#US CA Sac Valley & Foot Hills
clear kestrel
Mine says it’s online constantly, meaning I’m receiving telemetry at least every 15 minutes. Also says its signal is good. Though I’m 1 hop away which means that’s probably the signal to my nearest node?
I have yet to trace route it since it’s come online up there.
Anyone know why some nodes show this colored, signal graph, and others do not?
pearl terrace
How well tested are those aliexpress specials? I’d be interested to know what they’re tuned to
fiery heath
Anyone know why some nodes show this colored, signal graph, and others do not?
I think those are ones your actively connected to?
pearl terrace
Oh sweet thanks I had no idea this was a thing!
boreal creek
Using the described testing methodology, the tester found the stock T-Beam antenna at 6+:1 SWR. And for $5 on Ali Express, the Gizont tested at 1.3'ish:1, and at $8 for 5, the CDE byte antennas measured at about 1.4:1 in the 90 degree configuration. So I started with those 2 and there was a noticeable improvement just in usability.
pearl terrace
Oh wow that one actually seems like a really decent antenna especially for the cost
The gizont
I think it’s the same as what I ordered from muzik on etsy
clear kestrel
That is what he sells, just at a higher price. I love his case for heltecs.
pearl terrace
It doesn’t actually seem like it is
The tested antenna is a 20cm long antenna and the one he sells is 17cm
The profile of the antenna is also different
clear kestrel
All three, 40cm, 20, 17cm, have all been tested and the 17 has been found to be the best without trimming.
Technically 16.7cm
Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $5.54 45％ Off | Nb-iot /LORA Soft Antenna UAV wireless module Figure transmission data transmission 840-868-900-915-902-928mhz antenna SMA male
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPkAWqS
fickle wedge
Link 404's on me
boreal creek
Link 404's on me
Worked for me just now, but if anyone orders make sure you pick the right frequency and connector. It defaulted to the 840 mHz version for me.
fickle wedge
I just found it by keywords
I think Aliexpress doesn't like my IP
NO DEALS FOR YOU
pearl terrace
I bet that’s it, though it’s weird, I also block ads 🤷♂️
I do DNS blocking though, so if you’re doing something more complex like a VPN maybe that’s it
fickle wedge
I like Aliexpress, but I'm giving China the bare minimum info that I can get away with
spare garden
I block so much that even aliexpress's item recommendation list is gone
I've added thousands of hosts one at a time, whenever I see a fishy one
pearl terrace
boreal creek
5 and 10% for you both? Those are rookie numbers. When I was running PiHole I swear it was blocking more like 30% if queries.
tropic matrix
PiHole is pretty good, I'm at 25% blocked. Also use it with Unbound as a recursive DNS server.
pearl terrace
5 and 10% for you both? Those are rookie numbers. When I was running PiHole I ...
my pihole was definitely blocking more, I have more permissive rules b/c my wife likes some ads 😂
clear kestrel
Is that from FloatCar?
mighty finch
Yeah
boreal creek
my pihole was definitely blocking more, I have more permissive rules b/c my wife...
Yeah, I’d get complaints too. “The link in the email doesn’t work.” Etc.
clear kestrel
Looked like you were mobile.
clear kestrel
It’s hard to get transmission out of a car. Unless you have a roof antenna.
mighty finch
I have roof antenna
clear kestrel
I saw you guys there
fiery heath
Did my message make it through ? I just got home and my phone switched to my other one
clear kestrel
That field is impressive
mighty finch
Yeah it was nixe
fiery heath
Hahaha it was a fun time 😎
mighty finch
But I have no idea why I can't reach anyone
fiery heath
Is it to everyone ? You get the no tx
clear kestrel
Have you seen the airsoft South Park episode?
mighty finch
Is it to everyone ? You get the no tx
I can't get any messages out
To primary or individual
fiery heath
I can't get any messages out
Try reset
fiery heath
Have you seen the airsoft South Park episode?
lol I don’t think I caught that one
clear kestrel
Oh like you can’t even send a message to one of your own nodes?
clear kestrel
Do you have more than one node on you? Might just be no one is in range.
fiery heath
Mines done that before but was a while back and I was on mqtt and that’s always a shit show .
mighty finch
How can I recieve you but not send to yo?
fiery heath
Yeah I wonder if us being there with those nodes we boosted out bubble
clear kestrel
Well since you’re driving, you may not have line of sight to me anymore.
fiery heath
How can I recieve you but not send to yo?
We might have been piggybacking off each other with the two nooelec antennas out there and my extra node
boreal creek
Little league practice for my son, so now I get to test if the extra elevation on SVM1 makes a difference from here.
clear kestrel
Looks like it is. I got your message.
open rivet
So after a few days of soak it looks like the Tracy Hills Router has some issues. I think it is corruption related as i got traceroutes back hours after sent. Hopefully next week I can get up to the site and wipe it, install the latest beta, an configure it from scratch to see if that solves the problem.
spare garden
So after a few days of soak it looks like the Tracy Hills Router has some issues...
my rak died yesterday. permanent death.
#alphanauts-testing message long adventure documented here.
clear kestrel
@spare garden Did it suicide or did you kill it?
boreal creek
https://discord.com/channels/867578229534359593/1039674919346249728/123030579896...
tldr; 🤪
Jk
I think they overshot when shipping my RAK’s. They went from China to Chicago. LOL
boreal creek
Ooh, a new node alert: k1ct.
clear kestrel
I got it too! That’s my first notification of a new node.
Did you already “spam” him?
spare garden
I think they overshot when shipping my RAK’s. They went from China to Chicago. ...
like this?
spare garden
<@258714316314771456> Did it suicide or did you kill it?
suicide
i have 3 raks coming but i need 4 🫠
boreal creek
like this?
Exactly like that. They were probably cousins at the factory, and now travel mates.
boreal creek
Did you already “spam” him?
I can’t get a traceroute, and havent tried DM. I figure the node name will help drive traffic.
IF it’s an amateur call sign, and it looks like one, it comes back to San Diego.
spare garden
K1CT on the I5?
boreal creek
I don’t get a position.
spare garden
clear kestrel
got a location ping 10 min ago. He’s on highway 5
boreal creek
I always forget about the map.
clear kestrel
Well at first there was no location, just a name.
pearl terrace
So after a few days of soak it looks like the Tracy Hills Router has some issues...
FWIW:
clear kestrel
As well as many others
pearl terrace
Tracy -> Turlock Mesh #1
And then myself and one other guy can hit TM1
My roof node is still not stable though 😭
Can’t figure out why I can’t reach TM1
clear kestrel
What hardware?
pearl terrace
So I can only hit it when I’m on my driveway with a mobile whip
clear kestrel
I just replaced my RAK router node that connects a few of us. It froze last night. Went to recover it and no lights were flashing. It reset fine, but I don’t trust it anymore and I’m sick of driving/climbing to reset it. Replaced it with a RAK that has had no issues.
pearl terrace
The U.FL/IPEX connector on my hardware…. It’s for RF right? It’s not a Bluetooth or WiFi connector?
spare garden
The U.FL/IPEX connector on my hardware…. It’s for RF right? It’s not a Bluetooth...
