Cheap outdoor setup

Here is my quick and cheap outdoor box for testing I whipped up this weekend. All in all its probably about $25 in parts on top of the T Beam. I had that panel antenna and U.fl>SMA cable laying around, so i decided to toss it in. I sealed the area where the electronics go, and added drain hoes on the side where the antennas are mounted, just in case. I have a solar panel coming in that is meant to run WiFi cameras, I’m curious to see how well that works. Quick note on the antenna; Hooked it up to my VNA it it was resonate at around 905 mhz, i trimmed about 5mm off the top to bring it up to 915mhz.

Antenna:

Case:

Butyl Tape: (this stuff has 1000 uses! Good to have on hand)

The solar panel that is not here yet:

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What is the white squared device you have attached to the corner (connected to the white cable)?

I am ordering 3 T Beams and plan on turining one into a node. Can I use the same antenna that comes with the Beam or should I use a different type (similar to yours)? Thank you and awesome job!

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This seems to be a BT/Wifi antenna, but i am also interested in a link :wink:

Its hard to tell in the pictures to see if this has been done. If you are attaching an antenna where he has the white antenna, there is a small 0 ohm resister that you will want to remove, and I think you have to solder brigde just above that resister for that antenna to be in the circuit.

Not doing so will just add a fancy antenna but the board will continue to use the built in antenna.

Andreas Spiess (@SensorsIot) does a good job of documenting this in this video

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It’ts a 2.4ghz antenna for the wifi/BT.

It is, but i do not have a link. It was in a junk drawer.

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I did not realize that haha. Thanks for that bit of info.

That Solar Panel only put out 3.3 volts for me which made it useless for me. Until the software update happens that will let us use 3.3V input.