Over the timeframe of about 1 1/2 weeks I lost 3 Meshtastic Starter Kits over night. The Kits were used in a solar router sitting on a balcony. The node was built into a outdoor plastic casing, running on a small solar panel and two Li-Ion cells (parallel). The balcony is about 100 meters away from electric train traks and an above-ground high voltage powerline. The disfunctional devices can neither be flashed with new firmware nor can these be factory reset. Hooked up to USB (serial) the connection opens for 2 - 3 seconds and closes. No chance to copy a file to it.
The devices were running recent Meshtastic Firmware.
I suspect that the reason for killing the Meshtastic Starter kits could be electro static discharges from lightning, trains passing y or emitter from a large near-by photovoltaic setup, or whatever.
How do I approach this issue best? Could it be that the 2000V ESD diode of the RAK 19007 is underdimensioned for my location?
If all the kits got broken, and in nearby location as you mention, then it can be possible that some environmental factor causes it. However, if your node is solar powered and not coupled directly to any external wiring, all the stuff are battery powered, then it can only be affected by radiated interference and not conductive (unless there is still coupling in it). As for ESD or this kind of interference, what you can do is shielding or isolation if you cannot cut out the source. You are pretty much isolated (battery powered) but when it comes to shielding, full metal enclosure is the standard trick.
In addition to this, I get reports of nodes just stopping or loses configuration (I personally experience). There is a PR on Mehstastic FW 2.4.3 which will make the FW more reliable.
Thank you, carlrowan.
Yes, it was solar and battery powered without external wiring and built into a plastic case. I already suspected, that I will have to go for a metal case.
Thank you also for the hint to Meshtastic Firmware 2.4.3… I will update acordingly.