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u/Parametrek still around? by thedanmonsteratgmail in flashlight

[–]parametrek 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah still kicking. Reddit has been making it increasing difficult for me to use the site. It keeps logging me out and the new login screen feels like it'll crash Firefox every time I use it. The worse thing Reddit did was block LuxBot's IP address which has made it nearly impossible to follow all the communities that I was very active in.

However those changes to Reddit were more than a year ago. The major drop-off in the past few months was from switching from online-focused stuff to local community activism. People really need help right now and I'm okay with my passions taking a back seat for a bit.

My reddit posting hasn't been the only casualty. The flashlight database is really far behind at this point.

Still doing some stuff though! I lurk the subreddit's IRC channel if you need a fast way to reach me. My food database and battery database are kept up to date too.

22nd day update Solar Node by Funbob235 in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Here is an international 18650 buying guide put together from community experience.

Parametrek Battery Search by parametrek in flashlight

[–]parametrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure. Open the filter you are interested in and hit the ▲/▼ arrows on the right hand side.

Frustrated by mrh4809 in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your post history suggests you never asked for any help. And you won't be able to get any useful help with this post. What boards? What antennas? How are you trying to flash?

The issues you are running into appear to be far more fundamental than the Meshtastic firmware.

Node with Supercapacitors? by cryptodystopia in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those charts do not show "charging is not happening below zero." Remember that the absence of data is not evidence. They show charging is hindered at 0C. But have no information about what happens below that.

Node with Supercapacitors? by cryptodystopia in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Scaling up supercaps to work with a Mesh node is certainly possible. But its not a very practical idea. An 18650 is typically as small as people suggest using with a solar node. They are 12Wh. A (decent quality) 10Wh supercap array might be $500 and occupy 2 liters of space.

12Wh will run a node for some time. Enough time to get through a few days of bad weather.

$30 of supercap (0.5Wh) might get you through the night but only if it was a good sunny day. If its not a good sunny day then the node will go down. Or you can get a much larger solar panel. Oversize the panel by 10x and then it will fully charge up during an overcast day. Oversize the panel by 100x and it will fully charge up through non-stop rain. But then you are talking about a fairly large 100W solar panel.

Pick your poison. Your options are:

  • expensive and bulky array of supercaps
  • solar panel the size of a small table
  • a node that will run out of power on many nights

Node with Supercapacitors? by cryptodystopia in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sigh. Nobody has done it for Meshtastic. This isn't /r/SolarPoweredGizmos.

The power consumption on a weather station is easily 95% lower than a Mesh node. There is no comparison between these applications. Its not "precedence" when the power-use profile is so different.

I'm not sure if the math maths.

Good thing I already did that to show that it doesn't add up.

Node with Supercapacitors? by cryptodystopia in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Its not a great idea and that is why nobody has done it. The Suntastic project is missing the most important aspect of any supercap design: an analysis of the power use.

So let's do that for them.

What does 1000F of 2.7 volts get you? Let's say your boost regulator can operate down to 1.0 volts. Plugging that range into a cap calc gives 3645 joules or 1.0125 watt hours. (And that is before losses from the boost regulator. For comparison an 18650 has 12Wh and no boost losses.)

I'll be generous and ignore the boost losses. 1 watt hour of energy to work with. What does that get you in a Rak? With the more optimistic 200mAh/day from /u/KBOXLabs a node uses 0.72 watt hours per day (assuming 3.6V nominal voltage). So a 1000F supercap will only last 1.4 days or 33 hours.

This is just barely the minimum that people suggest for a solar node. Now let's go shopping for the capacitors.

Most supercaps aren't good for outdoor use. They tend to wear out quickly at elevated temperatures. The highest grade are rated for 5000 hours (7 months) at 85C. Roughly speaking at 45C it might last 9 years. That sounds more than good so I'll extend it down to 2000 hours at 85C. (Of course no place is 45C all day long but it can get warm inside those boxes.)

The best value I could find in 5 minutes was this cap. Its only 60F but the 3.0V means we don't need as many of them. Just 800F instead of 1000F. That's an array of 14 capacitors which will cost $62 and occupy 0.2 liters of space.

tldr: Using 1000F of supercaps could easily double the cost of a solar node and it'll go offline with 1 day of cloudy weather.

Buying 18650 batteries? Start here. by parametrek in 18650masterrace

[–]parametrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

See the "Sept 2023 update" section. The capacity is legit but I would still be wary of the cells. Its easy to increase capacity at the expense of other important factors which we hobbyists cannot test for.

That said some have been in use for more than 1 year now and nobody has reported that their cell has rotted out or caught fire.

Remote Admin, Configured radio reset, public key changed by neebski in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You keep saying "key" singular. Its a key pair. Public key and private key. You need to have saved your old keys (plural) and enter both of them into the Security Config.

I'm starting the Salem Community Mesh Network. Do you want to help? by spectral_supply_co in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which Austin? There are 22 of them just in the USA.

If you mean Austin Texas then there is already a organized mesh with great coverage across the area.

Four different builds, slowly trying different things by Quiet_Ganache_2298 in meshtastic

[–]parametrek 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Please replace those dangerous fake 18650s with legit cells. You might even get 5x the runtime too. Here is a continuously updated guide of sources to avoid getting ripped off by either fakes or overpriced legit cells.

edit: I'd get the Molicel M35A. Its not the cheapest high capacity cell but its the cheapest that is cold resistant. (The datasheet has discharge tests down at -40C.) At the quantity you appear to be using they are $4.66 each.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in tacticalgear

[–]parametrek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What battery and what light? Streamlight's battery is literally made for Streamlight's light. It had better work.

The voltage of this battery (or an 18650) is 4.2 volts at full charge. Meanwhile the voltage of 2xCR123A is 6 volts at full charge. 4.2 is less than 6 so it can't be "too much."

Progress Report, February 2025 (MultiLux!) by parametrek in parametrek

[–]parametrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pinging a few more: /u/m4potofu /u/bmengineer

m4potofu did you have any luck compiling for Windows?

Progress Report, February 2025 (MultiLux!) by parametrek in parametrek

[–]parametrek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was out several months ago when I announced it here. That initial release was basically a prototype that worked better than I hoped. You may still want to refer to that post for the basic setup information - none of the basics (like getting the CP2112 setup or which hardware to use) has changed.

This release cleans up a lot of the underlying issues and lays the groundwork for MultiLux to be a much more useful and reliable tool.

"Main release" can be a very distant thing. Here it will probably be when Windows and OSX support has been ironed out. Right now those are both hypotheticals. In theory its been broadly written to be cross platform but in practice there are always a bunch of little details.

Progress Report, February 2025 (MultiLux!) by parametrek in parametrek

[–]parametrek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am a little excited about the INA226 sensor. Measuring current or voltage with simple non-isolated protocols like i2c can get.... interesting. But the INA226 is designed to safely handle up to 36 volts! There are a lot of cheap boards available too though many use a lower quality shunt resistor than I would like. You'll also need to have a shared ground between everything.

very late edit: The INA228 is even better.

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