Building a Meshtastic base node

and now it's time for the latest exciting episode of do's television [Applause] [Music] Workshop hello and welcome back to dosy television Workshop where today I'm going to show you a little project I've been working on for change um you may have seen uh these things uh on various YouTube channels this is the Laura mesh tastic node um this is a htech one there are quite a few different ones available um this is running mesh tastic now I experimented with mesh tastic probably two or three years ago now um with the liigo te- bean board I have one here but I was on 433 MHz um which is license free as long as you keep to the uh duty cycle and power output of these boards you're quite safe as a licensed amiter I think I can now run a kilowatt as of a couple of days ago but uh I sh be doing that um but yeah these ones are 868 MHz made Popular by Andy Kirkby who's really thrown thrown um his weight around with those and at long last I mean couple of years ago it was only me I don't think I ever saw another node so I switched to using uh the 433 for doing aprs which was working quite well my mate Matt's taking his station down temporarily because his uh his master I think he's in his garden uh horizontally not good but anyway he's working on that so yeah anyway this 868 business it's uh it's gone mad there are 20 or 30 nodes I can see now I'm not going to take you through mesh tastic go and watch Andy Kirby's channels there are a million other it's a piece of cake to do the hardware is reasonably inexpensive expensive um you don't even need any software on your computer to flash firmware onto these things it's all done via a website absolutely brilliant um but yeah you can you can get one of these put it put it somewhere high up and you chat on an app on your phone and uh good fun anyway what's needed is a bit of a Homebase unit and to that end I've created this um yeah so we've got a sort of weatherproof box here uh this is a parad antenna and it's of some length we're getting on for a 3/4 of a meter probably it's it's quite long um yeah so I'm going to mount that up my Mast along with my weather station so um we need to fit some Hardware in here um I need to drill a hole in the bottom to put some power in but also these boards they do do have a battery charger on board so if the power is to fail this is still work all the preppers are going to love this so if you're into Doom and Gloom you can enjoy the fun as well while your battery lasts now this battery um yeah it's a homemade one it's made from those Vape uh batteries that uh we did previously on the channel uh a video actually got demonetized because apparently it's not appropriate content I think it because it's mentioned vaping and this is probably going to go the same way but um yeah if you can salvage yourself some batteries uh balance them up and put them in parallel now to balance them up I covered this on my vape battery video which I shall Link in the description below but I do it by just connecting each cell in turn VI a 1 ohm resistor to its its brother I generally do three cells at a time and then balance it back with a pack hence I need four resistors four cells at a time sorry and balance it back to the pack and uh when you get less than about 10 molts across here you have pretty good shape to short them out if you just try and bang them all in parallel straight away you're going to flow a lot of current don't do it folks um yeah I think big Clive took a measurement and uh it was in the region of many amps so you don't want to do that it's going to stress the cell out 1 ohm seems to be about right so yeah inside there uh we've got eight 16 cells in parallel and that's given us about three and a half nearly 4 amp hours so it's pretty good um if you want the 3D printer files for the carrier and the little Lids uh I shall leave a link in the description below um yeah there are a few different size batteries in Vapes I Shan mention the brands of the ones I used because I Shan cuz yeah it'll probably get me demonetized and don't fancy that right this is a htech V7 board I've already flashed it um with the correct firmware I have also loaded using the app on my phone loaded the uh details I want displayed on it it's called do base so um there we are I've added a header on there you see that there is just where are you you're over there there's a little header on there that's going to supply our power externally up the Mast so I just need to fit that I choose to fit it up here somewhere doesn't matter if I can't see the display cuz this is going to have a lid on it so and I'm going to mount my battery um about there I think um and that allows me to plug into the bottom of the board so I think the first thing to do is actually just to bond the battery in to the bottom of the Box um and being as I had the Silicon gun out I think I'll do it with that right let's just wait for that to go off right you can tell by the change of Jumper that it's the following day um off camera um I mounted the mounting plate for the htech V3 uh in the bottom of the case there again with a blob of silicon while I had it out and I also realized I hadn't drilled the hole in the bottom and obviously drilling that way into the case I was going to risk drilling all in me battery as well so what I actually did was I put that in there and then drilled the drilled the case because we don't want a lithium fire in the workshop that would be most unpleasant right one thing I have sort of made a mistake with because I have set this htech up already um as soon as I plug it in it's going to start to transmit um um I have removed the RF bits this by the way is an ipx connector let's have a look on the top camera there you go it's tiny little ipx connector that connects to htech it goes into an SMA where are you there uh and then an SMA to the N which fits on the bottom of the parad antenna so that's all well and good but I'm going to struggle to fit it all in with it all connected so uh what I'm going to have to do CU obviously as soon as I apply Power by the battery it's going to power up the htech TR transmit we don't want to damage it