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The chief tool in the toolkit for deployment of a Meshcore network is the solar-powered repeater (see one at right).   In rural parts of Colorado, a typical repeater location is remote, reached only by hiking to some point of high elevation.  For many months of winter, it may be nearly impossible to reach the location.  Crucial to the repeater’s function is a battery that powers the repeater’s radio controller during times of overcast and darkness.  Ideally, the repeater, once placed into service, will never again need to be visited by a human being.  What can one do to have some sense of confidence that the battery will quietly do its job for some years?  In this blog article I discuss a way to test the battery before placing it into service.  (more…)

A couple of days ago another Meshcore repeater got deployed.  Can you spot it?  (more…)

Recently I constructed four do-it-yourself Meshcore repeaters, one of may be seen at right next to some bananas to show scale.  Two of these repeaters have been placed into service and seem to be working well.  This article describes the planning and construction process.  (more…)

(Update:  I am delighted to report that after a discharge-and-charge cycle, the batteries in this repeater are doing just fine.  Not only that, but it turns out the batteries have an actual capacity that is better than the manufacturer’s claimed capacity.  See followup blog article.)

Recently it became necessary to swap out an ailing repeater.  The repeater had been purchased a few weeks ago and I deployed it, trusting that it would eventually charge up fully.  But even after some weeks in service, the battery level hovered at around 43% and never even once got as high as 50%.  The repeater was in a remote location, so the swap-out task was a bit of work.  This blog article describes what made me realize I had a problem, what preparations and planning were needed, the swapping-out task itself, and the results.  (more…)

Those (like myself) who install LoRa mesh nodes are in frequent contact with the extremely generous property owners who volunteer their property for siting repeaters.  Each repeater ends up being very helpful in extending coverage of a Lora mesh network.  Often for one reason or another a property owner prefers not to be publicly identified.  I am absolutely delighted to let you know that longtime Summit County resident Joanne Hanson, along with her husband Jim, has let me know that she is willing to be publicly thanked.  (more…)

(The property owners who made this repeater possible have said they are willing to be publicly thanked — see blog article.)

A new Meshcore repeater has been deployed in Summit County, this one in the Mesa Cortina neighborhood.  As so often happens, what made this possible is the generosity of a property owner who volunteered to provide a site for the repeater.  (more…)

A few days ago I deployed two new Meshcore repeaters — one near the Ruby Ranch neighborhood (CO-SUM-RUB-RE) and another near the Ptarmigan neighborhood (CO-SUM-PTA-RE).  (I blogged about the installation of the latter here.)  I am delighted to see that another volunteer has deployed two new repeaters — one near Lake Hill (CO-SUM-LH-RE) and another near the Frisco Peninsula (CO-SUM-FP-RE).  These repeaters link to what was probably the earliest repeater in this part of Summit County, namely CO-SUM-WB-RE near the Willowbrook neighborhood.

Nice people in the Mesa Cortina and Hamilton Creek neighborhoods have each volunteered to provide a location for a repeater.  These will likely get installed soon.

(Update:  I had to swap out this repeater for a new one as you can read about here.)

Today I installed a new Meshcore repeater in Summit County, Colorado.  It is called CO-SUM-PTA-RE and it is a Seeed Solar Node.  It reaches points in Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon, Mesa Cortina, and Smith Ranch.  In this article I talk about some of the planning and preparations, the installation process, and some of the results.  (more…)

It will be recalled (see blog article) that I had deployed a temporary Meshcore repeater in Sonoma County, successfully linking to a robust Meshcore network extending across much of northern California.  Today is the day that I retrieved my temporary repeater from its hilltop, and I migrated from Sonoma County to San Francisco.

Two days from now I will be on the dais, co-presenting a training class on the Patent Cooperation Treaty with a very nice person from the World Intellectual Property Organization.  This will be at the spring meeting of the American Intellectual Property Law Association in San Francisco.  Upon my arrival at the event hotel (the Fairmont on Mason Street) I fired up a Meshtastic node and a Meshcore node.  What devices did I see?  (more…)