Meshtastic has been pretty big lately, lots more features coming to the mesh Tastic and mesh Core line. But what is the best outdoor node? What's the best solar node? A mesh Tastic solar node that's meant to be deployed outdoors with a solar panel running Meshastic, mesh Core, some sort of Laura device. We're going to talk about it today.
So some of these videos I've made recently, people will comment and I call them Meshtastic nodes, and people will comment and say, well, mesh coord is getting more popular, and mesh coord is getting this and mesh cod Okay, fine, this is a hardware list.
This is four.
It's actually five pieces of hardware. You can load mesh Tastic or mesh Core onto any of them. Okay, I use mesh Tastic in the title of the YouTube video because more people know what it is. Mesh Cord is a little bit newer. But these are all Laura wan devices, long range or Laura devices. So that's what we're going to talk about today, is the best four that include a solar node. Now I'm going to star and I'm
going to go in order of price. Okay, I'm not going to tell you which one is better than which one, because out of all of these, I've really only.
Used one of them.
A couple of weeks ago, I did a video about the Ella crow Think node M one and M two.
Those are some neat little pocket devices.
This is an M six, an M six outdoor solar powered node for Laura, okay, supports nine hundred and fifteen megahertz inside of the USA. In other countries it's going to be a different frequency. So what the thing we want to look at when we are researching these nodes? Price is certainly an issue. Three important things you want to look at in my opinion, and I'll be interested in your opinion in the comments section below. Size of the solar panel, how many watts is the solar panel?
What type of chip is it is an ESP thirty two chip or the new NRF chip? And what type of antenna does it have? So those are the basic three things we're going to look at today. Again, the M six node has a six wat high efficiency monocrystaline silicon solar panel.
Okay, six what not.
Huge, but not bad. I mean six watts is better than zero wats. If your no doesn't have a panel at all. It does contain the NRF fifty two to eight forty chip, a built in sixty four megahertz arm Cortex M four processor with a DSP instruction set enables smooth execution of complex algorithms. Okay, Bluetooth five point four b ALE provides low power subsecond network provisioning, and Laura SX twelve sixty two covers the full one hundred and
fifty to nine hundred and sixty megor hertz spectrum. So, in other words, depending on what frequency mesh Core and or Meshtastic is using in your country, it can be configured as such. That's how I read that anyway. So that's the first one. The think node M six six watts solar panel with the NRF fifty two eight to forty chip, which is great. That's the newest chip, and this chip enables the battery to last longer. Right here it says this version does not support mestastic firm where.
If you need to use the mestastic functionality, please click here to purchase the meshtastic version. I actually went to this one first. This one's out of stock right now. Okay, so but this one here and I don't know what the difference is. It's still a six SWAT panel, it's still the NRF chip, it's still the one hundred and fifty to nine er sixty megahertz frequency range, and it has a GPS built in. But they are out of
stock at the Lacro website right now. I'll put a link in the description blow hopefully those will be back in stock soon. I was looking to see if I could find what type of battery is included, and I'm not seeing what type of battery is included for this specific node, because the solar panel is going to keep your battery charged, and the good thing about the NRF chip is that your battery is going to last longer. The ESP thirty two chip, which has been around a
little bit longer, fine chip, nothing wrong with that. Got several meshtastic nodes that run the ESP thirty two chip, and the ESP thirty two chip will is used in many more pieces of IoT hardware than just mestastic devices. But it is an older chip and it's a little bit more power drain, a little bit more power intensive than the new NRF chip. So if you find a node that you want to get and one has the
TERF chip and one has ESP thirty two chip. Just know that the the NRF chip is going to be a little bit more efficient and make your battery last a little bit longer. So if you have a solar panel, or if you have a solar node with a smaller solar panel, only a five or six watt solar panel, then maybe if you have an NRF chip and a large enough battery, maybe it'll be just efficient enough for you for your situation and how much sun you get
at your location, it may not matter. So again, I did not see what type of battery is included in this six nodes, so maybe that's something I'll research here in a minute. Mo went on to number two. This is the Seed Studios sense a cap solar node P one for mesh tastic. Okay, now there's a P one version right here, and this one's seventy six ninety nine, and there's a P one pro version and this one is eighty nine ninety eighty nine ninety is about what thirteen more dollars?
