Easy Repeater Build

A lot of you have been asking for a step-by-step walk-through of how to make a solar repeater out of a solar light. I've made about 50 of them so far, so I feel like I finally have something useful to say about it. Enjoy the tutorial.

A janknode is a solar repeater in a repurposed solar-light enclosure. The panel and the cell are already in the housing. You take the light out and put a radio in.

I use an nRF board. The compact choices are a RAK4631 or a Seeed Studio board. The RAK kit shows up more finished, with JST leads for the panel and the cell. The Seeed board is about half the price and needs more soldering. Turnkey RAK, or budget Seeed. Either one works. The shells and the parts are at janknode.fyi.

Take a shell you can open. Pull the LED panel, solder the radio leads onto the battery leads, and drill for the SMA. Silicone both sides of that connector, and keep it out of the antenna. Tuck the board in and flash it.