Bluetooth and wifi are rf
spare garden
and... what hardware?
spare garden
I just replaced my RAK router node that connects a few of us. It froze last nigh...
soon those problems will be gone, in a few more firmware versions
pearl terrace
V2.1-1.6 is how you usually see it
spare garden
I'm pushing to have flash writes removed for routers/repeaters
pearl terrace
spare garden
the tiny connector next to wifi/bt antenna is for... wifi/bt
pearl terrace
Lemme grab my actual device hang on
spare garden
and you need to remove/move a 0-ohm jumper to activate it
clear kestrel
You had two Lora antennas plugged in?
pearl terrace
No
See the ipex connector right next to the SMA?
That’s the only thing I have connected
spare garden
oh that one is for Lora, and 0-ohm resistor deal again
clear kestrel
Uh oh
pearl terrace
Oooh
pearl terrace
oh that one is for Lora, and 0-ohm resistor deal again
Where is this resistor?
spare garden
using it like that may damage the transmitter
pearl terrace
Well here’s the fun thing, it’s not dead
Speaking from experience…it’s fine
My other node was up there for longer with the same thing + water and it’s fine
But I’m gonna fix it tomorrow
clear kestrel
Hardy little guy
spare garden
move red to yellow, methinks
pearl terrace
I’m honestly shocked but I think it’s because it’s so low power
pearl terrace
move red to yellow, methinks
Ok dumb question, how do I do that?
spare garden
Also how the heck would I have known this 😂
it's not for end users to use.
it was meant for conformance testing
spare garden
indeed.
pearl terrace
The reason I went IPEX was because I have a 1” pigtail
I couldn’t find anything that short for SMA -> N
fickle wedge
Whoa, meshmap is different
pearl terrace
I could but I was def lazy
I haven’t gotten into making cables for stuff yet. I do for CAT cable all the time just not for radio stuff
Lilygo’s website: “Support WiFi IPEX external antenna, but you need to jump resistance”
spare garden
Whoa, meshmap is different
wot. looks the same to me
spare garden
I guess I was looking at meshtastic.liamcottle.net and did not realize
the haphazard lines when you enable neighbors is partially my fault
pearl terrace
is it better to run a short IPEX pigtail or a longer SMA?
Just for now, I’ll get it sorted later
spare garden
Just for now, I’ll get it sorted later
sma.
pearl terrace
Aight I’ll get SMA stuff sorted
clear kestrel
Is the difference a 6” pigtail and a 1” pigtail huge?
spare garden
you can also remove both connectors and solder the ipex onto the sma footprint
... in case you don't like dealing with flea-sized resistors
spare garden
Is the difference a 6” pigtail and a 1” pigtail huge?
pretty darn huge
pearl terrace
It’s like double digit percentage iirc
spare garden
at least it's not triple digit 
pearl terrace
I think I’m just gonna get an SMA to N adapter
And hang the node off that
Just gotta see if I have the space
clear kestrel
It’s like double digit percentage iirc
Wow, I had no idea. Time to order some replacements.
pearl terrace
Shoot I don’t think I have the space in my box to just do an adapter
Guess I gotta figure out how to make some cable
I have so many pigtails now 😂
pearl terrace
Wow, I had no idea. Time to order some replacements.
Lmk if you can find short stuff, wouldn’t mind ordering some too
clear kestrel
Are you looking for sma to N?
pearl terrace
Yeah
spare garden
Shoot I don’t think I have the space in my box to just do an adapter
rotate the sma connector 90 degrees
pearl terrace
That wouldn’t help
spare garden
pearl terrace
spare garden
wow smol
pearl terrace
I wish I did
Yeah
This whole thing is on top of a 10’ mast
So I wanted to make it super light
spare garden
snip and solder directly to sma posts on the board
pearl terrace
It’s powered via a 20’ micro USB cable fed up through the 3/4” EMT
Mmmm
That’s not too bad
I will design something custom eventually
I think I’m going to end up printing a box
spare garden
I think I’m going to end up printing a box
#enclosures-discussion message
pearl terrace
Whoa 😂
Alright well I have a 6” SMA to N coming in tomorrow
That’ll have to do for now
spare garden
6 whopping inches
pearl terrace
Yeah it’s too long
spare garden
Yeah it’s too long
something something she something
pearl terrace
Hahahahha
Ok so if I make a pigtail tho, I need the connectors, cable and is it a solder or crimp?
pearl terrace
Ah I know the other part
I just checked N bulkhead connectors
They’re massive, I don’t even know that I can fit it inside my enclosure
spare garden
They’re massive, I don’t even know that I can fit it inside my enclosure
fit them outside
pearl terrace
Come again?
Ohhhh run SMA outside
And then adapt on the end of the antenna
Right
spare garden
I mean there are N bulkheads that go on the outside of the enclosure instead of inside
just a bit trickier to mount and seal
spare garden
huge 
pearl terrace
Too big to fit in the enclosure yeah
Which is why I think I might just design and 3d print an enclosure
pearl terrace
<:blobcatgooglythink:641795515658272778>
How long are these
pearl terrace
I have a couple spares, I wonder if maybe just doing that is the easiest
Make it ~2” long to have enough room
The SMA connector is 4 pins
Which are which?
spare garden
you just need center and one of the corners
spare garden
all 4 corners are ground
spare garden
Can I desolder with just a soldering gun?
I desoldered mine with a Pinecil ¯_(ツ)_/¯
pearl terrace
I have a cheap Harbor freight one
spare garden
get a thicc copper wire, make a tiny donut with it, drop it in between the 5 pins, plop solder down into the whole thing...
pearl terrace
For the center connector?
spare garden
donut goes on center connector and ideally contacts all the pins.
or at least make them bridgeable with solder
pearl terrace
Oh and use that to desolder it all?
spare garden
yep, heat the whole lump until it comes off
pearl terrace
Cool ok thanks
I know these things are possible but I haven’t done actual stuff like this
spare garden
I've only done 4
pearl terrace
Unless you count me soldering random small electronics when I was like 10
4 more than I have
I can solder ok, it’s the taking apart of stuff
spare garden
I've also replaced 1 OLED screen
pearl terrace
One other question, if I cut apart the pigtail I have, the ground is the braided part on the outside right, do I just gather that together and solder that to the board?
spare garden
One other question, if I cut apart the pigtail I have, the ground is the braided...
yep! keep center wire as short as possible.
spare garden
if you use the right temperature, the white insulator will not melt
pearl terrace
Hmm well
I have a $10 soldering iron
How much you wanna bet I’m gonna melt that insulator
pearl terrace
Sorry, updated price it’s $6
I just have cheap solder
No flux
Might have to get some
pearl terrace
I’ll prob just pick up some flux, not a bad thing to have
spare garden
pearl terrace
Clean
spare garden
only my recent things are clean
pearl terrace
Haha
spare garden
I used to use acid flux for everything
used it to build an audio amplifier and had to wash that thing with water so many times to flush the gremlins out
pearl terrace
Oh fun
spare garden
pretty gnarly but it was my first time with smd
got some quick practice in beforehand though
end result: no ugly soldering visible 😆
mighty finch
got some quick practice in beforehand though
strongly reccomend this.
grab an old pc or tv and practice there firssty
fiery heath
pretty gnarly but it was my first time with smd
That’s what’s up . They got this baller ass soldering kit at work Hakko brand and it makes soldering become magically easier
fiery heath
Damn the nodes are alive we get a lot of traffic through sac I guess . This is just from the wisblock I added to the house .
