WEBVTT

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<v Speaker 1>It's been four months since I deployed this Spec five

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<v Speaker 1>relay solar node for Meshtastic here at my Galveston house

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<v Speaker 1>and put it right on top of the pergola right there.

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<v Speaker 2>I don't know if you can see that post in

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<v Speaker 2>the camera or not.

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<v Speaker 1>But we arrived here a few days ago and I

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<v Speaker 1>pulled out my Meshtastic node and I could not see

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<v Speaker 1>this thing. It was not powering up. But I must

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<v Speaker 1>make something very clear. I don't think this was a

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<v Speaker 1>node failure. I believe it was a battery failure. This

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<v Speaker 1>battery doesn't seem to be taking a charge anymore. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the rack wireless forty six to thirty one board

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<v Speaker 1>that came from inside of this.

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<v Speaker 2>This was mounted in here like this.

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<v Speaker 1>This right here goes to the external antenna plugs on

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<v Speaker 1>the back of the board right there. This right here,

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<v Speaker 1>I believe that's a GPS and it's either a GPS

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<v Speaker 1>or a Wi Fi antenna, I don't remember which one.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that's a Wi Fi antenna, so that you

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<v Speaker 1>can access it remotely with a little more range to it.

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<v Speaker 1>And then the solar panel plugs into the USBC connection

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<v Speaker 1>right here. I powered this up with an external USBC

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<v Speaker 1>charging brick and it powered right up. There was no

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<v Speaker 1>moisture in here. I thought maybe it had leaked and

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<v Speaker 1>ruined the board. It did not do that. It was

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<v Speaker 1>nice and secure. I ended up breaking this off simply

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<v Speaker 1>because these two screws were rusted and you can see

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<v Speaker 1>the rust on it. I mentioned the rust in the

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<v Speaker 1>first video that I made, and I also mentioned the

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<v Speaker 1>factor i'd put it up with zip ties. A lot

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<v Speaker 1>of you said that the zip ties would be the

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<v Speaker 1>first thing to fail, and I was like, no, the

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<v Speaker 1>screws are going to rust before anything. I should have

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<v Speaker 1>put like liquid tape or spray painted into something, and

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<v Speaker 1>I didn't do that. So the zip ties were fine.

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<v Speaker 1>No problems with the zip ties at all. The zip

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<v Speaker 1>ties held the thing just fine. It was up there

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<v Speaker 1>just like it should have been. So those of you

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<v Speaker 1>who didn't believe in my zip tie idea, we were

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<v Speaker 1>wrong about that.

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<v Speaker 2>Just say it. Just say it.

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<v Speaker 1>But the device itself would not power up, and again

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<v Speaker 1>I really think it was because of this battery.

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<v Speaker 2>So I've ordered a new battery for it.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to rebuild this device, but in the meantime,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to deploy this new new to me, Well,

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<v Speaker 1>new here, I should say Seed Studios P one Solar node.

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<v Speaker 1>I put this together yesterday. It's been sitting on the

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<v Speaker 1>table since yesterday afternoon. I did spray paint all of

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<v Speaker 1>these brackets here. They were like a naked metal color.

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<v Speaker 1>They were like a stainless steel color. And stainless steel

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<v Speaker 1>it's not going to hold up down here. One thing

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<v Speaker 1>about this that I don't like as well. First of all,

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<v Speaker 1>the solar panel is not as big. The Spec five

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<v Speaker 1>has a twelve watt solar panel. That's this got big

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<v Speaker 1>guy right here. This guy, I believe is either like

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<v Speaker 1>a five or six watt solar panel. Now down here

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<v Speaker 1>with all the sun is probably going to be fine, okay.

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<v Speaker 1>And it really kind of depends on the size of

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<v Speaker 1>the battery. So the size of the battery between these

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<v Speaker 1>two are comparable, but it's just not going to get

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<v Speaker 1>as much charge. But the thing I really don't like

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<v Speaker 1>about this Seed Studios node is that it's got this

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<v Speaker 1>smaller antenna on it that's not going to be as

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<v Speaker 1>high of a gain as this big antenna right here.

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<v Speaker 1>So I can change that out later. I can totally

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<v Speaker 1>change that out later. This is the stock Coax that

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<v Speaker 1>came with the Seed Studios device, and I'm going to

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<v Speaker 1>change this out for ABR Coax at some point in

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<v Speaker 1>the future, and I.

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<v Speaker 2>Will probably upgrade this.

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<v Speaker 1>But today I'm going to deploy this Seed Studios node

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<v Speaker 1>up where the Spec five relay was right there on

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<v Speaker 1>top of my pergola. I am going to zip tie

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<v Speaker 1>it again. It's going to take one of these zip

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<v Speaker 1>ties right here and secure it up there.

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<v Speaker 2>Actually I might do two.

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<v Speaker 1>The bracket's not as big on this one, but the

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<v Speaker 1>node itself is smaller and lighter weight than the Spec

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<v Speaker 1>five relay was either, so I'm happy with the Spec five.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that the battery issue was due to the

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<v Speaker 1>fact that this battery stamped twenty twenty four.

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<v Speaker 2>I put it up in January of twenty twenty six.

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<v Speaker 2>It should have lasted longer than that, but I don't know.

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<v Speaker 1>I was afraid that the rest would get to it,

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<v Speaker 1>or that the moisture would get to it, and that

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<v Speaker 1>did not happen.

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<v Speaker 2>I think it was just simply a battery failure.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're gonna put up the Seed Studios P one

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<v Speaker 1>today and I'm going to let it run on meshtastic.

