I’ve seen this happen twice now. A third unit which I had anticipated had the same fate was not this problem. Instead the third unit seemed fully operational when I brought it down. Full battery and responding to Bluetooth etc. Settings were fine on it but it was not meshing with the world and stopped reporting location. Still digging for answers on both of these issues.
@@ke6vdw I have 5 esp32 based devices and have not had a single one do that, is this exclusive to RAK gear? Also, I have been following Andy Kirby in the UK, and he has stated that basically with the number of nodes up and running that it is basically unusable entirely. How many nodes on your mesh, and how are messages working for you guys down there? I know UK is 433mhz unlike our 915mhz, but I doubt that the frequency is the issue for them. Cheers, 73
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPETKirby is stuck with a duty cycle limitation by the laws in his country. We do not have that limitation. I think this gives us an edge. Not to mention while Kirby is apologetic about his misinformation he does like to sensationalize his videos and tends to send out misleading and unproven information. This leads to people in other countries for example ti switch modes and follow his advice. Now because if this, there are a lot of new users misconfiguring their rigs causing a bit of a mesh pandemic.
@@ke6vdw This is interesting indeed. I did see something about duty cycle, that would limit the system dramatically for sure. I did see his videos on switching ti shrter range protocols which if nothing else was revealing in protocol/configuration differences. He said that it didn't really change much other than dropping a few distant nodes that you probably couldn't communicate with anyway. I do have many nodes that do not return traceroutes or messages, and thats what lead me down this path. Something I am unclear about is the Repeater vs Router config. If you could drop some knowledge in a video that would be fantastic. Enjoyed your videos otherwise. 73 de VE7TFD
Yes but here I refer to mixing up the LoRa antenna with the Bluetooth antenna, not wifi. The Lora antenna is centerbanded at 915mhz so that’s not compatible with the BLE antenna. Even if under some circumstance that it was resonant for LoRA, the little internal BLE antenna would struggle very hard to connect to any mesh nodes as its inside the case and very low gain.
@@ke6vdw Yes I was correcting your spoken word. You said the wrong frequency for Bluetooth, and I just stated that BT uses 2.4ghz like wifi which is why the same antenna can be used for both. I understand the context you were using it in as I watched your entire video. If I could offer any advice to you for your future awesome adventures it would be this, don't do mountain top repairs. Take up a fully completed and battle tested unit and do a mountain top swap. Then you bring the broken one down and refurbish it. This is how professional Radio shops do it, at least when I used to work mountain top service for a radio shop back in the day. I love what you're doing btw, I kind of want to look into this trail system you are referring to now; whats it called?
I want to add that I am a Meshtastic/LoRa user and understand that BT/Wifi use 2.4ghz, and LoRa in NA uses 915mhz. Those are separate antennas and completely incompatible with each other. I think that it is great that they label them, and I am certain that even tho they are labeled people have connected them backwards. 73
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPETso full transparency: I wanted to do the repair on the mountain specifically for the video. Going up with an already repaired rig is not as interesting. Also I run a crew of many many people and we do mountain tops day in and day out. I agree with you on all points however in this case I simply wanted to do it like that. It just felt more rewarding and adventurous to me.
Mine did that as well. Just reset to factory defaults one day all by itself. Luckily I had a saved copy of the settings and it's been OK since
I’ve seen this happen twice now. A third unit which I had anticipated had the same fate was not this problem. Instead the third unit seemed fully operational when I brought it down. Full battery and responding to Bluetooth etc. Settings were fine on it but it was not meshing with the world and stopped reporting location. Still digging for answers on both of these issues.
@@ke6vdw I have 5 esp32 based devices and have not had a single one do that, is this exclusive to RAK gear?
Also, I have been following Andy Kirby in the UK, and he has stated that basically with the number of nodes up and running that it is basically unusable entirely. How many nodes on your mesh, and how are messages working for you guys down there?
I know UK is 433mhz unlike our 915mhz, but I doubt that the frequency is the issue for them.
Cheers, 73
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPETKirby is stuck with a duty cycle limitation by the laws in his country. We do not have that limitation. I think this gives us an edge. Not to mention while Kirby is apologetic about his misinformation he does like to sensationalize his videos and tends to send out misleading and unproven information. This leads to people in other countries for example ti switch modes and follow his advice. Now because if this, there are a lot of new users misconfiguring their rigs causing a bit of a mesh pandemic.
@@ke6vdw This is interesting indeed. I did see something about duty cycle, that would limit the system dramatically for sure. I did see his videos on switching ti shrter range protocols which if nothing else was revealing in protocol/configuration differences. He said that it didn't really change much other than dropping a few distant nodes that you probably couldn't communicate with anyway.
I do have many nodes that do not return traceroutes or messages, and thats what lead me down this path.
Something I am unclear about is the Repeater vs Router config. If you could drop some knowledge in a video that would be fantastic.
Enjoyed your videos otherwise.
73 de VE7TFD
Bluetooth is 2.4ghz just like wifi. thats why they can use the same antenna
Yes but here I refer to mixing up the LoRa antenna with the Bluetooth antenna, not wifi. The Lora antenna is centerbanded at 915mhz so that’s not compatible with the BLE antenna. Even if under some circumstance that it was resonant for LoRA, the little internal BLE antenna would struggle very hard to connect to any mesh nodes as its inside the case and very low gain.
@@ke6vdw Yes I was correcting your spoken word. You said the wrong frequency for Bluetooth, and I just stated that BT uses 2.4ghz like wifi which is why the same antenna can be used for both.
I understand the context you were using it in as I watched your entire video.
If I could offer any advice to you for your future awesome adventures it would be this, don't do mountain top repairs. Take up a fully completed and battle tested unit and do a mountain top swap. Then you bring the broken one down and refurbish it.
This is how professional Radio shops do it, at least when I used to work mountain top service for a radio shop back in the day.
I love what you're doing btw, I kind of want to look into this trail system you are referring to now; whats it called?
I want to add that I am a Meshtastic/LoRa user and understand that BT/Wifi use 2.4ghz, and LoRa in NA uses 915mhz.
Those are separate antennas and completely incompatible with each other.
I think that it is great that they label them, and I am certain that even tho they are labeled people have connected them backwards.
73
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPETso full transparency: I wanted to do the repair on the mountain specifically for the video. Going up with an already repaired rig is not as interesting. Also I run a crew of many many people and we do mountain tops day in and day out. I agree with you on all points however in this case I simply wanted to do it like that. It just felt more rewarding and adventurous to me.
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPETit is excellent that they label them. I have helped out a couple people who did it backwards even so.