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The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:52:26 GMT

[View:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_7Wklo6B_so:360:640]

What parts would make up a kit to design for energy recovery, efficiency, but to produce something useful?

If you haven't seen, there is an increasing interest in being "off grid" in the way that's not necessarily in the 'prepper' definition, but mainly the 'not being tracked' definition, and it's beginning to pop off in various ways.

One is the Meshtastic network, and I'm here for it. Not only am I here for it, I'm very interested in what can piggy-back off it to be useful for perhaps more than messaging.

We've already seen the LoraWAN network for local and distant communications, but I feel we haven't quite fully embraced it here on the element14 Community.

And with the advent of hotter, brighter days, solar may be more opportunistic to take advantage of with portable 'nodes' that we can perhaps all run ourselves and maybe, maintain and leave around geocache style, if not carry about ourselves.

I think this would work well as a design challenge, what do you think?

Meanwhile... I'm trying to resist buying meshtastic nodes.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:06:10 GMT

[quote userid="2238" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237595"]I could power one from my solar hat[/quote]

He wasn't joking folks...

https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/b/make-a-connection/posts/meshtastic-solar-hat-node

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

Tanakakari — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 02:21:50 GMT

The I2C temperature and humidity sensor fits Meshtastic telemetry very naturally, and I like that the data can be viewed directly on the node as well. Adding edge AI telemetry makes this even more interesting... Looking forward to seeing where you take it!

RE: Seeking Feedback for Kit on Upcoming LED Design Challenge

beacon_dave — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:52:26 GMT

Probably something like this:

https://www.xvxchannel.com/en-gb/collections/keycaps/products/spider-web-imd-keycap

Seeking Feedback for Kit on Upcoming LED Design Challenge

rscasny — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 18:57:33 GMT

Hi All.

As the new year moves on, so does element14's scheduling of new Design Challenges. That's what I want to talk to you about today. Specifically, an LED-focuses challenge.

We haven't done much with lighting/LEDs (although Tariq may have when he managed Project14), but I have a sponsor who is interested in such a challenge. So, I'm exploring here how to make it work, both in terms of your interest in this activity, a propose challenge kit, as well as any theme it would cover.

In this discussion, I wanted to do a few things. For starters, to share with you the parts the challenge's sponsor would like to see in the design. Now, that does not limit us from adding parts to the kit. The next thing I want to do was flesh out the challenge's objective. Let me start with the parts. There's just a few of them:

1315050930002 LED, AlInGaP, InGaN, Red, Green, Blue, SMD, 120 °, Round, R 13mA, G 13mA, B 13mA

[embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:66d8384e-c598-4242-9c7e-bd2fef201a44:text=More%20Info&style=link&farnell=4420411RL&newark=03AM8417&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]

1313210530000 LED, AlInGaP, InGaN, Red, Green, Blue, SMD, 120 °, Dome, R 5.5mA, G 5.5mA, B 5.5mA

[embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:02ccc252-21bd-4cba-aa46-e2a3ab33655c:text=More%20Info&style=link&farnell=4420407RL&newark=03AM8416&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]

1312020030000 LED, AlInGaP, InGaN, Red, Green, Blue, SMD, 120 °, Square, R 5.5mA, G 5.5mA, B 5.5mA

[embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:7052a5f2-0d20-4ce7-87bf-ba28510c624e:text=More%20Info&style=link&farnell=4420406RL&newark=03AM8414&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]

1312121320437 LED, AlInGaP, InGaN, Red, Green, Blue, SMD, 110 °, Square, R 20mA, G 20mA, B 20mA

[embed:ad4490ac-0ce8-4f2d-a04c-9285646d5689:0ea863ed-66ea-48b8-9276-0157498d7ef3:text=More%20Info&style=link&farnell=4420409RL&newark=03AM8415&cpc=&avnetemea=&avnetema=&avnetasia=&comoverride=&cmpoverride=&AreaInteracted=rte-content&bom=]

Click on this link to see the manufacturer's documentation for these products.

Here's a dual wire diagram for the product:

So, the above is kind of bare bones. I expect that there will be much more in the kit depending what the challengers would like to do. Now, what element14 would also include in the challenger's kit would depend on what you would want to do. A few random thoughts about it are:

Creative Lighting
LED Indication
LED Alerting
LED Alarming

The sponsor calls out what they see as the leading applications of their LEDS. They are:

Appliances
Industrial Control
Smart Lighting
Gaming
Decorative Lighting

Now is a good time for a poll:

[embed:33ecb077-39b7-4078-9b1e-dc3f977a690b:43291943-246d-4bc4-a202-60a77fc05968:question=What%20LED%20application%20most%20interests%20you%20for%20this%20challenge%3F&description=&pollOptions=%5B%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%22d1a1f6dd-1637-4d69-84e4-0c1a8fbeb2bc%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Appliances%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%22dd80b626-1526-404f-9259-43068cd5612a%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Industrial%20Control%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A1%7D%2C%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%224d9a1ecb-9753-4713-bc2e-a430236d94b0%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Smart%20Lighting%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A2%7D%2C%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%226202931e-20e5-4a51-83b6-cf0421383162%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Gaming%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A3%7D%2C%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%22e38db68e-5875-4585-84ed-27274b8d914c%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Decorative%20Lighting%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A4%7D%2C%7B%22OptionId%22%3A%22fcfa7bee-074c-4de0-ad2e-e5ec7259516a%22%2C%22Option%22%3A%22Other%3B%20please%20leave%20a%20comment%22%2C%22Ordinal%22%3A5%7D%5D&ShowResultsConfiguration=1%2C1]

So, I've offered a lot of information to chew about.

