Meshtastic

701 readers

4 users here now

A community to discuss Meshtastic (https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction)

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Recommendations for Vehicle Nodes? (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been brainstorming ways to get a permanent node on my truck for various reasons. Here's what I have so far:

Hard-wired for power. The vehicle battery is pretty large, and I have a solar-maintainer installed with enough power left over to run a node.
GPS module for tracking
External antenna (915 MHz). I already have cargo racks on the truck bed so plenty of space to attach a mount.

Unfortunately I haven't found much in the way of hardware guides. Initially I figured a 33 cm ham antenna would be perfect but haven't seen much available. For the node itself I was looking at either a heltec tracker or a Wisblock with location module. Anyone suggestions?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

For antennas ISM antennas are easy to find. RAK sells some that are well worth the money. For the node itself I don't think it makes a huge difference. The ESP32 based nodes have a higher power requirements if that matters to you (you'll have to make the calculations as you know how much power you have to spare). They are overall a bit easier to work with, IMHO, than NRF based nodes. The RAK modules seem better made than the Heltecs.