Just modified a KEEPTEEN D5 Solar Lora station so that it can hold two radios to run both Meshtastic and Meshcore at the same time.

Main insight here is:

  • Use Heltec T114 over Heltec LoRa v3. This is because Heltec LoRa32 v3 is way too hungry and will drain a single battery overnight. With two Heltec LoRa32 v3 it will drain even faster. This is too much for the solar panel and the three lipo cells to handle. Switching to Heltec T114 means that the 3 cells will be able to handle both with no issues even on cloudier days.
  • According to discord peeps on Meshtastic and Meshcore discord, you do not want antennas to be parallel with each other. Instead the solution is to point one antenna upwards and the other antenna downwards.
  • You obviously need a new 3d printed tray to hold the two radios in position so that it wont shake around.
  • If you buy T114, you will want to buy specifically the version without screen, as that model will have a shielding can which would reduce possible signal interferences. This will improve signal integrity. But lacking screens, you will need to configure it via USB or set bluetooth to fixed pin.

Below are the screenshot of the D5 with dual Heltec LoRa32 v3 (Loaded with meshtastic and meshcore firmware), which showed that it's draining too fast:

Compare this with dual T114 radios (Loaded with meshtastic and meshcore firmware), showing that the current draw is smaller this time:

This image is of the two T114 radio placed into the D5 solar station:

Below is the two tray holding Dual Lora32 and Dual T114

Just discovered also that https://github.com/gargomoma/fakeTec_pcb after creating this and it looks like a good candidate for keeping cost low if you are willing to DIY. This is because the D5 Solar Enclosure already has it's own charger circuitry so the T114 and LoRa32 v3 is a bit overkill with the support for oled screen (skippable here) and solar charger (not really needed here as well). As long as you are up for soldering it yourself of course!