And anyone know how to get the charging to under 4 v?
I heard that’s gonna eat up my cell over time real bad
spare garden
And anyone know how to get the charging to under 4 v?
solar?
fiery heath
Yeah mines pumping out just over 4v to charge . Is that cool? For 18650 or should I be more in the 3.7 v range ?
spare garden
solution: smaller panel and bigger batteries
fiery heath
And it’s a solar with usb
fiery heath
solution: smaller panel and bigger batteries
Fucking onnnnn it
spare garden
ideally the battery will drop down to <50% in the wintertime with the lack of sunlight
and in summer it floats around 4.1v
pearl terrace
Are you running a charge controller?
spare garden
plus you get more spectacular fireworks with more cells
fiery heath
I’m literally just running a usb into the wisblock and have a 18650 plugged into the connector
The bigger jst connector , nothings connected to the solar input
spare garden
I’m literally just running a usb into the wisblock and have a 18650 plugged into...
protection circuitry recommended
fiery heath
spare garden
the rak may or may not overcharge your 18650, but it will definitely drain the life out of it if given the chance
you can add like 20 more 18650s in there
or alternatively just replace the cell every couple of years
fiery heath
Ahhhhhhh ok so the multi cell setup is to mitigate all of this basically
And yeah I will look into some protection . I don’t need my roof burning or some shit , and I would love to save some battery life
pearl terrace
I’d recommend this https://amzn.to/3w38Oyb
I’m using it and I know of at least one other person who is
If you want to, the controller can be used as dual grid + solar controller
fiery heath
Oh hell yeah I’m gonna snag some up now thank you!
pearl terrace
No problem
Also it’s not super clear but if you put the jumper in the OFF position, it doesn’t turn off the usb port but turns off all the other leds and the power rail so you’re not using up extra battery
spare garden
Also it’s not _super_ clear but if you put the jumper in the OFF position, it do...
looks like it turns off USB. are you sure?
(looks can be deceiving though)
spare garden
fascinating
pearl terrace
Hmm I can’t find it in the docs
But it def said somewhere “usb out can’t be turned off”
clear kestrel
Broke 100
pearl terrace
The module provides a ON/OFF controllable 5V 1A regulated output. The 5V outputs of the header and USB OUT share the same output voltage and maximum current, however, USB OUT CAN NOT be shutdown.
pearl terrace
Broke 100
jealous 😄
gotta wait for my node to get back online later today. amazon delivery can't come soon enough
clear kestrel
What did you order?
pearl terrace
Pigtail for SMA to N
Battery and pigtail for my heltec is supposed to come too 😁
Ahh wait no battery today, next week 😢
fiery heath
I hate when that happens
pearl terrace
Yeah 😭
spare garden
my node in the basement has seen 712 other nodes
fickle wedge
The Comms Channel wisblock mounting boards available again on his etsy https://www.etsy.com/listing/1668195808/rak-wireless-wisblock-mounting-kit
So y'all doing his style boxes can skip the zip ties and mount it proper
fiery heath
Ohhh no that’s the one that popped huh?
boreal creek
clear kestrel
@open rivet I was picking up pings from your Tracy hills router, from the parking lot of dodge ridge ski resort. 95 ish miles.
pearl terrace
We’re still picking up pings down here in the valley too fwiw
spare garden
looks like someone's been littering pings everywhere
boreal creek
I’d recommend this https://amzn.to/3w38Oyb
Maybe someone who knows batteries better than I can tell me why I’d want to use one of these vs letting the RAK handle it. And if it’s just to help the battery last longer, is there an ROI given the batteries are so cheap as it is?
mighty finch
Oh hell yeah I’m gonna snag some up now thank you!
I have one at work for you monday
Wait I have 5v bms not mppt
fiery heath
I have one at work for you monday
lol no worries
The wisblock shall be there mon -tue
clear kestrel
Maybe someone who knows batteries better than I can tell me why I’d want to use ...
You’d want one if you’re using a battery/batteries that don’t have built in protection circuitry. ie: Hi and low voltage cut off and current regulation. Also if you’re using a 5V panel that does not have regulated voltage (soshine does). In your case, Mppt is not a huge advantage over pwm, considering how little power a Rak uses. I suppose you could get one as a redundancy if you have your node in a vulnerable or difficult to access place, but I’m not using one for my solar node and it’s been working great. I believe @fickle wedge is not running one of these either.
boreal creek
That’s what I got to thinking after I asked… if I had just a bare panel with leads.
I have an MPPT with my Renogy panels.
clear kestrel
That 10,000mah battery you bought has protection too.
boreal creek
Yeah, and for the price even if it has to be replaced after a year or 2 it’s not the end of the world… as long as it doesn’t go violently. LOL
fiery heath
clear kestrel
I use mppt on large systems. Not for little stuff like this.
boreal creek
Well my Renogy panels are 4x100w, with a 100 aH LiFePo battery (multiple actually, that I swap in for charging).
clear kestrel
Is it just back up or does it run anything?
boreal creek
Just for emergency
clear kestrel
Nice
boreal creek
You said before you’re into solar stuff… I wanna brainstorm with you sometime how to tap in to the 1.25 kw I have on the roof in a grid down.
It’s not much for running the whole house, but it’s way better than 0
clear kestrel
I don’t know if I’d tap into a grid tied, permitted system without a professional. Although it can be done.
Do you have room for more panels?
boreal creek
Not really any more room on the roof due to pool solar.
boreal creek
I don’t know if I’d tap into a grid tied, permitted system without a professiona...
In a bad scenario, I figure flip the panel disconnect, and tie in an inverter with a charge controller (current one is inverter only). Then no fear of back feeding anything. But again, I’m talking worst case zombie apocalypse.
(I meant tie it in at the solar panel disconnect.)
But the odds of ever needing to do that are almost 0
clear kestrel
My dream system is an off grid solar/battery bank to run my house and a transfer switch for grid tie as a redundancy.
I don’t want to give any power away. It’s not worth it anymore.
boreal creek
I think my summer usage here is like 25kwh/day… so that’s no joke of a system
clear kestrel
A/c is a power hungry beast.
clear kestrel
Maybe you could create a sub panel for your ac, before the transfer switch so it remains grid tied.
If the power goes out, you can live without air conditioning, but your whole house would still be powered.
boreal creek
I keep bringing this T-echo to the little league games, but there’s nothing in range out here.
clear kestrel
In a bad scenario, I figure flip the panel disconnect, and tie in an inverter wi...
You would still need a battery bank for this.
And a transfer switch so you’re not back feeding the grid.
spare garden
I keep bringing this T-echo to the little league games, but there’s nothing in r...
maybe it needs a home run hit
fickle wedge
The charge controllers are generally not that important.
But some people do have them just for feeling better about the safety
I got some voltaicenclosures protection boards to put in line to the 18650s but they aren't really necessary.
My EGS router is just bare soshine connection to the rak solar input and it doesn't seem to go over.
clear kestrel
My EGS router is just bare soshine connection to the rak solar input and it does...