Just for myself, I think it would be fun to do something along the lines of Creative or Decorative Lighting. I would need to include prototyping gear, as well as a kit of support components. Enclosures I would probably not provide since many of you have 3D printers and have that capability; I also would probably not offer any test equipment as part of the kit, but you can always wish for it! I'd probably like to see some PCBs designed and built, with whatever solution you have available.

Now, if you were more interested in something more practical, the designs would require a larger and probably more extensive kit. I'm thinking industrial control panels etc.

Thanks you for participating in the element14 Communities activities.

What Do you think? If you have the time, please vote in my poll and/or leave a comment.

RE: Seeking Feedback for Kit on Upcoming LED Design Challenge

Emmanueldio — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:11:44 GMT

Hello dear, this like is broken said 404 https://www.xvxchannel.com/collections/keycaps/products/xvx-spider-web-version-pattern-oem-profile-imd-tech-keycap-set

I really want to check this out.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:40:14 GMT

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk"]What parts would make up a kit to design for energy recovery, efficiency, but to produce something useful?[/quote]

For someone wanting to explore LoRa functionality out in the field, then perhaps something like this:

https://lilygo.cc/products/t-display-p4

would be a starting point ? A near ready-to-use pocketable format but with some GPIO exposed to extend the functionality.

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk"]Meanwhile... I'm trying to resist buying meshtastic nodes.[/quote]

There appear to be variants specifically for the likes of Meshtastic or MeshCore:

https://lilygo.cc/collections/lilygo-with-meshtastic

https://lilygo.cc/collections/lilygo-with-meshcore

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 17:26:21 GMT

[quote userid="41967" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237621"]If you are an individual, then you are likely going to have to configure your equipment to match whatever mesh network technology is actively being used in the area you are in. [/quote]

There're discussions about this and how it's setup on the meshtastic subreddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1e9khyg/primary_channel_frequency_selection/

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1howp8k/frequency_slot_changes/

[quote userid="41967" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237621"] it could probably test a LoRa based mesh network[/quote]

Looks like there are some enterprise solutions for coverage which I didn't expect:

https://netmoregroup.com/news/netmore-lorawan-expands-to-norway-through-collaboration-with-eidsiva/

https://tektelic.com/projects/smart-city-lorawan-network/

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 17:19:38 GMT

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237606"]where if I'm an individual[/quote]

If you are an individual, then you are likely going to have to configure your equipment to match whatever mesh network technology is actively being used in the area you are in. You are also relying on other individuals in the immediate vicinity to be using the same mesh network technology in order to relay the messages ( assuming that there aren't sufficient repeaters already fully covering the area ).

If you are part of a large group, then your group can choose which is the most appropriate mesh network technology to use. Downside is that if there are beacons and repeaters available, then you won't be able to benefit from them.

So one challenge here could be standards and we all know that "the wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from".

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237606"]where if I'm an individual hiking in Norway, which in Norway you can pretty much go anywhere because 'everyone owns the land'[/quote]

I've always been interested in skiing the 'Peer Gynt Trail' between Espedalen and Skeikampen in Norway. At around 90km in distance, it could probably test a LoRa based mesh network. Especially if you have several individuals in your group travelling at different speeds and joining the trail at different points.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

veluv01 — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:20:04 GMT

Indeed, Meshtastic does have a lot of potential that extends beyond just messaging. Recently, I'm experimenting on setting up Meshtastic sensor nodes for environment telemetry using an I2C temp and humidity sensor.

The best part is how easy it is to configure everything through the Meshtastic app via GUI.

While I'm still experimenting about the private channels on the meshtastic, I would like to try to send edge AI telemetry data through the mesh network.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

JWx — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:19:45 GMT

it depends on the effective range - especially in the forest and/or hills/mountains/line-of-sign obstacles; but maybe solar-powered repeaters in high places would do the trick (another question how effective would be solar power in the given geographical location)

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:00:34 GMT

[quote userid="41967" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237604"]

I guess that in a lot of circumstances that isn't really an issue and is perhaps even greatly outweighed by the amount of information that can be quickly exchanged via speech.

However if you have the likes of 200 volunteers out on a hillside helping to tackle a wildfire, then with LoRa you perhaps have the ability to autonomously transmit GPS coordinates along with other sensor information, at regular intervals back to a mobile base camp to be able to log last known location.

