https://startrek.website/post/30351229

Basically ssh into the box in my workshop and mplayer my whole music folder on shuffle.

I thought that was the Mid-Atlantic Accent?

Yeah, both of mine get all excited and start hopping up and down if I go anywhere near the coat rack where I hang their collars up when we come in lol.

HeltecV3 is probably the lowest-cost point of entry. It doesn’t have GPS or battery (though it has a battery connector and charger built in if you want to add a battery later). Some come with a case, some don’t, but there are lots of cases for them if you have a 3D printer.

The LoRa antenna isn’t integrated though (uses a U.FL connector) but it comes with a little mini-whip. I’m not sure I can recall any Meshtastic-compatible boards that have a fully-integrated antenna.

Running it directly from a solar panel is possible, but the ESP32-based boards aren’t the most power-efficient. I have one of mine running from solar but it’s got a 2000 mAh battery to smooth it out.

The nRF-based boards are more power efficient but they’re a little more expensive and may lack Wifi.

Edit/Addition: Also, be careful powering at least the Heltecs from solar – make sure you use a solar panel with a voltage regulator. I used a small, unregulated 1W panel on two of them and it burnt out the USB->UART controller on them (they didn’t like its 6V). They both still work but can’t use the USB port for serial connection anymore (have to use an external serial adapter to the pin headers). One of those is now a base station connected over Wifi, and the other is acting as a repeater.

Best thing I did was train my dogs to sit before I’ll open the door. Youngest one (a Russell terrier mix) used to bolt out (thankfully the yard is fenced).

Probably also helps that we have a “going outside” routine too. They don’t wear their collars inside so before we go out, they have to sit while I put their collars on them.

A Stitch in Time was my gateway drug into more TrekLit. Be warned!

But seriously, hope you enjoy it.

My air fryer never leaves the counter, but it’s also a toaster oven and grill. I can easily cook for the two of us with that and haven’t baked anything in the big oven in months.

The grill plate works great but it’s a PITA to clean up after grilling something that splatters a lot, so I don’t use that much.

Haven’t had those in forever but you could probably pop them in the air fryer or even the toaster oven for half that time.

The last time I recall eating a Hot Pocket was in like 2014 during a week-long power outage. Was using a propane heater to not freeze to death and put the hot pockets over top of that on a wire rack. They came out surprisingly good 😆

Didn’t know that, but I rarely buy name brand these days.

Nice. Hope you’re enjoying it. So jealous. I wish I could watch DS9 (more or less) for the first time again.

The actual seasoning crumbs are still sealed in a bag (for now? lol). It just doesn’t come with the “shake” bags you pour that into in order to coat the food.

Honestly not sure. I’d have to splurge on the name brand to compare.

But what if a baby is immune? :D I’ll let this overspeculation sit for a while…

Bait taken.

Assuming the hive doesn’t intentionally procreate: All the hive women Koumba is getting with…is the hive making sure they’re all on birth control? A potential plot point is one or more of them becoming pregnant and having an immune baby (inherited from Koumba).

First watch?

Started a re-watch of SNW so finally able to relate to people who aren’t as invested in TrekLit as I am 😆

Also finished the second book of the “Cold Equations” trilogy and started on the third the other day.

Oh wow. That just makes it even better.

C.W. McCall - Convoy (the song the movie was based on).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJKQUm13Bqo

i should clarify a generic radio repeater that inst meshtastic but is able to repeat LORA signal

Well, the numbers I gave would be the same since those Meshtastic “modes” are just profiles for different LoRa settings, and the same LoRa Settings + frequency slot still applies (Meshtastic just runs on top of that).

I think what you’re looking for is a dumb signal repeater, but I’m not super knowledgeable of the pros/cons/legality of those for the entire 915 MHz band. You’d be repeating anything in that frequency range, not just LoRa. And those also repeat noise the same as signal. Basically, it could end up making things worse in the long run by introducing noise.

Probably best to just coordinate with or start a community mesh group and settle on a specific frequency and LoRa settings.

AFAIK, the only way to truly turn them off is to remove the battery or cut the positive lead and splice in a switch. Only drawback is the switch has to be on for it to be able to charge, so that’s a bit awkward. The “soft off” when you hold the power button is just deep sleep.

Mine frequently wake up from deep sleep but not after 5 minutes. More like 3-4 days. Which makes keeping a few always charged difficult.

Edit: I just checked the Power settings in the app (they’ve changed it a bit since I set mine up). The longest it can deep sleep is 72 hours it seems. Maybe yours is set to 5 minutes?

I don’t think what you’re trying to do is very practical.

For US 915, there are between 52 (SHORT_TURBO) and 208 (LONG_SLOW) frequency slots. Each node has to use the same LoRA parameters (called mode presets in Meshtastic) as well as the same frequency slot in order to communicate (or relay).

LoRa signals are low bandwidth (125, 250, or 500 kHz) so there are a lot of frequency slots. In addition to having one radio for each frequency slot, you would also have to have one for each LoRA parameter preset in that frequency slot. Nodes can only operate in one mode and frequency at a time.

So to cover all cases, you’d need:

• 52 nodes operating in SHORT_TURBO mode
• 104 nodes operating in SHORT_FAST
• 104 nodes operating in SHORT_SLOW
• 104 nodes in MEDIUM_FAST
• 104 in MEDIUM_SLOW
• 104 in LONG_FAST mode
• 208 in LONG_MODERATE mode
• Plus another 208 in LONG_SLOW mode

Source for those counts

That’s a total of 988 nodes to cover all, and that’s not even getting into the fact that they’d be talking over each other.

Basically, if you want to be a generic repeater (note the docs clearly state to not run repeater mode willy-nilly), it’s best to stick with LONG_FAST, set your custom channels as primary (if you even want to have custom channels, that is), and create a LongFast secondary channel with the default dummy encryption key. Then manually set your radio frequency to the one used by the default LONG_FAST setting (908.875 MHz).

That’s basically what I do and lets me have my own private channels while also relaying for and being able to make contact with anyone else using the default config.

Edit: Coordination of local frequencies, etc is usually done by forming a Meshtastic community group. Then you could just join (or start) that group and use a standardized frequency and LoRa parameters.