Same here.
pearl terrace
But some people do have them just for feeling better about the safety
Extra safety and extra inputs/outputs are nice
spare garden
I got some voltaicenclosures protection boards to put in line to the 18650s but ...
the most important thing is preventing 18650s from draining fully
bringing a cell back from the dead is a lot more dangerous than a little bit of overcharge
for future reference: posix timezone PST8PDT,M3.2.0/2:00:00,M11.1.0/2:00:00
open nest
can i send btc over mesh?
boreal creek
I’ll give you my wallet address and you can try! 🤣
open nest
tru dat
trim veldt
@clear kestrel
Have I shown you photos of my solar ? 20kWh of battery, 24kW generator , 68 panels
Producing 200+ kWh a day now
bitter iron
How many watts are the panels? I've got 12KW (30x400) on the roof, but no storage right now. The storage will come in the next year or so. Also need to replace a bunch of windows, so trying to figure out which will pay for itself first.
tropic matrix
Nice! I bet the house is like a meat locker in the summer lol. I have 26 panels, just added 10 more 400 watt ones. I need to add batteries.
bitter iron
Just ran a cable test on the ethernet going up the tree. Shows a "short" at 44 meters, and perfectly fine at the coupler at the bottom of the tree at 31 meters. So, either the POE splitter is bad, or I put a bad connector on the cable at the top of the tree. Not sure which would piss me off more.
spare garden
Just ran a cable test on the ethernet going up the tree. Shows a "short" at 44 ...
blame the squirrels
bitter iron
They haven't really had time to be malicious yet.
spare garden
either mqtt or gps shenanigans
fiery heath
Yeah I got Mqtt filtered out so it’s fuckery for sure
Or someone launched their node on a rocket and it’s in orbit now
clear kestrel
What?! But how will they reset it when it locks up? 🤪
spare garden
Yeah I got Mqtt filtered out so it’s fuckery for sure
could still be mqtt though
packets [re]transmitted by older nodes lack mqtt flag
fiery heath
Dang they slip through sometime huh?
fiery heath
What?! But how will they reset it when it locks up? 🤪
Adapt and overcome 🫡
clear kestrel
Adapt and overcome 🫡
boreal creek
Seems like I’m waking up daily to new node notifications now.
Just got an in-stock notification from Lilygo… so if you’ve been waiting, you’d better jump on that ASAP.
spare garden
Just got an in-stock notification from Lilygo… so if you’ve been waiting, you’d ...
probably already too late, lol
I got the notification last night
boreal creek
No, they are still available for order. There is a note on the page that they will ship by May 20th, so might take a while to get... but at least your order will be in.
spare garden
No, they are still available for order. There is a note on the page that they w...
that's called a pre-order [queue]
tropic matrix
Its working great, surprisingly it runs very cool. I'm also running meshtasticd on a pi zero 2. Its nice to be able to ssh in to check logs or update. I need to dial down the power and take it outside and see how well it hears. Supposedly this module has a good LNA for RX and better filtering per their docs.
boreal creek
I'm still seeing some sizing issues on the Device Metric screen. 😦
It's better, but not right still.
clear kestrel
Its working great, surprisingly it runs very cool. I'm also running meshtasticd ...
Is this a contender the EDHR spot?
boreal creek
What’s it look like on your end?
I see a little more of the left-most column, but not the whole column still.
This is what it looked like prior to todays update:
pearl terrace
Slowing starting to pick up more nodes out of my area
no stable traceroutes but it does seem like i'm starting to pick stuff up through the tracy hills router
tropic matrix
Is this a contender the EDHR spot?
Maybe? have to do some testing and see if its better.
fiery heath
Hahahahahahahah wtf
spare garden
contact rak for a replacement, lol
fiery heath
Yeah for real
clear kestrel
Good thing I haven’t plugged in yet.
I got two new nodes. Only one had the sticker reversed. Made me question reality. 😉
boreal creek
my RAK delivery just arrived today. I'll look for backwards labels.
fickle wedge
open nest
mine just shipped
clear kestrel
mine just shipped
What did you get?
open nest
RAK WisBlock and solar enclosure
fiery heath
That’s what’s up! Those are good little devices for sure . I have had them all and I feel dumb I didn’t just buy all wisblocks .. I love my t echo though
fiery heath
Nice move ! I got some Heltec v3 and a dam tbeam .. heltecs are sweet , that regular t beam made me a troubleshooting expert 🤣
open nest
i enjoy troubleshooting.
once i get my camping truck back up ill need to add mesh
just another endless cycle $$$
fickle wedge
Somehow my node map in the app spans to SF, Gilroy, and Salinas
🤯
Could we really blanket norcal?
pearl terrace
Yes
boreal creek
Hey @fickle wedge , do you know anything about RC Techno out your direction?
fickle wedge
but mqtt is turned off for me
spare garden
but mqtt is turned off for me
random mountain climber rebroadcasted a packet of mine then
clear kestrel
random mountain climber rebroadcasted a packet of mine then
Of all the people in the Bay Area, you're the only person that shows up? I've had you show up too.
spare garden
it's because I've set a massive 3 hops on muh skyrak
bitter iron
Got the ethernet working up the tree. Now I can upgrade that node and talk to it via serial.
fiery heath
Yoooo that’s what’s up I’m gonna have to pick your brain about that I have a pi 5 kinda just hangin out .
bitter iron
I'm going to try installing the web server on the Pi and have it talk to the heltec via serial.
it's not rocket surgery, I hope
fiery heath
Haha should be pretty simple I suppose
That will be so nice to not have to go grab it and update
bitter iron
"go grab it" is a safety harness, a 15 foot ladder and 40 more feet of hugging a redwood trunk. So, yeah, it'll be nice. 🙂
fiery heath
Hahahahaha 🤣🤣🤣🤣
clear kestrel
contact rak for a replacement, lol
RAK said even if I powered it on with the antennas reversed, it wouldn't cause damage. I never turned it on anyway. I just flipped the sticker 180°
trim veldt
when you guys config the Lora, do you leave it on Chan 0 are are we using Chan 20?
spare garden
0 is usually 20
pearl terrace
you only need to set that if you are changing the channel 0 slot
pearl terrace
0 is usually 20
not exactly
trim veldt
new math 0 = 20 🙂
pearl terrace
LOL
spare garden
not exactly
exactly usually
pearl terrace
0 is "default"
spare garden
😆
pearl terrace
if you set anything other than LongFast on the channel 0 slot, (not the LoRa channel slot), it won't be 20
trim veldt
erasing and rebuilding my nodes, lots of updates since I first played with them
pearl terrace
While you can have a different PRIMARY channel and communicate over SECONDARY channels with the same Name & PSK, a hash of the PRIMARY channel's name sets the LoRa frequency slot, which determines the actual frequency you are transmitting on in the band. To ensure devices with different PRIMARY channel name transmit on the same frequency, you must explicitly set the LoRa frequency slot.
i guess a more accurate name is not "channel 0 slot" but "PRIMARY channel"
does that make sense @trim veldt
fickle wedge
@trim veldt Most of my nodes are default Chan 0 so I don't have to explicitly set freq to 20. One node has no intention of publishing location so it has public channel set to 2, and I have to set the freq slot
clear kestrel
erasing and rebuilding my nodes, lots of updates since I first played with them
Any chance your solar node is going to make its debut?
trim veldt
😂 im horrible
I have like so many random unfinished things right now I still haven’t ordered the battery
clear kestrel
@spare garden 2.3.5 Ran fine for over a week. Updated everything to 2.3.6
spare garden
<@258714316314771456> 2.3.5 Ran fine for over a week. Updated everything to 2.3....