so what I'm actually just going to do is take this battery apart the top should just pull off be said yeah there we go there we are uh and I'm just going to desolder the positive connection there so we are off happy days I shall solder that on once it's all up together um I've got um a mile of this uh ordinary it's actually Main's lead I know we shouldn't use that for 5 volts but it's mine I'm not selling it so that's going to fit in there we'll stick a blob of sealant around it once it's done uh that's going to feed our 5 volts into our htech I'm going to need to put a couple of DuPont connectors on there or something similar um we'll probably have to take the wire gauge down sold a sold a couple of dupon uh receptacles onto there and uh yeah we're good to go so um the next thing really I suppose is to fit the htech in um so I can connect the battery connector is underneath which is not the most ideal thing in the world I have to say and it's tiny which doesn't help with my Tremor right that's in I want it sort of that way around wires are going to come out of the back like that in that Notch I've created generously and then we'll just push that home if I can I've made this bracket purposefully quite flexible so we can bend the sides out so it snicks in there we go that's going to hold that in there securely right uh the next thing to do I think is to attach our aerial bits and hopefully that all clears it does that's helpful get that in there nice and tight and then I need to orient our ipx connector again not easy when you've got a Tremor by the way somebody's um commented on that the other day it's not Parkinson's I'm all right um it's called benign Tremor I've mentioned it several times and it is nothing other than a huge frustration in my life um so yeah unless it ever develops unpleasantly into something else entirely possible but uh yeah no I'm absolutely fine just a little bit shaky a this is all in the wrong Ori orentation what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove the SMA part here connect it to the htech and then put it back in yep I bought some the htech modules actually do come with a pigtail um that's the sort of pigtail it comes with can you see the thickness of that coax now as a general rule of thumb the thicker your coax is the better it is um and we are running at 868 MHz and you know you can't use RG58 or something like that for these frequencies you will just get masses masses of lost you can try LMR 400 something like that would do very nicely but that is a really thick coax and um it's better that's why I want to M Mount this up the Mast so I have got you know what's that 20 millim sorry about 10 cm of coax 100 mm that's going to keep our losses the losses are per meter or per foot if you go on to coax um websites from a reputable manufacturer they will give you losses at certain frequencies um that's the reason RG58 Works a a trait for things like ham radio and the HF bands and um uh to assist an extend CV radio uh 27 MHz because the losses at those frequencies are quite acceptable for foot but you want to try running 886 868 MHz down it you're going to have a lot of loss per foot um this stuff I think is rg174 which isn't too bad and again I've only got 10 mm of it so losses are absolutely minimal oh should I have fitted this before I pushed the unit into the box I think that may have been prudent let's take it back out and refit it these ipx connectors are sort of things you get on laptop Wi-Fi antennas and the like it should go with a little snap there it goes wonderful that has has now snapped into position super right that is back in position let's attempt to reconnect our SMA which has got caught up there there we go excellent um next thing we need to do is the power so uh yeah let's get on with [Music] that [Music] right that's the uh power lead created now I do have to drill another Hole In The Box um so I'm going to use my plate again and this is just a breather hole because I intend to seal all the big holes up in fact I've already sealed the antenna one we need a hole that's just going to you know if the thing gets in the Sun the expansion of the air in the box is going to want to get out and it will get out and the way it'll get out is past the Rubber seal on the lid and you don't want that so um what we need to do is just drill a hole in the bottom of the Box um just to let the air in and out now I've done a bit of research on this over the years if you d a hole smaller than about 3 mm um you won't get any water Ingress problems and I found this to be the case um so yeah this is 2 and a half mm I've got me plat so I don't drill through the battery and uh yeah we'll just there we go and we just leave that open to atmosphere that will let you know any changes in air pressure through whilst still keeping it um from getting wet so that's ideal right put my drill bit away okay so uh if I was to connect power up to that now it would now work so that's good um there's something else I've got to deal with the parad antenna comes with a really nice mounting kit that is you sort of slop the antenna into that saddle there tighten it up from behind and then it's supplied with some really chunky U bolts that are going to bolt the whole assembly to the mask obviously I've Incorporated the antenna into the box so this is redundant um and as luck would have it uh this hu bolt is nothing like the whole pitch on the box so I've got to drill those out bigger and the problem is you see that on camera let's have a little zoom in shall we see if we can get that a bit better oh yeah there you go if you can see that the holes are only slightly misaligned which means drilling them is going to be an absolute noise because the drill is going to want to snag into the existing hole so I think it's time to do the naughty and put the sacrificial soldering iron bit in and melt some plastic let's do that I'm going to want the fume extractor on that's for sure there we go I need to SW swap my bit over for the one I use for burning plastic which is that one that's black and for those of you of a a sensitive disposition please look away [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Applause] [Music] there we go that's going to work I need to repeat the process for the other side um which has got the antenna in the way uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n not the tidiest job in the world but we have a winner so uh I'm happy with that right uh we need to solder that wire on that will bring the htech to life I need to put the wiring in um and go and fit it to a piece of Mast which I've got at Engineers yet but uh yeah nearly there drove Me 2 and a half mil hole I think the next thing to do is to put this wiring in bit of strain relief on it where it comes in zip tie or something probably um cover it in Silicon so the wet doesn't get in there we are that's going in nicely um and then we're ready to go aren't we most exciting um so yeah oh I need to identify which of those pins is ground on the htech um so meter to continuity the ground will be shared with the USB and it's the end okay so that's uh straightforward enough that goes on like that that goes on like that it's in there let me get a zip tie let's this is one on the bench oh there he is look at that snip that off put that in around there let's get a bit more silicon around there loads just gune that around the back super that's it and while that's going off I can go in outside and move some brackets around and sort the Mast section [Music] out wo wo wo wo wo wo wo [Music] wo wo wo wo [Music] wo [Music] fire oh oh oh oh oh oh oh fire [Music] I think that'll do well that went better than planned um yeah the fixings I used by the way are called concrete screws look them up they're absolutely outstanding no roll plug or anything needed and in fact all the shelves that are above me here and in this Workshop we're all H to the walls with concrete screws it's a masonry screw needs no plug just got to drill the right size hole and they just bite in amazingly uh if you've never seen those go and have a look at them um right so um I've got a piece of Mast behind me there you see that yeah it's good um so the next thing to do is assemble everything but uh obviously I need to reconnect the um battery which will start our unit up and I do need to make one change to the configuration before I put it up on the m and that is just to make sure it can see the right bit of my Wi-Fi network um because yeah at the moment I don't think it gets to that end of the house okay see that on the camera but the display has just lit up metastic so I should pop the cap back on the battery beautiful and I need to just send some configurations so I will just do that quickly right that's the configuration change that says rebooting don't you see that I doubt it um so it's just rebooting I'll just make sure I can still reach it on the network in a moment yes I can so that's absolutely fabulous um next thing I've got to do is just cut this seal so it seats nicely there we go and pop the lid on oh whether I mentioned that earlier I 3D printed a little mesh tastic logo look go on the box I'll link the files to all the battery holders and everything else I've built down in the uh description below well those aren't the right screws those are the ones from the htech these will be the right ones now I have to ask myself whether I actually trust the seal on this box or whether I should just run a little bit of silicon around it and um I think it's cheap insurance to do so so I'm just going to put a smear of that around the seam of the box there we go that sealed that up and of course being careful not to block that little 2 and 1/2 mil breather hole um in the bottom because that will be bad there we are so that's currently online we can supply it with 5 volts up that piece of lead so yeah next job really is to get it on the Mast along with the weather station so I'm going to stop here and go read the instructions of the weather station cuz I did read them I believe it's got a point North so uh yeah let me uh go and do that and I think I'll see you back outside I've it's a bit of a snag this is the mounting bracket for the weather station the weather station is this Bessa thing uh seven senses very good wife bought it for me for Christmas now when this is I failed to read the instructions you see now if you Mast Mast it if you mount it to a mast you're supposed to do this you see put the little thing in there sit the weather station on top and uh yeah that's how you mount it to the m clearly because I've got this one here it's it's not going to it's not going to fit is it so yeah that's not going to work so my intention was you see is to mount it on the Mast like that so mast is there where the station sits here oh no you can't do that because there's no 90° fitting for the end of here and that is designed to sort of Mount it onto a roof straight down and have it on the top like that no good so what I've done is I'm just 3D printing a little adapter fit on the end put our weather station on its little arm out of the one side hopefully that'll work but uh yeah yeah it's delayed things a bit never mind plenty else other things to be getting on [Music] [Music] with [Music] well I've made a little adapter 3D printed and uh I'll leave a link in the description below despite that's uh not really the point of this video but uh if you ever need something like that to make your Bess weather station stick out at an angle right there you go little 3D printed 90° sort of adapter right finally let's get it outside [Music] oh there you go our mesh node and weather station all mounted on a little Mast um so yeah let's go and enjoy the mesh thank you very much for watching click like subscribe do all that rubbish and I'll see you very soon here on doy's television Workshop looks like I've beaten the weather [Music] just [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a it's [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh at uh 863 MHz I think these are um yeah these are uh extremely popular so uh ever so easy to flash 868 MHz let's do this again

Channel: Doz Television Workshop

Views: 1,072

Keywords: #meshtastic

Id: U68M0IbFeqc

Length: 34min 45sec (2085 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024