I have asked these guys if they would have interest on selling cases or eventually cased boards in rugged cases. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1424457
Let’s see.
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@b8b8 I like your design. How is the progress coming? Is this water / moisture proof? Some sort of cloaking device can also be used.
The advantages of a triangular case is that it doesn’t roll… Has anyone sourced these cases in anything but plastic filament from a fabricator?
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We’d like to get them up into trees, bolas style ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas)
eventually incorporating solar.
We did discuss bow / arrow deployment, again, this would get us arrested in the UK.
Ideas on other deployment techniques, self-righting mechanisms for solar and antenna alignment welcome.
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What’s the ‘cheapest’ path to Long-running router (repeater) mode?
Are solar LoRa boards discussed anywhere? (Looked, can’t see)
Rather novel deployment method! I’m not sure trees and solar are a great pair though.
I’ve been looking at options for building a solar node. Based on the EByte E22 900M22S SX1262 module I roughed out a starting point of around a 1W solar panel and a couple of 18650 batteries. This was for a transmit duty cycle of 10%. So many variables though so until we get some out in the wild we will never truly know.
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One of my remaining work items for 1.0 is a special “repeater node” setting which will dramatically change the power draw in that config. At that point hte esp32 based boards will be pretty good. I have a spreadsheet with estimated solar cell size needed to power such a board indefinitely given typical cloud cover in the world (I can post later). The size of cell is not bad at all.
Things will get even better once NRF52 based boards are out there, because a NRF52+sx1262 should have very low power requirements.
oh: I wrote this before I saw dafemans reply. Yeah - I agree with that also.
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Have you considered the use of a sling shot for launching a counter weight fastened to the end of a draw line?
Like getting a tree climbing rope over a branch. I like it.
I’ve been hunting for a OTS weatherproof box with a solar panel build into it. Something like this
https://rokpak.com/ but cheaper, simpler and maybe more DIY. From there you can add either magnets to the outside for deployment in an urban environment, bit of paracord, webbing or banding for everything else.
Shading a solar panel doesn’t work and flexible mounting and solar orientation is the way to go. Something like this or this with a ball mount for the solar would be awesome.
@JesseKrembs Check out https://disaster.radio/ they have some good ideas on how to achieve this and they have shopping lists of items needed
Check out this waterproof box design. The Fusion360 design files are downloadable for easy customization if that’s the style you’re after.
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All these 3D printed cases are great. But is anyone selling cases for the T-Beam for those of us who don’t have, or don.t want a 3D printer?
A one quart freezer bag seems to be a good temporary solution.
@thomslik I don’t have a 3d printer so It’s possible to get cases printed for around 10E, 7GBP, I used this design. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3830711
Using https://app.craftcloud3d.com/ (ALL3DP) you can chose the colour and material used
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Thanks. I’ll remember that as an option.
Seems reasonable to keep them light enough to set repeaters in a treetop (or what have you) with a drone. Even without solar, a long enough battery life might make battery swap flight missions workable.
Some kind of loop and hook deployment could be simple and light.
But yeah, definitely not available to all pilot skill levels.
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We’ve been using freezer bags until my OLEDs came through - wasn’t sure how they’d fit.
Really awesome looking case. Any chance you’ll publish the STLs?
My 3D printer’s been down for a couple years, never bothered to get it going again, so figured I’d go laser cut instead.
Features:
- Well, ya know, it’s a box
- Internal standoffs to keep screen firmly in place
- Hole for external GPS antenna
- Captured 1/4-20 nut, because everything should be tripod mountable
- Super groovy button pusher tabbies on the bottom
- Removable, interchangeable faceplates to match your shoes
For the next iteration:
- Need to fix the tab sizes (fit n finish)
- Definitely a different color face (I happened to have a lot of blue on hand). Frosted clear?
- Maybe no cutout for the screen; let it show through the acrylic, better protected
- Maybe hard-mount a GPS jack vs the current “hole in the side to feed your wire” option
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