I'm on 2.3.7 now 😆
my own custom version
clear kestrel
I saw something about you wanting nodes not saved?
spare garden
spare garden
I saw something about you wanting nodes not saved?
indeed
clear kestrel
I have like so many random unfinished things right now I still haven’t order...
You'd have to swap the pins on the connector, but it's the right connector at least.
Want more capacity? Have different dimension requirements?
boreal creek
<:DizzyPikachu:814361500181069824>
And this guy says he doesn’t know anything about anything. Lies! Look at all that!
clear kestrel
I don't even know what I'm looking at there
spare garden
looks like a computer screen
boreal creek
I don't even know what I'm looking at there
VSCode… development environment.
spare garden
yey
bitter iron
VSCode… development environment.
I'm not saying I'm a "real man", but a "real man" would be pulling it with 'git pull', editing it in vi, building it with 'pio run' and uploading it with 'pio run -t upload --upload-port /dev/ttyUSB0'
spare garden
I'm not saying I'm a "real man", but a "real man" would be pulling it with 'git ...
but how do you deal with the trunk monkey
boreal creek
oh man, if anyone here is an emacs guy then them's fightin' words.
I think emacs has a trunk monkey. At least I assume so, since it has everything else.
bitter iron
emacs is not an editor. emacs is an OS that runs in an editor.
I love the trunk monkey commercials. I was going to get one for my Jeep, but... no trunk.
trim veldt
I’m a 2 jeep 1 van household
What kinda jeep?
My first jeep was my money pit
My van is my current money pit
@clear kestrel battery ordered
clear kestrel
clear kestrel
What do you use the old van for?
trim veldt
Sold the old van the day after that photo. Both are for camping
New van will soon have a propane composting toilet , heated floors, and DC powered air conditioning 🙂
But he mentioned jeeps
trim veldt
Yea that was on the rubicon on the way to the bridge
I used to hit the rubicon every year in July
clear kestrel
Nice. I built out a tacoma but my girlfriend killed it in an accident.
pearl terrace
I very much want to build a 5th gen 4Runner
trim veldt
I thought jeeps were expensive until I got into side by sides. I thought side by sides were expensive until I got into vans 😂
clear kestrel
My tacoma was brand new when I bought it. I think I'm gonna get a Tundra for my main vehicle and a old beater jeep or tacoma.
That way I'm not worried about thrashing it.
clear kestrel
Have you ever taken the deer valley trail out of blue lakes?
trim veldt
I have not done deer valley. I have done slick rock
But I do more dunes in the side by sides now
Going to do Baja later this year with the new van and side by side
The photo above was just north of the Mexico border
trim veldt
Hahah
No , I’m just a dumb guy who spent money on toys not kids 😂
Altho I do have too many toys 😂
I have been offloading
<-Network nerd
My toy problem was sponsored by Cisco
Alrighty. I need to enjoy some pizza and beer
clear kestrel
You only live once and tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Enjoy!
boreal creek
<-Network nerd
IT Nerd here also... mostly servers, but also delved a bit into networking and these days my interest is mostly in security.
trim veldt
Most of my career was a router jockey , but I’m also security focused
I run a small MSP team these days based out of Modesto
I was on CB at 16, the internet by 18 (1989), ran my own ISP when I was 20, and became a IT consultant at 28
spare garden
I'm a retired potato.
spare garden
I have money because I don't spend money 😆
trim veldt
I wish I could say that
I have money because i worked 100
Hours a week for 20 years
But I spent money like there was no tomorrow
This was my setup when i was 26
I have had toy problems before I was working 😂
spare garden
I was lazy and worked 8 hours a day Mon-Sat for 13 years until I became extra lazy and decided to "retire" 🫠
and a few years before that happened I reduced my work time to 6 hours Mon-Fri. when I did work I did much srs work though. 5 star review on yelp, highest in California 😆
trim veldt
Nice
spare garden
plus I put 3 other shops out of business. derp
since I gave my business away I've been watching that rating drop 🫠
trim veldt
Doh
I can’t do what I’m doing forever
But the ideas of it fading away would kill me
spare garden
find an apprentice 😆
spare garden
grab a heir
trim veldt
They do a good job when I’m offline , but I don’t have an exact heir
Need to find someone who can geek out and drink clients under the table like I can 😂😂
fiery heath
This was my setup when i was 26
That’s the American fucking dream bro hahah
trim veldt
It had a 2 meter yaesu radio in it to boot 😂
spare garden
I haven't gotten around to putting a radio in a car
... oh wait, I don't have a car
trim veldt
You live in a walking distance area ?
spare garden
You live in a walking distance area ?
I'm too potato for that
trim veldt
My driveway is almost a mile long just to my street
spare garden
I have a little red scooter
trim veldt
I can’t imagine not having a ride
Oh that’s cool
You can put an antenna on a scooter
Anything’s possible
spare garden
Oh! That’s a zero
voided the warranty like a week after I got it
cracked all 3 passwords to the main computer lol
learned a bit about encryption and authentication stuff too.
fun
hair loss.
trim veldt
I switched our fleet cars to teslas a few years ago
pearl terrace
I hope I’m that cool in my later years 😂
trim veldt
But those sent nearly as cool as zeros
pearl terrace
As you two haha
spare garden
As you two haha
I am potato
trim veldt
I just got my home solar finished. It’s a pretty coool system
pearl terrace
I am potato
I mean, I sit at my desk all day 🤷♂️
But then I get up and do stuff like this
spare garden
subawoooooo
pearl terrace
I just got my home solar finished. It’s a pretty coool system
Come do mineeee
It’s back together, needs some paint repair now
spare garden
my roof will probably collapse under the weight of solar so I just put tiny panels on everything I can get my hands on
pearl terrace
Sheeeesh
trim veldt
Producing around 200kWH PV daily
pearl terrace
I have a 7kwh system and no batteries, I really want a better system but can’t justify the cost
trim veldt
Are you PGE?
pearl terrace
No
trim veldt
That’s why you can’t justify
pearl terrace
That’s the hard part
pearl terrace
Yeahhhh I probably paid about $2K MAX for my bill
I’m on TID
Lowest rates in the state
And I have about 45% of my power covered by the solar
spare garden
i have 45 watts of solar
but they're plasted to the windows so i only get 7 watts out of them
pearl terrace
Oh I have a 6w panel outside, that’s gotta count for something
trim veldt
TID is a client 😂
trim veldt
I’m a computer geek
trim veldt
Well, without breaking confidence , we help with their email
pearl terrace
Ahhh I see ok
So when you manage their…”email” just lower my bill a tiny bit ok? 😂
trim veldt
Yeeeeaa, no
pearl terrace
Hahahahha
pearl terrace
I’m a software engineer so I know how this works…what if an accidental bug causes it
Hahaha nice
bitter iron
I wrote the some of the firmware in the Landis & Gyr meters that PG&E uses...
pearl terrace
That’s legit
bitter iron
I can tell you all kinds of ways that smart meters are and aren't smart.
trim veldt
You haven’t paid a power bill in decades !
bitter iron
I spent 20 years building 900MHz utility scale networks for smart meters. Probably a million lines of code, and at least that many tylenol
trim veldt
pearl terrace
Oh so you know exactly how Meshtastic works
bitter iron
Actually, the anti-tamped stuff we put in the meters was pretty difficult to overcome. Tilt-sensors, cover-off sensors, etc.