[/quote]

There's also the 'beacon notification' opportunity here, where if I'm an individual hiking in Norway, which in Norway you can pretty much go anywhere because 'everyone owns the land', if I don't have phone signal, perhaps a mesh network of this could notify me in case of landslide or fire, or simply "hey I have spare hot dogs to share if anyone's around".

[quote userid="41967" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237604"]Any insights into how it is actively being used in these situations ?[/quote]

It's growing in popularity, emfcamp had a collection off people carrying this kit around and you can see casual conversations on reddit and online as to people carrying it around for hiking. I don't have a direct report or metrics to share.

Another term for this is 'meshnology' as people pick it up.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:44:35 GMT

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237602"]Doesn't that require knowing what channels are in use? and that it's not encrypted?[/quote]

I guess that in a lot of circumstances that isn't really an issue and is perhaps even greatly outweighed by the amount of information that can be quickly exchanged via speech.

[quote userid="18385" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237602"]For meshtastic, it ranges from camping festivals to hiking.[/quote]

Any insights into how it is actively being used in these situations ?

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:45:07 GMT

[quote userid="41967" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237600"]I guess in a lot of circumstances, it wouldn't be as practical as using something like a PMR446 radio system[/quote]

Doesn't that require knowing what channels are in use? and that it's not encrypted?

[quote userid="2238" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237595"]I wonder if people really use these in the wild for messaging?[/quote]

For meshtastic, it ranges from camping festivals to hiking.

A benefit of it is that you can be purely a 'receiver' of messages, like the paging system, rather than a self identified node or two way node. There's an element of passive anonyminity that makes it appealing.

[quote userid="460391" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237601"] does they have - for example - better effective range than popular analog radio in typical wilderness setting[/quote]

It would appear so, that and people are hacking on these 'nodes' to provide sensor data. A combination of providing 'status' information in a purposeful update compared to a beacon, etc.

[quote userid="16637" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237591"]Unfortunately, it needs a Lora Gateway[/quote]

You should look into meshtastic a bit more 🙂

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

JWx — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:15:20 GMT

and what would be the advantage over handheld radios... does they have - for example - better effective range than popular analog radio in typical wilderness setting? I can understand military advantages - short bursts of data could limit the possibility of locating the transmitter, but for civilian use? Maybe there could be some cultural factor involved - if young people are really not used to phone calls and prefer messaging, text terminal could be considered more friendly than a voice radio...

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 01:21:05 GMT

[quote userid="2238" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237595"]I wonder if people really use these in the wild for messaging[/quote]

I guess in a lot of circumstances, it wouldn't be as practical as using something like a PMR446 radio system.

However if you mainly want to transmit small amounts of data, then it could be advantageous, especially if you want to log it. I've seen an emergency text pager system based on LoRa.

[quote userid="2238" url="~/challenges-projects/design-challenges/f/forum/57138/the-world-s-on-fire---embrace-solar-punk/237595"]I could power one from my solar hat[/quote]

If you add a GPS receiver/compass and a LED ring to your hat, you could perhaps use it to indicate the location of another hat (or beacon) relative to yours.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

scottiebabe — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 22:53:17 GMT

Awesome. ☀

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

ralphjy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:55:27 GMT

I wonder if people really use these in the wild for messaging? I could power one from my solar hat 😆.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:53:28 GMT

Potential to distribute a number of solar powered sensor nodes over a fairly large area and have the data relayed between them back to a receiving node which just has to be in range of any one of them.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

beacon_dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:47:40 GMT

Prices appeared to be coming down a few years back

https://community.element14.com/technologies/internet-of-things/b/blog/posts/low-cost-lorawan-gateways

but they may have crept back up again.

I was thinking that converting your Just Encase weather station project

https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/just-encase/b/blog/posts/just-encase-solar-super-capacitor-experiment-1079614936

from Bluetooth to LoRa might be interesting.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

ralphjy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 19:57:14 GMT

One thing that is attractive about mesh networks is that they can work peer-to-peer without requiring an internet connection, so you don’t need a gateway although you could use one.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

dougw — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:21:10 GMT

I think this is a great topic for a design challenge. Unfortunately, it needs a Lora Gateway. The cost of a gateway is the main thing holding me back from exploring this area. Turning a gateway into a solar powered gateway would be a project that has the gravitational pull to attract a wide range of activity.

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

cstanton — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:05:41 GMT

What's a little dyson sphere between deities and mortals?

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

JWx — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:22:59 GMT

I am planning for some time to build solar powered energy source on my balcony (to not to have to drill holes/install sockets in a styrofoam/...) but it seems that to have steady power supply for the whole year, panel should be bigger than expected (to charge a battery for a day even during winter)... Maybe limiting it's use to plant watering system (working only during warmer month) could make it easier to scale properly

of course - whole year power supply could power a radio receiver and solve the problem of drilling holes for antenna cables through the window frames...

RE: The world's on fire - embrace solar punk

DAB — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:42:53 GMT

The video is a little dark and sinister, but I like the out of the box thinking.

Now if it was really possible to steal the sun.