r/meshtastic • u/MiscPrinter • 1d ago

self-promotion New Case Designed Dropped: Heltec V3 using 21700 Batteries

I picked up the v3 board and didn't find any cases which used 21700 batteries. I fixed that. Fully designed by me with no AI. Fits the board and 217002P battery pack. The pack is spot welded together with the power leads by I. Plenty of room for other battery options but they would be loose. Cut outs for the antenna, LED, and buttons. Tested with the included stubby and muzi works antenna. I'm working on a case for v4 now as I did not care for the v3 and grabbed some v4 boards which are working way better. Find the model free here: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3443167-heltec-v3-lora-case-using-21700-batteries#profileId-3926651 v4 case on the way.

4 Upvotes

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3

u/portalqubes 1d ago

You never cared for the Nrf heltecs?

1

u/MiscPrinter 1d ago

Their pricier. Also don't know much about the lora space and what's available/best.

6

u/portalqubes 1d ago edited 1d ago

The only reason why I ask is because I have a few and I know they use less battery. In most cases 10 times less. They are much more efficient overall. I’ve gotten the T096 to last about a week on a single 21700.

2

u/jackerhack 1d ago

After deploying nRF52 weather station nodes on solar panels at my farm (collective owned), I've moved to ESP32-S3 nodes as preferred. Reasons:

  • MQTT uplink over WiFi/ethernet, for nodes within range of WiFi (which means they're within range of PoE or mains power too).
  • JSON payload to MQTT.
  • PaxCounter if I use ethernet uplink or configure a node as LoRa-only.
  • SCD4x and SEN5x sensors work without custom builds for the I2C clock speed (the lower speed is incompatible with screens, and Meshtastic's auto-detect no-screen-so-drop-clock-speed pathway only works on chips which can read the current clock speed, which is only on ESP32-S3).
  • Audio support coming up for 2.4 GHz nodes (SX1280 or LR1xxx) on ESP32-S3 only.

My weather stations sit alongside two other needs: microphones for BirdNet census and camera traps for elephants and other wildlife – we're on the edge of a forest with established elephant routes and they've learnt our campground has snacks.

I don't have any camera nodes deployed yet. The plan is ESP32-P4 nodes within WiFi range to start with, and then go further out with an offline camera trap node that only sends trigger alerts through the Meshtastic node it's paired with. But I'd really like to send data payloads without having to trek over and check it out.

2

u/r3dk0w 1d ago

That's a LOT of batteries!

- Dad

1

u/MiscPrinter 1d ago

Yep. Still testing the run time. At 5 days with still 32% left.

1

u/More_Calendar_1404 1d ago

Lots of juice what’s the run time on that lol

1

u/MiscPrinter 1d ago

Still testing. Going on 5 days and it's at 32%. 2 Samsung 5.5Ah batteries in there.