trim veldt
So at my last house
bitter iron
I'm just interested in data radio in general. Meshteastic is SO bad, but it's better than anything else.
trim veldt
We cut the anti tamper, pulled off the meter, worked on the panel, put the meter back
pearl terrace
How about ham packet radio stuff?
trim veldt
8 years no issues
bitter iron
look for my ham callsign on google. I've done a thing or two with APRS
bitter iron
As soon as you pulled the meter, it sent three alarms: power fail, tilt, and cover off. In Georgia, the standard procedure when those three alarms came in without a corresponding truck roll ticket was to dispatch a truck and the sheriff.
trim veldt
Might have Ben 99/00
bitter iron
There's a supercap in the meter that maintains power for about 5 minutes, and the radio will scream like a banshee to whoever is listening that it's being repressed.
pearl terrace
Oh wow, I didn’t even know AVRS was a thing
trim veldt
It’s still working 15 years later
clear kestrel
I just got my home solar finished. It’s a pretty coool system
Did you design and build that solar system?
bitter iron
Yeah, I have all the code up in gitlab. I need to fire it back up.
trim veldt
I worked closely with a construction company
bitter iron
trim veldt
It was a crazy project
pearl terrace
I don’t have anything nearly that cool on GitHub 😂
trim veldt
bitter iron
I found that having a couple of decent repos on github leads interesting job opportunities to my inbox.
I'm talking right now to some guys that make graphics cards. I think I'm done being in finance.
pearl terrace
I was in finance for 5 years. I won’t ever go back
trim veldt
My early job was in graphics cards
pearl terrace
Well fintech
trim veldt
S3 video
pearl terrace
I found that having a couple of decent repos on github leads interesting job opp...
I wish I could show some of my code on GitHub but I’ve only ever worked on closed source stuff for my job
trim veldt
Most of those guys went on to be Nvidia rockstars
pearl terrace
And then it’s really good that some of the code I’ve worked on isn’t open source because it’s scary
bitter iron
Yeah, I don't have anything proprietary up there. That's all open source I've done in my spare time.
trim veldt
These days I just do HR and Contract language
bitter iron
my crown jewel got stolen: I implemented the entire batman mesh protocol on the ESP32.
trim veldt
I gave up my technical wings in 2015
pearl terrace
I haven’t had time to really contribute or write open source stuff unfortunately. I contribute now and again
bitter iron
I wrote it for a startup in mountain view, and it was given to the CTO as a parting gift to get him to shut up and go away when the founders came to blows over the direction of the company. He promised to release it as open source, in writing, and has ignored me for the last 7 years.
pearl terrace
The last couple Meshtastic iOS releases have had some of my code, that’s pretty much all I’ve done
bitter iron
the IOS client is SO MUCH BETTER than the Androind one.
pearl terrace
I haven’t tried the android one yet
trim veldt
When will the IOS client connect over WiFi to a node ?
bitter iron
I refuse to ever go back into management or administration. I will be an IC until I retire or die.
pearl terrace
I’m in a weird role bridging IC and like a lead
bitter iron
the IOS client is much better eye candy. I can't really speak to functionality. But the screenshots are echelons better.
pearl terrace
When will the IOS client connect over WiFi to a node ?
Garth had talked about it, idk when
bitter iron
tech lead is doable. But if I ever have to write another annual review, I will slit my wrists
pearl terrace
Does the android app have the admin channel functionality?
I say tech lead loosely, I’m one of two guys who lead our engineering team, but I have no direct reports
bitter iron
so, I THOUGHT I had a cool solution with a raspi up the tree, powering the heltec, and that I could run a web server on the Raspi that talked over serial to the meshtastic heltec, and life would be good. that web client doesn't seem to exist
bitter iron
Does the android app have the admin channel functionality?
That's a happy place to be
pearl terrace
so, I THOUGHT I had a cool solution with a raspi up the tree, powering the helte...
This should work, what’s not working about it?
trim veldt
Is everyone in here a licensed ham?
pearl terrace
I am
trim veldt
I am. K6JOE
pearl terrace
KM6VLG
clear kestrel
Km6ckk
pearl terrace
I am. K6JOE
Ooh ok I’ve heard your name before
bitter iron
since about 1986. I grew up in Oklahoma, and the only way they'd let you be an official storm chaser for National Weather Service was to be a HAM, in addition to the official weather training. So, I got licensed. And immediately started doing packet.
Even got my picture in QST a time or two.
pearl terrace
I got licensed 5-6 years ago and promptly dropped off the airwaves just b/c I didn’t have the time or good hardware
Am just now trying to get back into it and trying to get a decent setup
clear kestrel
Hf?
pearl terrace
I have a decent HF rig I just can’t get it properly working, still need to work on sorting that out
bitter iron
I really enjoy the satellite stuff, both digital and voice. Talking to the ISS, etc.
boreal creek
I have a decent HF rig I just can’t get it properly working, still need to work ...
Like a knowledge/skill issue? Or a hardware problem?
clear kestrel
I think watching videos on APRS is what sent me to the Meshtastic rabbit hole.
boreal creek
I really enjoy the satellite stuff, both digital and voice. Talking to the ISS,...
I’ve picked up some sats with a tape measure yagi. But no contacts for me
pearl terrace
Like a knowledge/skill issue? Or a hardware problem?
Hardware, my Icom 706mkiig won’t transmit audio. Could be a skill issue tho I’m pretty sure it’s just the mic
boreal creek
That’s an easy place to start at least before you start tearing the insides apart.
bitter iron
For the money, that's one of my favorite radios, ever. I have 2 of them. Aside from that, I'm not a big Icom fan, but that 706 was a SWEET rig.
That and the Yeasu FT-736R, all band satellite rig.
pearl terrace
I THINK the audio pin that supplies 8V is shorted out
pearl terrace
For the money, that's one of my favorite radios, ever. I have 2 of them. Aside...
I keep on hearing this that’s why I haven’t gotten rid of it yet
boreal creek
I have a Yaesu 857D for HF. But no permanent install, so take it all to the backyard sometimes to play when the weather is good.
fiery heath
One day I need to see some of these transceivers . See how they work and how big they are . They got a good ham spot in sac or just the one outlet place I saw ?
Or a good spot anywhere else?
bitter iron
I have a Yaesu 857D for HF. But no permanent install, so take it all to the bac...
Another GREAT readio.
boreal creek
It’s been the only HF radio I’ve used, but it’s been good for me.
bitter iron
Best bet is to go to a hamfest and stroll the vendor area. Not the shitpiles of boat anchors outside, but the HRO/Gigaparts vendor booths. And the manufacturer booths for Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu.
fiery heath
Hell yeah I’m gonna have to look into that
boreal creek
The Icom 7300 looks pretty sweet for a budget HF radio though.
I almost bought one a few years back.
fiery heath
Damn the 7300 is a low end one ?
I need to start stripping if I want to get up set up🤣🤣
boreal creek
You could look at the Yaesu 891, or the FT-450… but for new, on a budget, the 7300 is said to be a pretty good value.
