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What Device Should I Buy?
What Device Should I Buy?
Personal Node Recommendations
Best Daily Carry (EDC)
If you are looking for a reliable, rugged, and water-resistant node with a 5-day battery life, the T1000-E from Seeed Studio is a great choice. You can purchase it directly from Seeed Studio with 5% coupon K7ABUUV9 or on Amazon.
Our Recommendation List:
| Board | Strength | Trade-off | Buy-from |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1000-E | Durability & Long Battery Life | No display, Limited Expandbility | Seeed Studio, Amazon |
| Wio Tracker L1 Pro | Durability, Joystick Keyboard (With Ranger Firmware), Great Battery Life | Larger Then T1000-E Without Water Resistance | Seeed Studio, Amazon |
| T-Deck-Plus | Built-in Keyboard & Large Display | Poor Battery Life, Large Formfactor, High Price | Lilygo, Amazon |
| Heltec Node T1 | Lightweight, USB-C Charging, Water Resistant | No external antenna | Heltec Automation |
Solar Node Recommendations
Pre-made Solar Nodes
If you prefer a "plug-and-play" solution that is weather-ready out of the box, these pre-made solar repeaters can save you significant assembly time.
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Grumpy Jr: A smaller budget-friendly, ready-made repeater with 28 dBm of output power. Perfect for a home or business.
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Grumpy X: A larger, full-size repeater with an MPPT solar controller and a Heltec V4 radio providing 28 dBm of output power. It can be upgraded to a Grumpy Board for full 1 W output power.
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Grumpy Peater: A full-size repeater with a 1 W output power and an MPPT solar controller.
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Heltec Meshtower V2: A ready-made solar node with an integrated solar controller and enclosure. The 30 dBm version is recommended for its higher output power and longer-range connections.
Warning: We have seen some reports of water building up inside Heltec Meshtower V2 units. Keep this potential moisture issue in mind when considering it for some deployment's.
Repeater Nodes to Build
For those DIYing their own repeater or solar enclosures, here are some boards we recommend.
Top Picks:
- Heltec V4:: Our recommended board for repeater deployments using Meshcore
- Heltec T096: A more power efficient alternative, with same output power. (Bluetooth | Limited OTA Range)
- Grumpy Board: A full 1w board, with onboard filtering. (Wifi)
- Rak Wismesh 1w: More powerful version of the Heltec v4 & T096 (Bluetooth | Limited OTA Range)
The Rak 22b WisMesh board's are shown to have horrible QC, inconsistent performance, and have been shown to fail in the field. They've now been removed from our recommendations and we'll stop recommending them in the future unless they improve.
| Board | Strength | Trade-off | Buy-from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heltec V4 | Higher transmit power | Higher power consumption | Heltec Automation, Amazon External Wifi Without Screen, Amazon With Screen |
| Heltec T096 | Lower power consumption | Harder OTA Updates | Heltec Automation, Amazon |
| Grumpy Board | Highest transmit power, Wifi updates, Filtering | Higher power consumption, High Cost | Grumpy Mesh |
| Rak Wismesh 1w | Low power consumption, 30db output power | Harder OTA Updates | Rakwireless |