(Update: please put a pause on any work to use this Seed Wio controller in a solar repeater. I have just now realized that the BQ25101 IC does not, by itself, do anything to watch for temperatures below freezing. As such, I have to worry that this controller might charge the lithium-ion battery below freezing, perhaps damaging the battery. If you are thinking of using this controller, please subscribe to this blog so that you can see my updates on this topic.)
Anybody who gets involved in setting up a LoRa mesh network (for example Meshtastic or Meshcore) eventually encounters the Harbor Breeze Solar Light Enclosure Hack. The hack is that you go to Lowes, purchase a 60-lumen solar powered outdoor light for $10, discard most of it, and add a LoRa mesh controller and antenna. The result (blog article) is a relatively inexpensive LoRa mesh repeater seen at right. The original hack uses a RAK WisBlock controller (RAK link, Rokland link, Amazon link) that costs around $32. In this article I describe how to do the hack using a Seeed Wio controller (Seeed link, Amazon link) that costs around $14 when purchased from Seeed. (more…)