$30 Harbor Freight Solar Node (Meshtastic or Meshcore)

by SomeGuy2023

The Lowe's Harbor Breeze spotlight is discontinued, so it was time to move on. I found this neat little spotlight, which seems to be a smaller version of the Harbor Breeze at Harbor Freight. Go figure, harbor in both names ;-). The nice thing is that it's well designed with an inner and outer box, so any water that makes it into the box runs out and the inner box stays dry (at least so far). It has a nice flip switch and simple removal of two resistors allows you to use the existing charge controller. You can use the RAK 190001 board or you can use the cheaper SEEED NRF52 version. BOM for a inexpensive node: * HF solar spot light $9 (https://www.harborfreight.com/40-lumen-8-in-solar-led-black-finish-spotlight-57704.html) * Seeed kit $14 (https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-nRF52840-Wio-SX1262-Kit-for-Meshtastic-p-6400.html) * an antenna kit $12 (for 2) https://a.co/d/bwsZ4mZ. * charging unit $8 (for 10) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DNK398S So $30 for a solar node is pretty good I think. And you have another antenna for the next build. Also, I don't recommend trying to repurpose the charging circuit like I documented below. It's a very basic design that lacks some standard protections. E.g. when it's running off battery during the day the voltage on the node is whatever the solar panel provides which is often greater than 5V. For less than $1 you can buy a much more advanced circuit from Amazon. that ensures that the battery is better protected. -----------------THIS IS NOT A GOOD SOLUTION ---------------------------- Delete the "night mode" mod for the charge controller, so your node works also during the day: * Remove R3 from the board. Mine came off very easily with some extra heat and extra solder. The resistor stuck to my tip and just wiped it off. What this does, is prevent electricity running from the solar panel to the IC, hence it thinks it's dark outside so it leaves the power on and the node up and running. * UPDATE: There is also a 8.5hrs timer, which shuts