Meshtastic Heltec T096 – Best Solar Build

I’ve recently gotten back into Meshtastic and built a couple of solar nodes. For my second node I used the Heltec T096 Mesh Node.
In my opinion this is the EASIEST solar node build that is out there. There is no shortage of solar node projects out there on the interwebs. Most of them are based around the Harbor Breeze solar lights ($9.98).
My key considerations for choosing the Heltec T096 is simple. The board includes a Battery Management System (BMS) and the only hookups are to the battery and to the solar panel. In the Heltec T096 packaging there are 2 power cables with the correct sized JST connectors for the board. Solder one across the battery terminals and solder the other to the solar panel. That’s it.
Here is what Heltec says about their BMS – “Integrated lithium battery management system (charge/discharge management, overcharge protection, battery power detection, automatic switching between USB and battery power).”
The board also incorporates Bluetooth, LoRa, and GNSS. It is based on the nRF52840 and the SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The GNSS chipset is a Unicore UC6580.
The best part of this board is that the nRF52840 sips power making it perfect for a battery powered installation. The antenna I used is this one.
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