The RAK Wireless Solar Wisblock Enclosure

Our mesh network is ever expanding and we just added a cool new solar node from RAK wireless.
Wisblock Starter Kit: store.rokland.com/products/ra...
Wisblock 2000 mAH battery: store.rokland.com/products/pk...
RAK Wireless Unify Enclosure IP65: store.rokland.com/collections...
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[@RavenwoodAcres]

RAK Wireless Unify Enclosure IP65: store.rokland.com/collections/rakwireless-products/products/rak-wireless-unify-enclosure-ip65-solar-panel-integrated-915-mhz-bluetooth-antenna?ref=Ravenwoodemcomms

[@edwardfletcher7790]

The difference is crazy !
On a single 18650 battery the LilyGo lasts about a day and the WisBlock lasts a week !!!

[@TonyLing]

I totally agree, these enclosures are very well designed, built and documented.

[@Francis0316]

I've ordered a bme680 to monitor weather telemetry!!

[@MYPSYAI]

Im going to try to make a t-beam clone on Rak wisblock architecture because they offer quite a few other chips that could give the device extra functionality, like cameras, motion detectors, rfid readers, and infrared sensors, etc...

[@souk-tv]

Any links to the clones that are as good?

[@johntack1049]

I wonder how much effect on SWR any magnets would have if mounted to the bottom of the Unify enclosure.

[@RavenwoodAcres]

Good question, I should connect it to my Nano VNA and do some testing.

[@TonyLing]

None. A stationary magnetic field will not affect this.

[@m1geo]

​@@TonyLing True, but the metal in the near field will.

[@innercityprepper]

Question for you - if I wanted to back a bunch of batteries into my wisblock repeater system, I want to use rechargeable 18650's, do I need them to be in series or in parallel?

[@RavenwoodAcres]

You would want wire them parallel the output would remain the same. My other solar node has three 18650s wired in parallel and it has running now for 21 days with no solar input. Oh and the batteries are measuring about 55% of their capacity.

[@innercityprepper]

@@RavenwoodAcresperfect, thank you!

[@sq9uu]

@@RavenwoodAcres Turn on the router and turn on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

[@matthewchandler2019]

@@innercityprepperyou NEED a battery BMS if you use multiple cells, or you need Protected cells!!! Very important. Google “18650 protected”

[@RobCanada]

@innercityprepper @RavenwoodAcres I built a solar node with a large solar panel and 4 x 18650. The node was just sat on the ground whilst testing and fell over and the battery went flat. However the node didn't recover charge wise until I removed 3 of the batteries. I'm not 100% sure but I think the RAK units struggles to get the voltage up over 4 batteries.
I've been running a solar light node with a RAK board and 18650 and it's run fine for a month and hasn't dropped below 80%. Does the RAK solar enclosure supply enough power to run a node?

[@sebjulien3]

Can a tiny solar panel like that recharge a 2000mAh battery?

[@RavenwoodAcres]

In my experience, only in perfect conditions. For example, sunny days with 4 to 5 hours of exposure.