#US - North Dakota (ND)

262 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

fickle spire
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Anyone? Helloooooooo?

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chrome fog
fickle spire
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Hey, I'm in the Bismarck area and my only "wild" sighting is someone named Mobile Node that drove past my house. No coverage in this city but I have RAK plans to fix that

chrome fog
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But yeah gives you time to put up some infrastructure

fickle spire
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Yep I can be the local mesh dictator

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Ruler of one over a people of one

vivid relic
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I went through on the train and maybe saw a few of you 🙂

chrome fog
vivid relic
chrome fog
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Ah, np. Here's what I saw

knotty urchin
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Any dudes in lincoln? I got dropped this discord channel on my heltec.

chrome fog
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I'm guessing it was @fickle spire, maybe ?

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He's in Bismarck

fickle spire
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Yooooooo!

knotty urchin
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What's up! Do you have a node near Sibley park?

fickle spire
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I sent that from the Parkade today

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Yep I have all the nodes near Sibley

knotty urchin
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That's awesome, me and the wife went on a date and on our way home I drove around that area with heltec lol

fickle spire
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I just ordered a SeeedStudio T1000-e for myself and the wife. No screen but it's waterproof

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I have a ~35ft solar node in my backyard that can sometimes hit MeshtasticLincoln, I'm guessing that's you?

knotty urchin
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Yea that's me, I just ordered a rak wisblok kit,solar panel,battery,outdoor box. That I intend to throw up on my house. Wasn't sure how well it was going to hold up in winter. I bet once I get that on my roof we should have a solid connection. Right now my heltec is pointing out the north window on the second floor.

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What type of battery are you using for your solar kit? I'm rolling the dice with the standard lithium. Didn't see much of anything on winterized solar nodes.

fickle spire
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Same here, I had a heltec v3 in the upstairs window facing East but it didn't perform too well

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Do you also have 9c80?

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Or is that another friend to be made?

knotty urchin
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Yup, height is might. Lincoln doesn't use their water towers anymore so I want to see if I can get on solar kit on that.

Yes, that's my mobile unit. 3d printing a new case for it as we a speak.

fickle spire
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Ahhh makes sense. You were probably driving between our houses becuase it was relaying my traceroutes to Lincoln

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2 different paths on the trace, kinda shows the signal differences

Screenshot_20241123_130054_Meshtastic.jpg
knotty urchin
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Do you guys play around with gmrs radios?

fickle spire
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I in fact do

chrome fog
# knotty urchin What type of battery are you using for your solar kit? I'm rolling the dice with...

As far as battery options, this'll be my 3rd winter running a rooftop solar node. First year I ran a LiPo, 2nd year I went with LTO. They're great in cold weather.

Here's some threads on it:
#1197710688144068618 message
https://discord.com/channels/867578229534359593/1050842277557305476

I had an early prototype LTO charging board that eventually failed so I went back to LiPo for the year and never got a replacement charging board ordered, so I'm going with LiPo again this winter. It lasted all winter last time, I am guessing I'll have to change it out in the Spring (probably back to LTO).

knotty urchin
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That's awesome! Thanks jack!

knotty urchin
fickle spire
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This is my first winter with outdoor nodes, I'm using a flat 3000mah lithium from Rokland. Ignore the left half of the graph, that's pre-solar usage.

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I am also a ham too

knotty urchin
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That's awesome battery life so far. Of course winter just started lol

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I want a ham license but too lazy to study for the test

fickle spire
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Learn from my mistakes, I had put GPS module on my solar node because I wanted good time sync. The power usage stated by Rak is not the power usage you'll get with the Meshtastic software, I think it doesn't put the module in deep sleep. That sawtooth battery drain was with GPS, I might have had a week of low sun usage? With winter approaching I didn't want to risk a brownout lockup and need to redeploy

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My Rak node, Solar 7080

knotty urchin
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What's the wattage on that solar panel?

fickle spire
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6W

knotty urchin
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Nice, I have a 10watt coming with mine. And I think the battery is 5000ma

fickle spire
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Oh wait, 10W 5V

knotty urchin
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Gotcha

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What kind of linux you mess with?

fickle spire
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I used to use Ubuntu, now I use Linux Mint

knotty urchin
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Gotcha have any servers upd and running? I have a truenas server and my router/firewall is pfsense. Really awesome software.

fickle spire
knotty urchin
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Very nice, the outdoor box that I got comes with a gromet. I am hoping my cable fits perfectly. If not, for sure going to order that outdoor panel mount

fickle spire
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I have a 3 node Proxmox cluster running iSCSI off my Truenas. Also pfSense 😃

knotty urchin
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My guy, we are going to need to meet up lol.

fickle spire
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Right?

knotty urchin
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Are you using the t114 as a solar node? I have a heltec v3 which I hear is a power hog compared to the rak wisbloc.

fickle spire
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Yep that's my intention. You've probably seen T114 Harbor Breeze Light node?

