Davy Wybiral Shows How to Power a LoRa Repeater — or Any Other Project — with Quick-and-Easy Solar
While used to drive a LoRa repeater, Wybiral demonstrates how a handful of components can be used to make a simple off-grid project.
Maker Davy Wybiral has published a video demonstrating how to set up a LoRa signal repeater powered by the sun, which doubles as a handy guide for setting up other off-the-grid, solar-powered projects in the field.
"Summer's here, and living in Texas I can't help but notice that there's an abundance of sunlight this time of year," Wybiral explains in the video. "It seems like a shame to let all of that free power go to waste, so in this video I'll be building a solar-powered LoRa signal repeater."
"If you don't know what LoRa is already, it's a radio protocol that allows you to send data over a really good distance from some pretty low power devices. This alone makes it a good candidate for solar applications, but even if you're not interested in LoRa repeaters you can still use the solar components in this video for anything really — whether you're doing garden automation or capturing time lapse videos with an ESP32-Cam the hardware shown here can be applied to any of those projects."
Wybiral's build uses a Maduino Arduino-compatible LoRa board configured as a repeater, powered by a 12,800mAh battery — "when in doubt," Wybiral says, "you should overestimate your energy budget" — and two solar panels, one 1W and one 10W, from Voltaic Systems. "You'll need a battery that can at least handle enough milliamp hours between available daylight, and you need a panel capable of collecting enough power during daylight hours so that you can keep the entire system online."
In the video, Wybiral walks through the advantages and disadvantages of different battery types — explaining that the battery chosen for his build, supplied by the same company as the solar panels, is designed specifically for solar use "so not only does it support pass-through charging it also specifies that it has an always-on mode, meaning it doesn't have a minimum current shut-off."
The full video, with links to the parts used, is available on Wybiral's YouTube channel.