A bit old but an interesting read.
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I think this is actually a very interesting thing.
Back in January, I purchased my first meshtastic node, and while it’s not solar powered, I know a lot of the repeaters are.
I have a Heltec MeshPocket which is a 10k mAh backup phone battery and meshtastic node. With how little power the meshtastic node uses i think i will get 30-45 days before needing to recharge.
I live in hurricane country so it is possible to be without power for a while.
Heshtastic is fun, but It has the issue (in my area at least) where a good half of the messages dont get through, even though there is at least 40 devices in our area. Its a problem. The bounce limit means we have issues communicating and it comes in waves/sporadically.
We have had more luck with meshcore getting the actual messages out, but it has the opposite problem. No one uses meshcore so it doesn’t matter how much better is it at communication.
Both are awesome projects dont get me wrong. I love playing around with both as a side hobby. Hopefully its better where you are at.
Ironically the best was a walky talky for emergencies.
The Raspberry Pi’s built-in Wi-Fi is perfect for our outdoor setup. It wirelessly connects to our home network, so no extra wiring was needed.
I want to call out that my router and Wi-Fi network are not solar-powered; they rely on my existing network setup and conventional power sources. So while the web server itself runs on solar power, other parts of the delivery chain still depend on traditional energy.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool project to make a solar-powered minicomputer, but the thing that makes it a server is conventional.