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They used a Rak, but I found a T114 works great in there. Slightly smaller too, fits well. I used the packing foam to give it some insulating cushion around the board.

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I just remixed a holder for the RAK to fit a T114 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6834919
Original RAK holder, super awesome https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6504138

Heltec_T114_Holder3.jpg
Thingiverse
Heltec T114 Holder for Electrical Box Case by auzzie32

I merged a couple STLs to mount a Heltec T114 into a 5.9 x 3.9 enclosure from Amazon:Zulkit IP65 Waterproof ABS Plastic Electrical BoxHeltec T114 sold separately.Used this as the T114 mount, courtesy of @The3DPrintingWarranthttps://www.printables.com/model/1023595-heltec-t114-mount/filesTODO: Screw holes are a bit too large for M2. I also don't ...

Thingiverse
Heltech V3 and Rak Wireless Wisblock 19007 and 18650 Holder for Ele...

This is a case for the 19007 Wisblock by rak wireless.https://rakwireless.kckb.st/hamspicedIt is made to fit into a 5.9 x 3.9 enclosure from amazon:https://a.co/d/2B922KQWill hold 1 18650 and has some area to hold the GPS antenna and BLE antenna.these tabs should fit the case for the 18650 holderhttps://a.co/d/ipXr00wedits: Added a version with...

knotty urchin
fickle spire
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Huh I thought everything was repeating through my solar node

fickle spire
chrome fog
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Yep. As far as I know Grand Forks and Bismarck are the only more populated areas in the state that have meshnets at the moment. It was a long wait but it started to take off here this year.

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Fargo had a few people back in '20 and '21, but there's no nodes in that area now as far as we can tell. Kinda strange.

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But Meshtastic was a lot different in the 1.x days, so I could understand why some people might've lost interest during that time.

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I don't think it'll be very long until we see more meshnets popping up everywhere though.

knotty urchin
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Road* need to get me a keyboard for my phone lol. My brains shuts down when I text.

fickle spire
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I drove to Bozeman and only saw 4 new nodes, 2 were in Billings

chrome fog
fickle spire
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Bismarck coverage is getting better! Some coverage extends to Mandan from SOL3. Planned expansion is marked by the 3 purple circles.

Screenshot_20241207_225552_Meshtastic.jpg
fickle spire
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Coverage is getting more interesting! Hoping to snag travelers as they drive past with these solar relays

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fickle spire
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We are actually getting very occasional traffic passed between the 3 highest nodes. I'm excited to find out what good elevation will do for us

chrome fog
late spire
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hello

chrome fog
fickle spire
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Hey Ted! NukemBoyz is our friend in Lincoln, and Jack is up near Grand Forks

late spire
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Hi to all = I am in N Biz

fickle spire
late spire
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Wo0R callsign = nodes are W0R1 , 2, etc

chrome fog
fickle spire
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There's someone else that popped up recently and hasn't joined yet, d4f7, and I was hoping to catch them

chrome fog
# fickle spire There's someone else that popped up recently and hasn't joined yet, d4f7, and I ...

Speaking of being able to catch people, I meant to tell you I got a ways with installing services for meshnet.club I installed wordpress for a blog for the matrix group, shlink for short urls, and I was thinking a wiki might be easiest for people to add regional pages, maybe?

The domain for shlink is set up to https://go.meshnet.club so you could put https://go.meshnet.club/bismarck or https://go.meshnet.club/bisman however you want to do it in your LongName and it would forward to a wiki page.

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Could go with pages in wordpress too. Either way, shlink for shorturls are handy, they can point to anything.

fickle spire
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That's awesome, thanks for building that. We should probably set up a Bismarck area channel and that would be cool for sharing it

chrome fog
chrome fog
late spire
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my W0R1 has a manual location set a block away so I can see it easier on a map = I see another node @ the same location

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late spire
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who is this?

tempFileForShare_20250106-202514.jpg
fickle spire
fickle spire
late spire
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is it bad form to connect (bluetooth) to someone else's node?

fickle spire
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Well if they don't change the passcode.... it's free game?

