MeshCore relay question.

[speedy_thrills]

If there a reliable solar powered relay available commercially anyone can recommend?

I've just moved to a new house further out of the city that's in a valley and my node (T1000-E) can't always get signal. Behind my house on a hill I have some big, tall Gum trees with line-of-sight over a large suburban area that I could put a solar relay on the top of but once up there it would be a pain to service so needs to be really reliable unit that ideally wouldn't need maintenance for years.

[megaphone]

You could make your own with a Raspberry pi and a battery and a solar panel. Although low maintenance may be an issue on a self build.

Edited by megaphone on Saturday 17th January 11:56

[JoshSm]

Lots of ESP32 based options exist that will take a high gain antenna, not sure any come with battery + solar but it wouldn't be too hard to chuck the bits together; you could likely bridge the two via a simple 5V USB connection from the solar side to the rest.

Battery pack size/type is going to be the weak point if you want it to work long term.

[.:ian:.]

What maintenance would it need really? Turn it off and back on again, just have a switch on a long cable,or the battery at ground level and disconnect it there.

An esp device should run for a very long time on a car/leisure battery, add a 10w solar panel and it should run for a very very long time.

Firmware updates, well hopefully it supports AP mode, just sit at the bottom of the tree with a laptop and connect to the WiFi network.

[speedy_thrills]

Thank you for your suggestions.