Heath, VK3TWO, spoke about Meshcore at the latest Macedon Ranges Amateur Radio club meeting and mentioned a low cost way to get extra batteries to charge solar powered devices. These Click brand USB-C phone powerbanks are $6.98 at Bunnings.
They are a bit hard to get in to. The top has strong clips and, I assume, glue. I used a Dremmel cutting wheel to reveal the contents. It's pretty much all battery. I've seen similar 21700 batteries for $37 on their own.
It looks like a proper charging circuit with a temperature sensor. One thing to watch for is that these were in a big bin near the service desk and one of the four I purchased turned out to have lightning output rather than USB-C - that's the one I cracked open.
The other great tip Heath had was for building solar powered Meshcore repeaters, by buying a decent solar powered garden light and replacing the light with your radio gear. The good ones have one or two 18650 batteries inside them. They are also designed to be left outside.
2 comments:
Think yourself lucky you only ended up with one lightning version. I have tried 4 local Bunnings, all they have is the lightning versions. I spoke to a team member at the last store. She said that they had received two versions several months ago. 200 USBC and 200 lightning units. They have sold all the USBC versions and still have 200 lighting units.
Depending on the arrangement with the distributor that may mean the remaining lightning units may be liquidated at low prices once their central computer realises they are not selling anymore.
73 Mark VK6WV.
It was labelled as USB-C. I didn't think to pop the little cover and check. Anyhow, pulled it apart in the end.
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