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<v Speaker 1>Something I tested When I first got here, I couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>get into the Spec five relay node, so I took

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<v Speaker 1>it down. I powered up with an external power source

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<v Speaker 1>that powered right up. I connected to it with my

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<v Speaker 1>phone and I scrolled through there and I found I

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<v Speaker 1>think it was something like eighty nodes that it had seen.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, the thing only lasted like a week to

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<v Speaker 1>ten days after I left it, and then the battery died.

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<v Speaker 1>But during that time it saw eighty nodes on Meshtastic.

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<v Speaker 1>I had reset it right before I left. This was

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<v Speaker 1>Winterfield Day weekend late January of twenty twenty six. Got

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<v Speaker 1>back here Memorial Day weekend in May of twenty twenty six,

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<v Speaker 1>and it had seen eighty nodes before it died. I

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<v Speaker 1>did a war driving video driving around just about the

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<v Speaker 1>whole island of Galveston a few days ago while I

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<v Speaker 1>was here on this trip, searchy for both Meshtastic and

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<v Speaker 1>mesh Core nodes, and I'm going to link that video

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<v Speaker 1>up in here somewhere. It'll post before this video post

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<v Speaker 1>right here, most likely. And suffice it to say that

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<v Speaker 1>meshtastic is more live and well here down here than meshcor.

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<v Speaker 1>There's hardly any Meshcore activity. At all, So we're gonna

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<v Speaker 1>leave it on meshtastic for now. I'm going to put

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<v Speaker 1>it up there, and I'm going to see how it

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<v Speaker 1>works over the next few months because we won't be

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<v Speaker 1>back here until Labor Day, which is September of twenty

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<v Speaker 1>twenty six. I painted this post. It had a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit of rust around the threads here. I couldn't really

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<v Speaker 1>get to the backside of it. But something's better than nothing.

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<v Speaker 1>And we're going to put this up basically like right

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<v Speaker 1>there to where the sun or to where the solar

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<v Speaker 1>panel points towards the sun where the sun usually is.

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<v Speaker 1>The sun basically goes from like this the camera right now,

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<v Speaker 1>So let's put this around here. Then I'm going to

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<v Speaker 1>paint the screws on the back of it, put another

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<v Speaker 1>zip tie up there around it because that doesn't hold it. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>let's get another one.

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<v Speaker 2>All right now.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course is when the mowers guys more in the

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<v Speaker 1>lawn next word, decide to start so as that we need.

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<v Speaker 2>To in the background. Now, okay, that's fine.

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<v Speaker 1>So we got the I got the two zip ties

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<v Speaker 1>on it. It's pointed again. The sun basically starts over there,

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<v Speaker 1>it goes this way, so this is probably the best

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<v Speaker 1>area for the sun right now to hit it, because

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<v Speaker 1>the sun will be it's basically overhead right now. It's

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<v Speaker 1>getting a little bit of sun the way it's sitting

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<v Speaker 1>right now, the sun's right there, and the sun will

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<v Speaker 1>come up over there in the morning. So I'm gonna

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<v Speaker 1>spray a little bit of spray paint on here, especially

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<v Speaker 1>on these bolts right here, which will be some of

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<v Speaker 1>the first things that reast. Those are stainless steel boats,

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<v Speaker 1>and stainless steel is worthless down here. But We're gonna

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<v Speaker 1>let this go, and I'm going to be interested to

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<v Speaker 1>see what type of meshtastic activity we see between now,

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<v Speaker 1>which again is the end of May and when I'll

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<v Speaker 1>be back here was like a week after Huntsville ham

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<v Speaker 1>Pass around the end of August, first part of September

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<v Speaker 1>for Labor Day, so there was some really good meshtastic activity.

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<v Speaker 1>Now to play Devil's advocate, I wasn't able to actually

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<v Speaker 1>contact anyone. I haven't actually held a conversation with anyone

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<v Speaker 1>over meshtastic or mesh core from this area, but it

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<v Speaker 1>sees a lot more mestastic nodes than it does mesh core. Eventually,

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<v Speaker 1>I would like to put a mesh Core repeater down

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<v Speaker 1>here also, and that was actually my plan for this one.

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<v Speaker 1>My hope was to get the Spec five relay check

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<v Speaker 1>on it, make sure everything was working well with it,

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<v Speaker 1>and then set the Seed Studios node up on mesh

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<v Speaker 1>Core and put it over there on the other side

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<v Speaker 1>of the rooftop here. But since my war driving efforts

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<v Speaker 1>found very little to know mesh Core activity and my

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<v Speaker 1>Spec five relay was dead due to a dead battery,

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<v Speaker 1>I think I decided just to go ahead and flash

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<v Speaker 1>the latest beta firmware of mesh Tastic and put it

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<v Speaker 1>on the Seat Studios nodes, So stay tuned. Put a

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<v Speaker 1>comment below, check the link of the description BLOW. I

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<v Speaker 1>will put a blog post up. I started a new

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<v Speaker 1>blog that I mentioned in a few videos back. I'll

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<v Speaker 1>put a blog post up and I'll link it in

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<v Speaker 1>the description blow of this video, and I'll have links

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<v Speaker 1>to this the Spec five and everything else we talked

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<v Speaker 1>about today, along with some discount.

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<v Speaker 2>Codes for the Seed Studio stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>So let me know if you're using Meshtastic or mesh

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<v Speaker 1>Core in your area, which one works better for you

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<v Speaker 1>and what activity you had. So seventy three guys and

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<v Speaker 1>as far as this video goes, we will see you

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<v Speaker 1>in September to check on the status of everything.