Depends on what you wanna do with it. If stationary, you might want a larger footprint with bigger screen and knobs, if portable/mobile, smaller will probably be better.
bitter iron
Yeah, I see people complaining about "all the money" they've spent on Meshtastic, and I kinda chuckle. My dad just got his Kenwood TS990S back from the manufacturer after a lightning strike. That' s a $9000 radio, not including the kilowatt amp sitting next to it
I love my old man, but I'm gonna make out like a bandit in a few years....
pearl terrace
The 706 I have is like 20-something years old and i still see it fetching $300-400 used
bitter iron
at last count, I have over 24 LoRa radios/boards on my bench, in my attic, in my car, etc.
boreal creek
The nice thing is you CAN get by with a pretty simple antenna for HF though. Could be as simple as some coax and some speaker wire.
bitter iron
I probably have a dozen ham radios. Kenwood used to give me the latest APRS radios for free because of the work I did in the APRS community. I've got a couple TH-D72s and a D74 that way
bitter iron
I've got a couple of the Baofengs I picked up at hamfests. They've gotten MUCH better over the years. The original ones were called 2 meter radios because that was their max range, not because of the wavelength
bitter iron
I think the UV5 radios are pretty solid. Do you do GMRS, too?
I have a license, but I've never used it.
pearl terrace
They’re fine but only that. Honestly I think half my problem is I didnt get decent stuff later
I’ve used them on GMRS/MURS, great for that use
trim veldt
I have an icom7000 I bought when I got my general and a fancy tunable antenna but haven’t done much on HF
It’s actually my oldest photo on Facebook
clear kestrel
Are you ever on the Zion repeater?
bitter iron
I have never gotten on voice in California, aside from some simplex 2m stuff during Jeep trail rides.
Oh, I take that bacj,. I did field day during the pandemic and got about a dozen contacts on a random wire off the balcony at 10m
trim veldt
trim veldt
I listen to the zion repeater now and then
clear kestrel
I have a Tyt 390 that transmits APRS, but it doesn’t decode. I got a cable to hook up to my phone, but I haven’t figured out the settings.
trim veldt
That photo was a random day near the chabot gun club in 2008
bitter iron
is that K6ARC?
trim veldt
Back when my jeep was sad
clear kestrel
The Zion repeater is
bitter iron
I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah, that's kind of a sad jeep.
🙂
I've got that 2008 JKU in Red. Just put the 4th engine in it.
1st one: hydrolocked. Jeep != submarine
2nd one: shitty MOPAR reman, broken pushrod
3rd one: cracked a head, easier to get a new engine
trim veldt
It’s on 37 Mikey Thompson now
bitter iron
Man, I can't afford to keep putting MTs on it. They last about 25,000 miles, and at $400 a tire, it got ugly fast.
clear kestrel
Is that a wood burning stove on your tail gate in the first pic?
clear kestrel
Man, I can't afford to keep putting MTs on it. They last about 25,000 miles, an...
Are you using AT’s?
Or going to
trim veldt
Jeeps should run MT’s
bitter iron
The most expensive thing in that entire picture is sitting in the red sweatshirt on top of the Jeep (if yours is anything like mine)
trim veldt
Yes, wives are costly
bitter iron
also, generally useless for recovery operations.
trim veldt
But worth it
clear kestrel
also, generally useless for recovery operations.
They’re trainable
bitter iron
oh, totally. Mine is in Paris for 12 days with two girlfriends right now. I'm drinking beer and watching baseball like there's no tomorrow
trim veldt
I’m pretty lucky
My wife wants to do a Baja trip with me
And the new van was all her idea
She had no idea how much it would cost
But, it’s her idea none the less
I was totally happy with my old van
But who was I to tell her no 😂
bitter iron
mine bought me a really nice 32' bumper-tow RV last year. First thing I did was put 1kw of solar on the roof and 5kw of 48v LiFePo/3500w inverter in it.
trim veldt
My old van setup
bitter iron
AB0OO-R just got it's first update from the RasPI: "firmwareVersion": "2.3.7.e3610a2e"
trim veldt
The new van won’t tow
trim veldt
Glamis, socal near the mex border
bitter iron
gotcha. we usually go north. Big Trees, Oroville, or west to Bodega/Napa
and once a year to That Thing in the Desert
trim veldt
My next big trip is Oregon dunes in September
My side by side is under the knife getting a 75hP bump
bitter iron
I'm going to be switching jobs, so I'm losing a bunch of vacation time. Not a lot on the books for us. Oroville for 4th of July with a big group, and Burning Man, and probably a couple weekends here and there, but nothing big.
We just got back from 5 days in Arkansas in a rented class C for the eclipse.
trim veldt
Was the eclipse cool?
bitter iron
I'm sure the side by sides are fun, I just haven't had the chance. I'm more of a motorcycle guy
trim veldt
I used to be a motorcycle guy, but I got old and fat and brittle
bitter iron
one of the most surreal things I've ever experienced. No regrets at all making the trip into the path of totality.
trim veldt
I crashed hard on a KTM450 exc
bitter iron
yeah, I had to sell my VFR800. Last time I put it down, I broke 5 ribs in 3 places.
trim veldt
Then broke myself on a raptor 660’quad
bitter iron
Skyline Drive on the penninsula is no place for rookies or old men.
trim veldt
I did the 100mph club to Alice’s back in 94
I had a gsxr750 then a cbr900
That was a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away
bitter iron
Those are fast, fast motorycles.
I did Hanau to Darmstadt in 32 minutes (54 miles) on my Ninja ZX6r about 2 years later (1996)
bitter iron
Those Honda sport bikes. I love them. That VFR800 vTEC s a SWEET motor.
yeah, don't ride emotional.... you know better. now.
bitter iron
Yeah, the fastest I could get that Ninja was 159 and the revlimiter would kick in. I wanted one more MPH...
bitter iron
Keep that shit on the track where it belongs. I've got kids and grandkids on the road.
bitter iron
at least when I screwed up on my motorcycle, it was just myself that hurt.
trim veldt
Wow my typing is so bad
I came close but never crashed
Hit the curb once and bounced into the right lane
At about twice the safe speed
bitter iron
yeah, that's just dumb luck.
bitter iron
gnight
frosty carbon
Oh hi there. JB, I see you on my map 🙂
So I just started playing with meshtastic again and now I actually see others using it.
Anyway
I'm a TV engineer and I somewhat routinely go up the big towers in Walnut Grove. We have the K6DTV DMR repeater up there and it's next to a 900 meg repeater that doesn't work (we don't really know if it ever did?).
Anyway I'm curious about that thing - I kinda want to see what fun we could have if I retuned its duplexer to serve as a bandpass for 900 meg LoRA (hopefully it's not just a boring notch type!) and put a radio behind it... It's like 2000' AGL over Walnut Grove
boreal creek
That sounds like quite the experiment!
frosty carbon
Yeah. So I've seen a few nodes on the map labeled router - what are they configured to do?
boreal creek
Yeah. So I've seen a few nodes on the map labeled router - what are they configu...
The Router and Repeater roles give that device priority in routing the packet, I understand it’s supposed to be used for devices with an especially advantageous location (I.e elevated with good LoS).
fickle wedge
@frosty carbon could you get a router up on Joint Venture Tower? 😲 That would be amazing
boreal creek
That’s what I was thinking. The LoS that would have!
clear kestrel
Welcome @frosty carbon! Man if you put a node up on one of those towers you’d be the one that unites us all. That would be a huge deal. How can we help?
pearl terrace
Yeah. So I've seen a few nodes on the map labeled router - what are they configu...