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I'm a Cybersecurity major, not a Ethics major 😉

late spire
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I have a Heltec wireless tracker enroute - it has pins - I plan to breadboard with it. Will give my W0R2 to my brother in Shakopee to play with.

fickle spire
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I've also been having fun with the Heltec T114, you can see I have nodes built with it

late spire
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Passcode is the Bluetooth pin?

fickle spire
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I appreciate a good PNG with transparent background

late spire
fickle spire
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Yeah that's the more accurate term

fickle spire
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@knotty urchin you might want to set Shutdown on battery delay on your car node, I have mine at 2 hours

knotty urchin
late spire
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Hi - what would be the best rig for a backpack?

chrome fog
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If you don't mind that it's visible.

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I don't mind questions about the node

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If you want something discrete you could go with a Tracker T1000-E
https://us.seeedstudio.com/SenseCAP-Card-Tracker-T1000-E-for-Meshtastic-p-5913.html

SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-E for Meshtastic

It is a high-performance tracker designed for Meshtastic, as small as a credit card, effortlessly fitting in your pocket or attaching to your assets. It embeds Semtech's LR1110 (Supports 863-928 MHz range), Nordic's nRF52840, and Mediatek's AG3335 GPS module, providing Meshtastic users with a high-precision, low-power positioning and communicati...

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I went with integrating the node into the strap so I could pull on the strap and raise the antenna easily and get good performance

late spire
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what is a RAK?

fickle spire
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I like my T1000-E for everyday carry without a bag. It goes in my pliers pocket

chrome fog
fickle spire
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RAK Meshtastic nodes are based on the nrf ARM chips. They sleep with lower power draw and I use them in some of my solar nodes

chrome fog
late spire
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I may need both! My use case = have a node close to my phone. So either would do.

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How do you do vehicles? External antenna?

chrome fog
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I do.

fickle spire
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Yep

chrome fog
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Sorry the links aren't clickable in that. Gotta copy and paste

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I saw you mentioning your vehicle node above @fickle spire How you running yours?

fickle spire
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Don't buy the Amazon magmount

chrome fog
fickle spire
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I'm using a Lilygo T-Beam NEO-8n and the Amazon magmount. That setup won't hit what a 20cm whip on T-Echo will so I don't recommend it

late spire
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probably mount through the roof

fickle spire
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Ted have you gotten familiar with the Hardware section of the Meshtastic docs?

chrome fog
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I saw you mention shutting yours down. Have you considered running a RAK? I run mine directly to my battery through a fuse tap & a 12v-5v step down converter w/ USB ports to power it.

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It works well. You can run it 247 if you drive a reasonable amount in a week

late spire
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I would have an auxiliary battery fed off of the main battery.

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did not look at the other hardware much yet

fickle spire
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I just bought $250 of RAK toys so that might be something I improve. For now it mostly covers what I need and doesn't run the internal battery flat. More important is to make sure I have solar nodes ready to deploy when opportunity opens

chrome fog
fickle spire
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My car node is always connected to a USB charger that is on when the vehicle runs, so I don't need to worry about charging

chrome fog
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Ah yeah that works too

fickle spire
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I drive an hour for work so it tops off every trip, that might not work for everyone else

chrome fog
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Then you've got it made. I only drive short trips around town usually. Not enough to keep a second battery topped off (if the node is running 247)

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DIY nrf52's that are comparable to RAKs in performance. In the Heltec v3 form factor.

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A guy could build 2 or 3 for the price of a RAK.

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Looks like it would be fun too.

fickle spire
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Another low priced node is the SeeedStudio XIAO ESP32S3 kit, I'm gonna snap mine together and test them. They're not going to be as cheap if you want to upgrade the antenna, as the Heltec V3 is only $19 with a SMA antenna

chrome fog
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I've only seen videos but they look tiny, which is great

fickle spire
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Definitely tiny

fickle spire
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https://adrelien.com/xiao-esp32s3-wio-sx1262-kit-the-cheapest-meshtastic-node/
They say it's not great for range, even with an aftermarket antenna

Adrelien Blog - Every Pulse Count
XIAO ESP32S3 & Wio-SX1262 Kit: The Cheapest Meshtastic Node!

