Meshtastic Solar Flagpole Repeater

The screw is used to fix the light fixture to the top of the flagpole. A ornament like ball or eagle will not work with the external alpha 915 antenna. If you want to put an internal antenna inside the light fixture, then you can keep the ornamental ball and don't need this

Here is what you need:

Telescoping flag pole (unless you are Heman or have REALLY long arms) you are going to want something that is easy to put up and take down (amazon)
Solar Power LED Flagpole Light (amazon) I found one with a 3.5W panel and a 2600mah lipo that was going to work well with the Meshtastic Node
Meshtastic Node — I opted for a RAK starter kit from Amazon
Alpha Networks 915 N Connector antenna (Ive had great experience with Alpha Network stuff)
Nylon m12 breather vent if you live in a hot sunny humid place like it do. (amazon)
3000 mah Lipo. Get one that is FLAT. You don't have much space to work with in between the Solar Panels and the LED PCB.
1.25 JST lead to feed from solar panel to RAK (SOLAR IN)
I used some 3m velcro to secure the battery to the lid. I wanted to minimize the amount of things bouncing around in there.

I used the PCB antenna for BT and taped it iniside the light (im not worrid about long range BT) and I got a N connector for the Alpha networks and ran the pig tail away from other things as much as possible.

I solder a 5mm DC barrel connector to make taking off the lid easier. I didnt want to drop or snag something and rip pads off the PCB that comes with the light.

if you decide to go with a large external antenna, you'll want to print the flagpole screw.

Youll need to solder the 1.25 jst leads to the solar IN pads on the flagpole light PCB. (see photos). the power from the panel is going to feed the orginial flagpole light charging circuit and also feed the RAK which has its own solar charging controller.

the flag lights and the RAK are going to be in parallel. this means the voltage from the panel will be the same between the two loads BUT current (ma) is going to be split. Its not ideal, and a bigger panel would always be better, but I'm trying to keep my HOA's nose out of this. if it looks the same as a regular light, it shouldn't be a problem… right?

oh yeah… and print this in something HEAT and UV resistant. its gonna get blasted up there. I used white ASA.