ancient ledge
A useful enhancement for battery-powered Meshtastic nodes could be a voltage-based deep sleep mechanism combined with periodic low-power wake-ups. The idea is to allow nodes to automatically enter a safe deep sleep mode when the battery voltage drops below a user-defined threshold, and only wake up periodically to check if the voltage has recovered enough to resume normal operation.
Proposed Behavior
• Sleep Threshold: If the battery voltage falls below a configurable limit (e.g., 3.2 V), the node enters deep sleep to prevent further discharge.
• Wake Threshold: At periodic intervals (e.g., once per hour), the node wakes briefly, only to measure battery voltage. If it has risen above a second, higher threshold (e.g., 3.5 V), the node resumes normal operation. Otherwise, it returns immediately to deep sleep.
• Low-Power Checking: This mechanism could rely on ultra-low-power wake sources like a watchdog or RTC timer to preserve energy during sleep cycles.
Benefits
• Helps preserve battery health by avoiding deep discharge.
• Useful for solar-powered or intermittently charged nodes where battery recovery may take time.
• Reduces the likelihood of unstable behavior in low-voltage scenarios.
• Requires no user intervention to bring a node back online when power conditions improve.
Optional Enhancements
• User-configurable thresholds and sleep intervals via configuration settings.
• A status indicator (e.g., via Bluetooth advertisement or LED pulse) to indicate “low battery sleep” mode.
This approach could make Meshtastic even more robust for off-grid and long-term deployments with unpredictable power conditions
silver ibex
naive pasture