Also keep in mind that router role turns on power saving so you need to have an admin channel set up
clear kestrel
Also which node/s are yours @frosty carbon?
boreal creek
It’s also going to present some fun maintenance challenges. Firmware updates…. the random “device locked up, need to reboot it”.
pearl terrace
Maybe put a RAK and a backup device up there? 🤷♂️
clear kestrel
We could help him get set up and then he could run it on the ground for a week or so to make sure everything is running fine before it goes up the tower. @boreal creek PGR has been running great since I swapped nodes. It’s on 2.3.5. Up time is almost a week. I accept full responsibility for wrecking the previous node with backwards power. 🤪
pearl terrace
I will offer my moral support since I’m at least an hour and a half away
clear kestrel
So I just started playing with meshtastic again and now I actually see others us...
That DMR repeater was my gateway into DMR. Now I have a hotspot, but I thought it was so cool to reach that repeater from my house in Pine Grove. I don’t have an HF radio, so to be able to talk to people all over the world on TG91, I was amazed.
idle sentinel
So I just started playing with meshtastic again and now I actually see others us...
I'm working on putting a router up on North Peak Diablo and Mount Vaca as well.
clear kestrel
I'm working on putting a router up on North Peak Diablo and Mount Vaca as well.
Is this Trevor?
idle sentinel
yessir
clear kestrel
Didn’t recognize your name and picture. What antenna were you using when you went up Mt. Vaca?
idle sentinel
a 6dbi sma one from amazon, It was one of the recommended ones; it was on my t-beam using the crappy radio, Most of the time it was sitting inside of the truck on the dash.
fickle wedge
One Router to Rule Them All
clear kestrel
@idle sentinel I think I just didn't reply to you until you were headed down the hill. Looking forward to your nodes going up! Sounds like you've got it covered, but if you need help, ask away.
idle sentinel
<@141448781592920064> I think I just didn't reply to you until you were headed d...
yea I was already headed down when I saw it. I had a couple people ping me once I got down. I'm waiting on some parts for the vaca node, for Diablo I need to talk with the ham radio club; I'll probably mount an antenna on the building and put the node inside. I doubt I'll be able to put it up the tower; but we'll see.
frosty carbon
<@317571308571590661> could you get a router up on Joint Venture Tower? 😲 That...
Yes!
On this topic and because we're all very silly:
clear kestrel
Hilarious movie
frosty carbon
Welcome <@317571308571590661>! Man if you put a node up on one of those towers y...
Do you have any recommendations regarding filters? I don't honestly know if swamping the radio with RF from other stuff on the site would be an issue but I don't want bad surprises
The Nozzle is the silliest part of that lol
It's become a meme around the engineering department because we all 3d print stuff and I shared the Venture Brothers clip and now none of us can think about printer nozzles without reading it in that voice
clear kestrel
@bitter iron Worked with Lora for living. I bet he'd have an idea.
frosty carbon
I remember messing with the Ubiquiti link tool and seeing that there's some oddball path from those towers into the bay area, I think it was via Oakland or so? I saw it when plotting stuff to see if AREDN nodes up there would be useful
clear kestrel
Also @idle sentinel will be putting up a couple nodes at repeater sites, so he may be working on something similar.
frosty carbon
The only thing that bugs me about that site is we only have one multi mode fiber pair going up the tower which is currently the connection for the K6DTV repeater to get out to Brandmeister, though I'm thinking of modifying that with a machine there that runs DMRGateway so you can use a rewrite rule on it to pop out on tgif or other nets
Cool beans
I mean at very least I'm thinking it'll probably wind up with a colinear omni antenna and those fall pretty flat with out of band signals
bitter iron
900 Mhz cavity filter. Baseball for scale
frosty carbon
Aww it's cute
bitter iron
That's a 900MHz Bird Wattmeter slug in the background, for those of you that are RF nerds
frosty carbon
I've actually used one like that before
Oddly I don't think I got any pictures of the can itself
clear kestrel
@open rivet currently has a node at a repeater site and it seems to be having some issues, but that could be unrelated to interference. It's a trek for him to get up to the site to troubleshoot it, but we're hoping to find out what's up with it soon.
bitter iron
So, what's available upt he tower, aside from a fiber drop? power?
frosty carbon
Yes
pearl terrace
FWIW I’m still getting nodeinfo packets from the Tracy site
Just got one this morning
bitter iron
Here's A thought. Put a small enclosure up there with nothing but a power tap, and put an SBC (raspi, orange pi, etc) in there with the Lora board. a Heltec V3 would be fine.
At the BOTTOM of the tower, something like a 2.4GHz Ubiquiti CPE dish pointing STRAIGHT UP the tower. Set the raspi up to talk to that access point at the bottom of the tower, and use the Pi to administer the Meshtastic node
The older Pi models, esp the 3b+, are incredibly resilient. It should last for years. Putting a little cavity filter in there for 900MHz, too.
frosty carbon
I have a mystery box one of my coworkers gave me that has a raspi and Lora radio in it. Dunno what the radio is, I haven't opened it yet
bitter iron
might be the perfect setup then.
frosty carbon
Yeah
pearl terrace
Why not just administer the node over the mesh?
bitter iron
Firmware updates?
pearl terrace
I mean yeah the pi would be nice, I guess you can more easily push firmware updates
Yeah I forgot about that ig
bitter iron
also, I'm sure we could all pitch in for one of these: https://www.l-com.com/bandpass-filter-rf-splitter-900-mhz-ultra-high-q-4-pole-outdoor-bandpass-filter-full-band
frosty carbon
Yeah I don't wanna have to go up every time. Access to the site is unpleasant in winter
pearl terrace
Understandable
bitter iron
how far up the tower?
frosty carbon
That looks a lot like the little 5.8 GHz filters I've used where I've had to diplex stuff
2000 some odd feet I dunno. It has an elevator
bitter iron
I will tell you, after 50, a 200 foot climb feels like 500.
nice.... elevator... nice. I never got a tower with an elevator.
frosty carbon
At 85 blazing fast feet per minute. I put a bucket upside down in there to sit on and kinda just zone out listening to music and staring into the clouds
bitter iron
Make sure you pee before you go up... 🙂
frosty carbon
LOL yes
pearl terrace
I don’t think I can do climbing/going up any tower…..
frosty carbon
And if not for the love of Eris don't leave bottles in the tower hut
idle sentinel
I remember messing with the Ubiquiti link tool and seeing that there's some oddb...
I used radio mobile online. If you're interested in AREDN, there is a group of us trying to get the bay area mesh linked to the Sacramento mesh. We should chat - I'm on the AREDN slack as well
frosty carbon
Cool, got a link for that?
pearl terrace
I’m going to try to get a node up soon too
pearl terrace
Cool, got a link for that?
Ditto
bitter iron
do it in heywhatsthat (https://www.heywhatsthat.com/) and you can save the profile for other people to see.
bitter iron
I.e. here the computed view from my Meshtastic node: https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=WJWGNTFM
idle sentinel
Cool, got a link for that?
frosty carbon
Thanks
idle sentinel
I will tell you, after 50, a 200 foot climb feels like 500.
300' Diablo climb confirms this. I'll do 50 any day of the week. It's been a while - I actually need to replace my harness 😦