Meshtastic Home Base Node Using RAKWireless & McGill Microwave 9dBi Lora Antenna

Рет қаралды 7,501

2 ай бұрын

Here we have my home base node for meshtastic. It's built using a combination of a RakWireless module, Raspberry Pi4 and a McGill Microwave high gain 9 dBi omni-directional antenna, all mounted in a waterproof box above the roof.
Meshtastic Starter Kit:
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Environment Sensor:
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GPS Module:
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Пікірлер: 57

@jessen00001 Ай бұрын

2:20 I think it looks fantastic. Nice and tightly 😊

@MyTube4Utoo Ай бұрын

My theory is, the people that say, _"You should have done it this way,"_ are the ones that never do anything. 😆 Thanks for the video.

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Exactly!

@jessen00001 Ай бұрын

My theory is this: what is normal ? The majorty decided what normal is. What if the majorty is idiots? I am not normal I'm rather be abnormal every day

@mw0lge Ай бұрын

great vid Matt. I installed the same antenna from McGill Microwave a few days ago. It certainly is impressive quality, and even the U bolts are large enough to get around a standard scaffold pole. Cheers.

@ethzero Ай бұрын

As I'm the node "ETH0" north of Matt, I've been waiting to see his new setup pan out in detail, good job 👍 Interestingly, I don't think I've ever seen that DDC4 node before over on my Buckingham node? Ironically, despite it being half the distance the LoS is virtually impossible from my house, but then that's the power of the mesh 😊

@SpyStaMia Ай бұрын

Now we are talking !!! This is good !!!

@jessen00001 Ай бұрын

Great video thanks 🎉

@g4lmn-ron401 Ай бұрын

I have a Heltec up a pole with an 8dBi Omni, no Pi so I have to lower the mast to update, not a good solution but now I know how to do better. I can see your nodes, I am just south of St Albans. Good video, ,thanks.

@HillTreks Ай бұрын

Stonking good idea to power the Pi over ethernet. I have a similar setup using a Nelawya Outdoor LoRa Gateway 5.8dBi 868MHz antenna and I will add a Pi 4 to run the updates.

@tubeDude48 Ай бұрын

I think you did well! 👍 Only issue I can see would be strong winds swaying that box; unless you have guy-wires that I couldn't see.

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Cheers! The pole is only 8 feet long, with 3 feet below the gutter and in the bracket, so there isnt that much "sway". Its been windy and raining here recently, and I have kept a close eye on it for sure ;-) thanks for watching. :-)

@tubeDude48 Ай бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficial - you bet!

@PE3FS Ай бұрын

clever solutiojn with the pi. Just started with Mashtestic, great inspirational video Thanks

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

@nofider1 Ай бұрын

Thank you Matt. some more insight gleaned. :-)

@KH07734 Ай бұрын

I have the us version. Still working on the solar stand alone for my home. It has rained for so long and then other things came up so hopefully it goes up soon.

@zerobow9413 Ай бұрын

Nicely done no jail for you [maybe put a desiccant bag in there]

@raybokor2 Ай бұрын

are there any ready to go kits out there

@GeorgeAdams Ай бұрын

I had a POE splitter that was noisy on 20m. Is the Waveshare hat quiet?

@zerofox3d Ай бұрын

Dude! I have to send you some of my stuff, collab must be done!!!!

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Sure, ping me an email, would be awesome!

@zerofox3d Ай бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficial Sent! Thanks Matt.

@chrisreid9231 Ай бұрын

Thanks for making this. I am working up something similar - A question if I may ? did you consider using a long - maybe active USB cable instead of POE/Pi/injector etc ?

@TechMindsOfficial 28 күн бұрын

I did consider using a USB cable, but I wanted access to the Serial output from the Wisblok, for experiments. So having the pi with the POE made sense. :-) Cheers and good luck with your build.

@chrisreid9231 25 күн бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficial That makes sense thanks for replying

@radiotowers1159 Ай бұрын

looks good, so just what does it actually do? Do you have a previous video ?

