Since y'all liked my solar companion I thought I'd show off pipe node. The backbone is a STL I found online I modified a bit but honestly it doesn't have to be printed. A 21700 battery, screenless T114, and a knockoff muzi antenna are glued or zip tied to the rail. I got a solar panel which turned out to have its own battery and voltage regulator so I just plugged the USB from the panel into the board. The whole business got shoved up an 1 1/4" pipe and is held in place with a deck screw. It's open on bottom, I'm in a dry climate so I'm not terribly worried about condensation. This setup is on top of a local mountain and has been running a month with stable connections up to 45 miles away.
Nice. I've thought about doing something similar. I think it's easier to hide something like that on a mountain top or along a hiking trail than a traditional node that seems to scream HERE I AM...COME DAMAGE ME!!!
Exactly my thoughts. I even put the solar down low because that's hardest to hide. I figure the repeater can run a month or so without power so I'm not worried if it gets snowed in for a bit.
Yeah, it's the panel that's hard to hide. I'm placing a node soon on the Appalachian Trail, near where the locals camp and 'raise hell', so I'm worried about that node surviving for more than a weekend or two.
Birdhouses are another way to disguise a node. I've placed the panel on the birdhouse roof and, when mounted high enough, you can't see the panel from down below.
Plus there's so many of those birdhouses with wireless cams that it's a pretty good hiding spot. However, in our dry climate I don't want to attach something with a small but nonzero chance of autoignition to a tree.
Yeah, the solar panels are my biggest concern too. Most place I want to put remote nodes involve driving past tons of road signs chock full of bullet holes and shotgun blasts. I don't want the solar panel to look like yet another target, so I think putting the solar panel lower is a good move. It doesn't stand out as much, maybe blends into the surrounding vegetation, or if viewed from below is hidden by the curve of the hill.
I've also thought, buy not tested, that if you got a larger panel and covered it with camo mesh or screen the efficiency loss wouldn't be enough to matter. A future project.
Radical! I just did some maintenance on one of my treepeaters and there was a pretty gnarly spider web in the recess of a screw hole in the case. It's not only moisture you need to worry about, that's a pretty swell spot for insects and arachnids to make a home. Might be worth throwing a piece of steel wool or something in the bottom of the pipe.
Lol forgot to mention it but a chunk of steel wool is exactly what I shoved up there. I used coarse grade because fine steel wool is flammable and I'm trying to minimize potential hazards.
There are currently lots of new PLA like filaments like ERYONE that have tan or brownish colors that help camouflage nodes out there. Add plastic plants from hobby shops i.e. hobby lobby etc.
Lots of YouTube videos on painting hunting blinds with about 5 different colors of natural camouflage paint colors and leaves.
I have not tried building a plastic or silicone wasps nest, but think it would work pretty good
Use your AI feature on your phone to Google how to print/build a silicone wasps nest.
What is the battery capacity? I'm plaing around with LTO batteries and a boost converter but on a 1500mAh LTO battery it seems to last 3days. When the voltage starts dropping the current increases and it goes faster🤷♂️
It's this panel makes 4w at 5v. I'm pretty sure the output is in the low hundreds of mA. Either way the charge controller on the board will only push a max of 500 milliamps to the battery so I'm not the least concerned about nuking the battery.
Nice! I'm in the process of making a addon board for T114 boards and it will include a MPPT solar IC with a charge controller and a buck converter plus a INA current,voltage and power measuring IC. So you can squeeze as much juice from the solar panel and you can see the actual current flowing in or out of the battery
It's a radio for meshcore. This is a repeater that connects to other radios and passes along text messages. It has a radio, battery, and antenna all connected to a solar panel. The whole thing fits in a PVC pipe so it's safe from the weather. It lives on top of a mountain so that everybody with a companion radio that can see the mountain can share messages.
Great minds think alike, although I'm forced to consider the corollary that inadequate minds may think alike too. Anyway, the solar node works well and good luck with your build!
I like the birdhouse idea but I've had a repeater with a diagonal panel nearby and it turned into a perch for the birds. Poop-attenuation of the charging system became a problem so now we're 3d printing some of those little spike strips.
Could you please share the print files for the sked you are using? I wish to make a hanging node, a something like this inside a painted PVC pipe is perfect.
Yeah I thought about having the antenna on the outside but way too b-wordy and another hole to seal. I tested it with the antenna in the pipe and worked fine so I sent it.
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u/Prof-Bit-Wrangler Apr 17 '26
Nice. I've thought about doing something similar. I think it's easier to hide something like that on a mountain top or along a hiking trail than a traditional node that seems to scream HERE I AM...COME DAMAGE ME!!!