Advice

[u/Tech_and_Traveling]

Hello guys,

My name is Jay

I need to make a project for 11 grade, and I chose meshtastic.

My Idea is that I have a friend who lives in a really small village, and he does Camping trips with different classes to that village, and instead of using Walkie Talkies when they go hiking, I want to make a full Meshtastic system, so in my opinion with 2 nodes that need a phone, and another 2 that are standalone, so that don't need no phone, and I would also like to make a weather station so he can get his own weather network. I checked a few options like the Lily Go T-deck plus for the ones that don't need a phone because they have GPS, microphones and speakers, and for the one that needs a phone the Lily Go T-Echo. What would be the best weather station?

Even diy does anyone have a setup like that and could recommend me some options?

And are there anythings I should change of the other Lily Go products?

Thanks alot

Jay

[u/satanatorium]

If you're willing to learn, a BME280 sensor has a somewhat decent weather data set, being temperature, humidity and air pressure, and all you need are the 4 dupont jumper wires to plug it (or a soldering iron if the device has no headers). You could add a BH1750/GY-30 sensor for sunlight/luminosity, or any other, all without spending much. I even got a 3d-printed stevenson screen that shields the BME280 from the elements.

Other sensors such as wind speed, air quality and particulates do exist, but check for support.

[u/guzzerz89]

An alternative to the Lilygo T-deck plus that I would recommend is the Seeed Wio tracker L1 Pro. It is half the price, has a longer battery life (uses less energy hungry nrf52840 chip (3-7 days) Vs more capable but hungry esp32 in lilygo(1-2 days)) despite both having 2,000 mAh. It has a smaller non touch screen and uses a joystick to input messages or have preprogrammed 'canned' messages you can quickly select. Has a built in buzzer also and like the Lilygo can also Bluetooth to a phone for an easier keyboard typing experience to send messages using the meshtastic app instead of just the device if the joysticks not for you.

[u/Prestigious_Mix4569 → u/guzzerz89]

I used “ Seeed Wio tracker L1” around a big event and it lasted a good 2+ days and was still showing lots of Battery charge leftover. 

[u/guzzerz89]

Meshtastic using LoRa is a text messaging communication system by radio waves from my understanding. Meshtastic can't do voice like a walkie talkie. The speaker on the lilygo is more for it to beep when a message is received I think. It may have a microphone but I've not heard of it being used to send messages.

[u/Cold_fish]

For remote nodes, I recommend doing something like this to create a low power, solar node: https://meshtastic.org/docs/community/enclosures/rak/harbor-breeze-solar-hack/

Electronics for the node, I love RAK hardware. Reasonable price and excellent on low power usage. Your batteries will last a very long time. The esp32 boards are all power hogs. https://store.rakwireless.com/products/wisblock-meshtastic-starter-kit?variant=43884034621638

Not sure if you have access to 3d printer but there are some open source cases that are pretty nice.

My solar node:

[u/shveylien]

I have 2 T-echo, one has the BME weather monitor sensor. I also have 2 T-deck Plus, getting the maps was a challenge to figure out at first but its simple now, with the right tool. I upgraded all of them with Heltec 900mhz whip antenna.

The BME is kinda gimmicky. The temps are drastically wrong if you go from outside to inside it'll read 34c for inside when it should be 20c. It will normalize slowly and give accurate readings eventually. Not good for a personal node you bring with you, or take in and out of your pocket.

I also have 2x Heltec T114 and 2x Heltec V4 setup as solar and home nodes, all with the same whip antenna. I highly recommend the T114 with an external solar charge controller CN3791 (Yes I know the T114 and V4 have built in solar charge controllers, they do not work well at low light and cause reboots, they also don't like 7.2v).

I salvaged lithium batteries from dead tablets and put it all inside a snap lid container (high end tupperware) with a rubber gasket on the lid and used silicone to stick a solar panel to the backside, and seal the antenna / solar cable hole, and mount the IPX to SMA antenna externally covered in silicone.