, +5VDC, batteries and output +5VDC. It handles everything: the charging profile of the batteries, voltage conversions, and switching between sources.

So I orderd one, naturally.

If it works as expected, I'll have go revisit the power situation on the RAK side. No point in having the solar/battety power block if I don't need it. I'll keep everyone posted.

#electronics #meshtastic #radio #hardware #mesh #network