“Introducing the next iteration of the Ripple LoRa QWERTY Messenger project, now with ultra low power standby mode!
The new messenger device is now based on the Heltec LoRa32 V2 development board, instead of the TTGO. There are a number of reasons, but the biggest one being that this board supports a deep sleep mode where the LoRa radio can remain listening for packets!
As a result, testing with the same battery, the old model could standby for about 8 hours on one charge, and the new model can now do about 48 hours. A huge improvement.
A summary of the differences are:
Now uses Heltec board (with deep sleep mode)
Does not use SD Card. (uses internal ‘SPIFFS’ storage)
Better UI, now with Setup menus.
Has separate ‘screen on’/wake-up push button
LiPo battery is mounted on outside, in a recessed area underneath.
The battery on the outside has a number of benefits, in that you can use any number of 1S LiPo batteries of varying sizes, and you can take a number of batteries with you, and swap them out if you are going to be away from a charger for many days at a time.
There are a lot of RC drone batteries which will be ideal, like the one I have put in the parts list. These are small, ‘whoop’-style drone batteries, and are cheap and available at most hobby shops.”