The XIAO ESP32S3 & Wio-SX1262 Kit is the most affordable Meshtastic node at $9.90. It features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, a BMS, Grove expansion support, and a compact, customizable design. Ideal for indoor setups or development, it’s a plug-and-play solution.

chrome fog
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Ah, disappointing :/

fickle spire
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I'll still buy a stack of them for my coworkers, it's twice as palatable as heltec v3 for handing out free devices

late spire
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new unit online = to be used for experimenting

20250114_160152.jpg
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W0R3

fickle spire
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Breadboard is a good idea, I haven't used one with a meshy yet

late spire
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I want to experiment with sensors and switches

fickle spire
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I just bought a T-Deck plus from Rokland and it'll deliver Friday, so that'll appear that night

late spire
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how will rooftop solar units do in July / August with the heat?

fickle spire
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It depends on battery type, I think Li-Ion might still work, but LiPo is better and LTO is best

late spire
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60 degrees C = paint the enclosure with silver paint?

knotty urchin
fickle spire
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That's pretty cool, I've also been using heywhatsthat.com but I'll check this out

bold oracle
fickle spire
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Sweet! I picked it up on an indoor node before I had anything good

bold oracle
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NIce, Well next time I am up there I should have a better set up and I might be able to pick you up.

fickle spire
bold oracle
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Awesome!

fickle spire
late spire
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I may put one on my roof this spring with wired power, no battery

fickle spire
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I think I've said it before, but I really like the solar light retrofit node plan. I printed an adapter to painters pole. Node is about $60, about as cheap as it gets for weatherproof solar-powered type

umbral echo
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Anyone else have nodes up west of bismarck?

fickle spire
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BSC is as far west as I have up, it reaches into Mandan a little

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When I drove through Dickinson I didn't see any

umbral echo
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Most of dickinson is now covered by a G2. Should easily be covering the interestate. Going to have a wizblock up a couple miles east of town as well. It's a solar node so i'm testing it for the next week or so before getting it up.

prisma jackal
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Hello friends any one in Fargo ?

prisma jackal
chrome fog
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Yeah the times that people have brought nodes to Fargo to check, there hasn't been much activity unfortunately.

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Still not a bad idea to keep a few nodes online, even if you're the first in the area. New nodes will show up eventually.

prisma jackal
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Thanks for the Welcome a friend of mine from MSP got me into Meshtastic when i was out in Bismarck I found a few nodes.

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if any one here has made a few more stationary installations and has a good guide I could see about putting one on my roof

chrome fog
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You'll likely want to use a Meshtastic Starter Kit (RAK4631 +RAK19007 or 19003) for solar builds. They're a lot more power efficient than ESP32 devices.

This document might be a bit dated, but it should be useful.

How To Calculate Solar Panel and Battery Size
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12GIY24vLKLABg2RUTPP6yMzokr44GMzJOE4p7ngaCbI/edit

Google Docs
How To Calculate Solar Panel and Battery Size

How To Calculate Solar Panel and Battery Size TL;DR RAK (with GPS) 3 watt solar panel 5000mAh battery T-Beam M8N (with OLED display) 5 watt solar panel 7300mAh battery Device To Be Powered Find out how much power your device uses per day. Let's use a RAK node with GPS as an example. It uses ab...

prisma jackal
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Thanks i will give it a look

chrome fog
prisma jackal
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Ok thats cool, I could see my self making one or more of those

chrome fog
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Yeah you can remove the light and print a dovetail mount that replaces it too. Works well

fickle spire
prisma jackal
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I do have a 3d printer already working my heltec v3 case

fickle spire
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Welcome to the meshyhood! I have a total of 5 solar nodes, made with RAK and Heltec T114 boards. 1 or 2 18650 are adequate, and 10w rated (actual? Idk) AliExpress solar panels. I use an Amazon outdoor electrical enclosure and print PETG mounting plates for inside

prisma jackal
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If there is one at bismark I was there this week and found solar 3 I think

fickle spire
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The outdoor nodes run about $100 per unit, but using the solar lights dropped my price to $65

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Yep that's one that a friend at BSC mounted on their roof for me

prisma jackal
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I was suprised to find more nodes in the middle of the state than here in Fargo where there feels to be only my self

fickle spire
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I set my infrastructure nodes to send location with OK to MQTT enabled, so they show up on public maps. That, and making sure people driving by see something to talk to are my ways to encourage adoption

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I was the only one in Bismarck about a year ago, if you find someone and work with them to do a little network expansion it can grow from there

prisma jackal
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Thats a good plan. I was trying to play around with MQTT and have it so I can chat with my friend in the twin cities but we are unsure how to set it up off the main long fast channel

fickle spire
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I tried to link cities over MQTT with secondary channels and it didn't work very well on the default public server, but YMMV.