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

essentially it's an off grid messaging system using Lora. There has been a recent up take in interest in this project, lots of youtube videos available which fully explain what it is. It's kinda fun and another way to make new friends.

@HillTreks Ай бұрын

Where did you get the waterproof RJ45 connector? Going to follow your idea of PoE

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Here: amzn.to/4apmhiD

@GaryStango Ай бұрын

Other than the battery backup, is there any bebefit of this hardware setup over just using a LoRa Hat on the pi directly and using meshtasticd?

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

I only tested with the PicoPi and a supported Lora board, but there is no Bluetooth. Also, the RakWireless modules are cheap enough, and are rated pretty well in terms of reception, add on modules, power consumption. However, I would advise anyone to experiment, it's all part of the fun with projects like this. :-)

@GaryStango Ай бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficial Gotcha. I just figure it's probably the most stable option for something way up on a roof mast. As long as you dont nuke your rasbian install :)

@DXCommanderHQ Ай бұрын

Woops! Matt, I just realised I wasn't subscribed!!

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Naughty boy! 😎

@davidm1635 Ай бұрын

My poe powered wisblock kicks out min 10 deg F heat converting PoE+ from 56v down to wisblock requirement of 5v. Does your waveshare poe adapter kick that much heat?

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Sorry I can't answer that because it's now up in the air on the end of a pole. However, the internal temperature of the box is around 7 degrees C more than outside! :-)

@johnjames8594 Ай бұрын

nice work :)

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Thank you! Cheers!

@Tore_Lund Ай бұрын

So you are going to return the Parador antenna? Production error?

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

I need to take a proper look at it to try and determine where the fault is. When I took it down and installed the McGill I just put the paradar in the conservatory, and I kind of forgot about it. But will see whats wrong with it first.

@ChrisClifton Ай бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficialmy Paradar 11.5dbi worked great for a week or two then went totally deaf. SWR was around 2.0:1. People could hear me but I could hear absolutely zero stations. I took the antenna down and plugged in a Paradar 8.5dbi antenna and whilst it was laying on the floor stations started coming through. The 12.5dbi again gave zero. I will be sending it back to them but not sure if I care about the hassle of having it up and it going wrong again

@dave-26ct475 27 күн бұрын

thanks tore for mentioning this video to me best wishes to you and your family

@dave-26ct475 27 күн бұрын

@@ChrisClifton I do hope that that I am lucky one my paradar 11.5 been up a couple of weeks so far so good it would be interesting to find out if there is a common problem with the paradar .The McGill Microwave 9dBi definitely looks a better constructed antenna best wishes to you and your family

@Tore_Lund 27 күн бұрын

@@dave-26ct475 Thanks, I see TechMinds did make an update 3 weeks ago. It sounds like production error, or at least something reasonable to make a warranty claim on.

@marcmillour-unraid2772 Ай бұрын

Thx for video, I begin and no radio licence. Can you more discribe this install ( rpi, extra card poe, rak module, etc) , I'll try to make one in " Provence" where i'm alone !! Merci

@SpyStaMia Ай бұрын

2:17 - would you mind sharing the dimensions of the box?

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

Hi ya, the box can be found here: amzn.to/3xBAxGs

@SpyStaMia Ай бұрын

@@TechMindsOfficial ta!

@markphillips8019 Ай бұрын

I feel I have to comment! You should have done .... erm ...... exactly what works for you. Yeah. Thassit. Comment over. You can all go back to making your brick bats. :)

@jameshall5314 Ай бұрын

Test it

@prizeking1647 Ай бұрын

Has anyone tried rattlegram ?

@petewright2283 Ай бұрын

I gave up because the network is so busy

@TechMindsOfficial Ай бұрын

How many nodes could your node see? Even though there are a handful of nodes around there, no one really talks on there.

@ZonkedCompanion 28 күн бұрын

Same in south west uk, mesh is plagued by constant barrage of telemetry packets and people have hops set way too high. Nobody can get anything out. Plus everyone is using mqtt which is frustrating.