Okay?
The difference is if we scroll down right here, they have a nifty little chart right there that tells you the exact difference. The difference is basically that the P one Pro comes with four built in eighteen six fifty batteries and a GPS module. The chow L seventy six K GPS model. Chowboard is one of the boards that studios mates and they use it in multiple radios. So that's the difference. So if you want to put your own batteries in, or you don't care about a GPS model,
this version will do just fine for you. If you want it pre built and pre configured and pre done, I suggest spending another thirteen dollars in getting this version, this P one pro version. Okay, So it does have the chow NRF fifty two to eight to forty chip in it, so we got a good chip in that,
and it took me a minute to find. And it's got four eighteen six fifty batteries scroll down here to find this which are thirty three hundred and fifty milli amps each, so three point three amps each times for roughly about thirteen amps something like that. Assuming those eighteen six fifty batteries are providing what they advertise, which sometimes is a question. Okay, And this one also has a five watt solar panel.
Now this node here.
I've actually got this note, I haven't deployed it, I haven't put it up yet, and I haven't made a video about it yet.
But this is on.
This is one of the things that's on my list of things to do. Okay, there's a good shot right there of the batteries in the back of the rate and this enclosure here and this solar panel here. So a five watch solar panel is gonna be a little bit smaller in size, and it's going to be not as much capacity. But if you're running something that's in a more compact location and you know you've got plenty of sunlight, then this might be a good choice for you. I would again, I would get the P one Pro,
but it's up to you. You've got choices there. So those first two are pretty reasonably priced under one hundred dollars each, seventy nine dollars for that one, eighty nine dollars for that one. The next one. This is where we step up. This is where we're going to get into nodes that are made for more harsh environments.
I will put it. Okay, this Altavex.
Began solar mesh no now, just yesterday I've been looking at this thing for about a month. Okay, you can see it's got a very high gain intenna on it. That's the other thing about these two nodes. These two nodes have what I would consider this INTENTNA is not bad. It doesn't look like it's about it doesn't. There's nothing in here that I can find about the gain on the intenna. Anytime you're talking about radio, the gain on your intenna is important because that's how far you can hear.
So if you put up a solar node or a meshtastic node of any type, put one on your car, you're carrying one on your backpack, whatever, and it has an antenna with a very low or inefficient gain, you're not going to be able to hear as far.
You're not going to be able to connect as far.
Okay, if it has a higher gain, you'll be able to hear it, it will be able to hear more nodes, and it has a greater earp. Effective isotropic radio power in other words, it's going to enhance the power output. It's going to virtualize the power output of your meshtastic device. So if it's a couple one hundred milliwatts, your mestastic devices or mesh core devices, and you put a higher gain antenna on it, it can increase the EERP and
it effectively acts like a higher output on your transmitter. Okay, now you can learn about this, and you can learn about antennas, a lot about antennas, and a lot about radio propagation. If you want to go get your Ham radio license, in which case I would highly recommend Ham Radio Prep.
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highly recommend them. They have a money back guarantee you will get license or you get your money back. Check out the link in the description blow and be sure to use the coupon code of Jason twenty. So you're gonna want to look for that you're gonna look for the type of antenna that is being used on some of these radios. Now, this one right here has dual antennas that could be a better gain than a single antenna like that one. Okay, but the Altavex Beacon has
a very good high gain antenna right here. It comes in nine hundred and fifty megaherds for the USA and under of sixty eight mega herds for overseas in Europe. European mesh tastic. Here it's got dual antennas on it also very good. It is in a hardened weather proof case. I've been reading some reviews on this device, and I've gotten read a lot of really good feedback about this device.
