Meshtastic Miniature Node Craft Project

Miniature node for direct attachment to the smartphone. The 'Xiao ESP 32 & Wio SX 1262' kit was used. On the node, the lower pins must be snipped off directly above the solder (Half a millimeter of solder is included in the height of the USB hole... do not unsolder the pins, or the node will float in the air). The two antennas are glued into the case. Initially, I intended to install the external stub antenna, but in my (!) experience, the adhesive antenna is not much worse than the stub. And a proper, well-tuned antenna (whether bought or self-made) is simply too long.  The lid is pressed onto the case. The hole for the reset button is 2 mm. From a piece of filament, you can fashion a better button than can be printed in that size.

IMPORTANT: In this case, I use a pre-made USB bridge for power supply (see picture). The USB-C connectors naturally have a fixed distance. Based on this distance in conjunction with my thick faux leather smartphone case, I measured the thickness of the case's bottom. This should be adjusted according to your own circumstances (shim the case) so that the node does not float in the air, and the phone's USB port is not bent/damaged.

If you want to build a flexible bridge with cable and connector: fiddly! You have to take the 5-pin connectors and solder a tiny resistor into the connector. Because only in this way (OTG connection) does the smartphone supply power to the node. (Wiring can be Googled).

Not a node for bridging gigantic distances... but quite useful for communication between groups at events, fairs, or amusement parks.

Have fun crafting... I hope you find it useful.