Getting started - Heltec Capsule Sensor V3

Support
1

Apologies as I am a total noob, so please talk to me like I am a 5 year old. After a recent camping trip where a storm scared my dog away, I have been looking at tracking options. Fortunately she was found after a few hours but worried it could happen again.

I started looking at normal commercially available trackers, which all run of bluetooth, 4G, wifi etc. The technology doesn’t work when camping as often I am out of 4G range and bluetooth doesn’t have the distance.

I then came across LoRaWAN technology which has it’s merits, however having a remote gateway is a challenge with the requirement to still be connected to the internet. I found a P2P Lora solution with the Rakwireless RAK2171 WisNode TrackIt, however I never got a good result with my testing. Maybe I got a bad unit but the P2P mode was very poor, and software clunky. Perhaps the product was more suited to a gateway.

Now I have stumbled upon Meshtastic and this seems to be a better solution for my use. I have dived into a lot of the material online and Youtube and am looking at purchasing a Heltec Capsule Sensor V3. My experience with electronics is quite limited, and while I can no doubt learn, I need to start with something easy so with limited building, soldering, customisation etc.

My questions and apologies for my ignorance:

  1. Do I need a gateway to connect the Heltec Capsule Sensor V3 to? Or can I purchase 2x of the sensors and they just connect to each other?

Yes, gateway required: 2. Recommendations for something battery powered that I can take camping?

No, gateway: 3. What kind of range can you expect between the 2x Heltec Capsule Sensor V3? Would it be worth me having a different device? The dog would need a smaller device, but I can carry something bigger, heavier and more powerful.

  1. There have been some concerns about battery life. Battery is only 250mAh, although one of the teardowns on YouTube only had a 200mAh battery in it. Heltec says 6 months of battery if data is only sent every hour. I assume this is easy to change to 15 minute updates to get at least a month’s battery life?

That’s it for now. There will be no doubt some more questions depending on the answers. Thanks in advanced to anyone will to take the time to read this and help out. I am keen to jump in a give it a go, just want to make sure I am getting the right equipment!

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i have ordered capsule as well, but still not received yet.

atm we do not know if and how good capsule is working with meshtastic, so also no experience with range. the first batch is ybout to be delivered to users in short time… so then we know better…

  1. you wont need a gateway, just some other meshtastic device to receive position signals from tracker device (capsule or other !) and that device can be connected to you mobile phone, by ble, displaying positions on Offline maps on phone. or, a device with display, showing you distance and direction to tracker/sensor !! very handy :slight_smile:
    2 of the sensors are good to use them as sensors, but porbably atenna and battery runtime are very weak , so i woul recommend the sensor as a sensor, and the mobile device, to be a RAK or a lillygot t-beam (shorter battery runtime but has own display to show distance and direction !!) or maybe best solution: a lilygo t-echo: long battery runtime and display !

range expectations, i dont know. but if you have a third device, to mount up on a high place at the camping or in a tree, when looking for the dog, you get a great range extender !

battery life: the heltec has long battery life, only when “only sending data”, so its idle when not sending…
for a receiving device you need one thats constantly running and recieving ! a capusle will only last for 1-3 hours in that mode… though you (maybe, not yet tested!) might run it from extzernal power…

so my recommendation would be:
tracker: capsule (if that works, we will find out soon)
and a
Mobile: lilygo t-echo (but put a bigger atnenna on it !!) almost ready to use out of the box ! just firmware update and go… you safe the money for buying extra battery, case etc, all included…its ready to use !
or if need to be cheaper: lilygo T-beam (also noeeds bigger antenna and needs a self printed case)
for repeater:
to put up in a tree: cheap:
heltec V3 stick device without or with display, put it in some housing wirh a battery and place in high position to help when searching…
better: Rak wireless meshtastic starter kit, with some bigger antenna (no display, very looong battery runtime!)

and be sure to order the right frequency bands for you area! mostly its 868/915 devices… 433 not so popular…

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Terrific information! Will order some of those and start playing around with them.