I do not have one of these nodes right now, but I signed up for their affiliate program about two days ago at the time of this recording, because I knew I was going to be talking about this device today. And the owner of the company, Altavox reach out to me, his name is Matt. Matt, thank you very much for your email, and he's going to send me one of these for evaluation. So we're going to get to make a video about this two hundred and thirty five dollars
for this one. Again, if you've got a harsh outdoor environment somewhat like my house in Galveston, we'll get to that in a minute. Somewhere where it gets really hot or maybe really cold, somewhere where it doesn't have as much sun, wants something with a larger solar panel or a larger battery. Now, this one right here has a five watt solar panel, USBC chargeable five thousand million power battery,
which is a five amp battery, and a very hardened case. Okay, so up until now, all of these devices have had about the same size solar panel. How that sits, And again, that's something you want to look at. You look at the chip. I starched up and down through this page, and I'm not finding which chip is in this device. Okay, so it could be an NRF chip, it could be an ESP thirty two chip.
I'm not sure.
I'm not finding it on this page. I've heard several of you and comments of various videos mentioned this device, so I know a few of you have it. So if you know what chip it has, put a comment in the video below. But by the time this video post I might actually have one of these in my hand, so we'll see from there. I'll make a full full fledged video about this device when I finally get it. But high gain it dual high gain antenna's five watt solar panel, and that's two of the three things we're
going to look at. This is a Spec five relay. It's got a very high gain intenna on it. It comes with a twelve watt solar panel. Okay, right here, this is the fourth node. The first three had a five or six wat solar panel. This one has a twelve wat solar panel, more than twice what the other ones have.
Okay.
It has two internal eighteen six fifty lithium iron phosphate batteries. The Rack wiz Block Laura radio in it, so the Rack Wireless wiz Block radio in it. Firmer says that at support it's both meshtastic and mesh core and also attack, which most of these probably will. It's made out of pet G material for three D printing, and I'm not really seeing Rack Wireless the wiz board. I believe the
rack wiz Block has an ESP thirty two chip. Yeah, looking over here at Rackwireless dot Com, it's listed as a ESP thirty two w rover module on the rack wireless board. So rack Wiz block board really good, really tried and true rack wireless. They reached out to me recently also they're going to be sending me some stuff
to review. Smeshtastic things really taken off. But the Spec five relay is fantastic because if you are in an area that's more harsh, like the salt air coming off of the ocean anywhere.
If you live near the ocean, like my Galveston house, Galveston gets a lot of sun, but we also got to do.
A lot of rain down there, a lot of clouds, so there might be two or three or four days a row, maybe a week or so where I don't get direct sun on it. Okay, so your twelve watt solar panel is going to pull in more energy and more. It's going to charge the battery more, even if you're only pulling in like one or two watts. It's got more surface area because it's a larger solar panel than a five watt solar panel would, so it's gonna be a little bit more efficient in an area where you
don't have as much sunlight. This one comes in at two seventy five today. Spec five is a Texas company. I've had a Spec five coupon in the past. I'm not sure if that's still active or not, but I will put a link to this and everything else we talked about today in the description blow and any coupons I have, I will put those down there as well. But those are the top four solar nodes that I
have found. There are a couple of other smaller ones, like anybitty like one or two watt panel nodes that you can connect to your backpack or add to like a Trekker board or a rack wireless board.
Or something like that.
And there's a few more options like that. All four of these that we talked about today are pre configured. You can buy them fully assembled, put them up and just be done with it.
Okay.
If you want to build your own, of course, there's the option for that as well. These are four of the ones I found today. If you have something else that you use, something else, you have experience with something else, you have questions about something with a solar panel attached to it, I love to know what that is. Put a comment in the video let me know what you think about these. If you have one of these or multiples of these, let me know what you think about
each one. Eventually, you're going to see a video about all four of these on this channel, so I look forward to seeing your feedback on that. Seventy three guys, thanks for watching today, and if you enjoyed this video, check out these videos up here. This is what YouTube thinks you want to watch next. We'll catch you next time.