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Have you tried it in the MSP area or just heard about it from your friend? I see they have some pretty good coverage

prisma jackal
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I have not been in the MSP area with a node yet my self but my frined that lives there shared is coverage map with me and its a good area

prisma jackal
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Has any one set up MQTT root using msh/US/ND ?

fickle spire
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Yep I have

fickle spire
late spire
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Heltec 30% off on AliExpress

prisma jackal
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Never trusted AliExpress

fickle spire
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Almost all my Ali orders have 3 numbers

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Just got some cavity filters from there. The DIYmall store sells Heltecs with external antenna for $39 2pk, and those work great in a printed case

late spire
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cavity fliters for Mesh or another project?

fickle spire
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For mesh. I think our special node was being overpowered by broadcast stations

late spire
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sweet = cavity lower loss than other filters?

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VHF FM commercial broadcast interference? Or AM?

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@fickle spire how to use your BBS?

fickle spire
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Yep the little PCB filter i got from Amazon has 10dB loss, which is all the gain the monster antenna I bought has

chrome fog
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You can save a lot of money there on certain parts and I get my packages most of the time 😄

fickle spire
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Yeah last issue i had was heavy stuff mixed with light stuff, and the bag ripped and I lost a couple cheap coax pigtails

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Not sure exactly whats bleeding through, haven't had test equipment there. I just know there's a lot of stuff in the VHF and UHF broadcast range near it

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The BBS should respond to a direct message with instructions

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I'll try moving it elsewhere

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Hopefully the BBS works better now

late spire
fickle spire
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Definitely not working then

umbral echo
fickle spire
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At an undisclosed location S of Bismarck about 500ft above ground 😁

umbral echo
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Haha that’s awesome. As soon as I can get my battery pack working correctly I’ll have a wisblock up on an undisclosed butte east of Dickinson.

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How much range will you get out of that from that high up?

fickle spire
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Not exactly sure, the one thats broken and not performing like it should covered interstate to Sterling and then hilltops past that

late spire
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32,000 ft over Las Vegas

Screenshot_20250315-155734_Meshtastic.jpg
fickle spire
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Nice! I was rolling over my nodeDB constantly in the Bay area

chrome fog
fickle spire
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I really like those, they drive the price down considerably

chrome fog
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Definitely. Seems that they run a sale once a year. I'm going to grab at least 3 this time. I regretted not loading up last year.

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I have spare raks on hand already. I'll find spots for them eventually. lol

fickle spire
fickle spire
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Hey @knotty urchin is that Lincoln Water Tower node yours?

chrome fog
fickle spire
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Thanks for the heads up! I updated 5 of my nodes and no issues so far

fickle spire
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Hey Bismarck area! If you can, join me in updating to firmware 2.6 to get next-hop DM routing working in this area. It does require a factory reset, so make sure to back up your keys

fickle spire
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Also, I set my backyard node to ROUTER_LATE mode, which I recommend we try for the backbone nodes (after they update to the latest stable 2.6, some early builds were buggy with that mode)

chrome fog
# fickle spire Hey Bismarck area! If you can, join me in updating to firmware 2.6 to get next-h...

2.7 tech preview is out now too

Meshtastic 2.7 Preview: UI Overhaul - Introducing BaseUI! + New Input Support + TFT Unification
https://meshtastic.org/blog/meshtastic-2-7-preview/

Meshtastic 2.7 Preview: UI Overhaul - Introducing BaseUI! + New Inp...

Meshtastic 2.7 is here with a complete redesign of the standard UI, Introducing BaseUI! New input support on native linux, and the ability to switch between UIs on supported hardware.

fickle spire
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It looks cool! Appears to be mostly client improvements, i might try the new BaseUI

chrome fog
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@fickle spire Is Solar 3 BSC yours?

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We had a flyover or 2 and I caught packets from 2 nodes in the Bismarck area

fickle spire
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Yes! We just added a new awesome node here, Solar 6 UFO 🛸

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That is so cool!

late spire
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Replaced attic fan motor so I added an attic node

IMG_20250731_104757_696.jpg
fickle spire
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Nice! Have it hooked to your wifi?

late spire
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I have had trouble with the web interface, so it is still BT. W0R8

fickle spire
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Or use an android app

late spire
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I use the Android app with bluetooth

fickle spire
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Cheap tablet and maybe keyboard 👍

late spire
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the client.meshtastic gives me fits with the https = I played with it for a few hours and gave up = on the list to try again someday

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I have old Samsumg Galaxy S9 phones to use around the house

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off topic - just switched to GrapheneOS on Pixel 8 Pro

fickle spire
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For the https problem, they added a link to open a new tab to do that cert thing

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Nice! Got fDroid and NewPipe on it yet?

late spire
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I use Aurora for apps so far

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I'm not a video guy - I will click through pages to find a website instead of a video

late spire