Measure the node's energy use before choosing a solar panel and battery. One current reading is not enough. Meshtastic nodes spend much of their time listening and draw more power when they transmit.
As the Meshtastic project continues to grow, so does the number of supported hardware devices. While this growth is exciting and shows just how far the project has come, it also brings new challenges.
Supporting a wide range of hardware requires a significant amount of resources. This includes developer time for maintenance and bug fixes, GitHub runners to build firmware, server space to store hundreds of binaries, and space in the flasher and documentation. All of these factors contribute to increased complexity, making it harder for users to find the hardware they are looking for.
As the network crypto mining landscape has evolved, thousands of LoRa-based mining devices sit unused in closets and drawers around the world. These once-coveted pieces of hardware—designed for LoRa-based cryptocurrency mining networks—represent both wasted resources and untapped potential. What if there was a way to repurpose this hardware for something genuinely useful?
These abandoned mining devices can be easily repurposed and transformed into powerful Meshtastic nodes, giving them a new life.