Journey

Post #1: Two Months In

What started in July 2026 as a personal project while recovering from surgery eventually evolved into something much larger. In the beginning, my audience was just me. I spent my early hours tinkering and intentionally strengthening one of my weakest skills: electrical work. But as the vision for Project Shepherd took shape, I knew I needed to start tracking the journey.

Balancing this build with life as a husband, father to a rambunctious toddler, and working full time, my time is stretched thin. Progress isn't always fast—just like updates to this page. A dedicated hobbyist with an open weekend might breeze through hurdles that take me weeks to solve. But that real-world friction is part of the story. By documenting the slow, deliberate pace of building this infrastructure while managing a demanding day-to-day life, I hope to show what is genuinely achievable for anyone willing to put in the work, even when life gets hectic, as it always does.

Although I've spent decades troubleshooting technology and have a few certifications, I would not classify myself as a professional in this field. I simply enjoy working with my hands, exploring different technologies, and picking up new skills along the way—and I’m never ashamed to lean on AI as a tool to bridge the gaps in my knowledge. Project Shepherd is about building resilient, off-grid communication networks that everyday communities can deploy and trust when emergencies strike. I'm glad to have you along for the build, and I look forward to sharing what works, what fails, and how we can all stay better prepared.

Most of this has been pure trial and error—figuring out layouts and prototyping as I go. Once these builds are field-verified, I’ll share a complete parts list for anyone wanting to replicate them.

Below are a couple of early builds: the Base Node and the Searcher Node.

The Base Node

Designed for more than just disasters, this rig is meant to travel—equally at home while camping, hunting, or operating completely off-grid. It’s housed in a rugged, water-resistant hard case, even with all my custom port modifications. To keep the weight manageable, I skipped a heavy internal battery; the primary radio inside has its own onboard power, and the unit pairs cleanly with an Apache 4800 companion case stocked with extra radios.

Core Components

• Network & Compute: Primary Wi-Fi router, Ethernet switch, and an Intel NUC 7 running Ubuntu Server (which will definitely get its own dedicated deep-dive post).

• Comms & Monitoring: A 20W analog radio, a 7-inch HDMI monitor serving as a local display for server management and stats, and an SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver for spectrum monitoring and signal scouting.

Power Architecture

For power, I included a switched AC/DC inlet for maximum field flexibility. Whenever possible, I lean on direct DC power: running juice through an inverter to get AC introduces unnecessary conversion losses, and when you're off-grid, every single watt preserved matters. Power is distributed through an 8-switch panel featuring built-in 10A and 15A circuit breakers, tied into 12V-to-5V buck converters where needed.

And please don't judge the wiring too harshly. It isn't pretty, but it works—and stripping out bulky prewired connectors in favor of direct connections saved almost 50% of the internal real estate. Black hot glue gun sticks for the win!

The Searcher Node

The form factor was chosen because it drops right into a standard double rifle magazine pouch, making it easy to mount via MOLLE attachments. It’s designed to ride high on a pack or carrier, keeping the antenna as far from the body as possible to prevent signal absorption and maximize range.

Core Components

• Mesh & RF Node: Compact LoRa-based radio module running decentralized mesh protocols (likely its own later deep-dive post as well) for off-grid packet data, telemetry, and text messaging.

• Local Network: Compact travel router for localized Wi-Fi coverage and node bridging in the field.

Power Architecture Issues

Prototyping always brings its humbling moments. I’m currently wrestling with the power system for the Searcher Node, running off a 4000mAh battery paired with a charge controller. It was bench-testing fine, but I suspect opening and closing the lid pinched a wire or created a short somewhere in the enclosure.
In fact, I discovered it the hard way: I was packing the unit up to demo it at a local amateur radio club booth during a street fair, only to find it completely dead on the way there. (Turns out the booth didn't even happen this year anyway, so the universe spared me a silent box!). Back to the workbench to trace the wiring, tidy up the routing, and bulletproof the connections before the next field test.

Post #2: PTO Push

Following the latest field tests with Searcher 1, post-run diagnostics revealed an intermittent power failure. The culprit wasn't a logic or firmware issue, but rather physical power delivery: a loose wire and some unreliable temporary connections caused the unit to drop power when running strictly on internal battery, only functioning partially when back-fed from an external source.

To ensure rugged reliability for field deployments, I’ve completed a major hardware revision on Searcher 1, replacing temporary test fixtures with permanent, weather-resistant engineering.

Key Improvements & Power Architecture Overhaul

To eliminate points of failure, every non-soldered junction inside the enclosure was stripped out, soldered, and protected with marine-grade heat shrink.

• Solidified Connections: Even where wires interface with 2-pin to Micro-USB converters, the internal conductors are now soldered together before being inserted into the screw terminals.

• Switch & Seal Integrity: The power toggle switch was un-potted from its original hot glue, properly soldered, heat-shrunk, and then re-sealed with structural hot glue to maintain water resistance.

• Physical Protection: Both the power switch and the power indicator LED are positioned directly beneath the case's latch plastic flanges. This provides a physical shield against accidental actuation or snagging during movement.

Power Flow & Voltage Specs

• Battery Source: 3.7V 4000mAh LiPo battery soldered directly to the charge controller PCB positive and negative terminals (with stress-relief hot glue applied over the solder points).

• Charging Input: Power-only male USB-C connected to the charge controller input, fed through a sealed female USB-C case passthrough for external recharging. (Note: Direct power without a battery connected is not natively supported well by this specific charge controller, but with the LiPo pack installed, pass-through charging and standalone battery operation work seamlessly).

• Power Output: Power-only male USB-A out from the charge controller through the toggle switch, routing hot and ground to a 5V Micro-USB to 2-prong plug feeding the GL.iNet router.

• Auxiliary 5V Taps: The 5V solar power input line for the RAK board and the panel power indicator LED are tied directly into the positive and negative terminals of the Micro-USB/2-prong adapter.

Hardware Layout & Component Summary

Searcher 1 packs considerable capability into a compact form factor optimized for wearable or pouch-carry operations:

• Enclosure & Mounting: All internal components are secured rigidly inside the enclosure using 3M super strength molding tape and hi-temp masking tape, ensuring zero component shift during pouch-carry or field deployment.

• LoRa / Telemetry Node: RAK4630 module mounted on a RAK19003 baseboard.

  • Antenna Array: GPS and Bluetooth antennas are secured internally along the side of the enclosure. The 915 MHz LoRa antenna routes through an SMA passthrough connector to an external ~3 dBi whip antenna.

• Routing & Wi-Fi Node: GL.iNet GL-AR300M16 travel router.

  • Antenna Array: Configured with dual external 2.4 GHz antennas via dual SMA passthrough connectors, prioritizing robust 2.4 GHz link range and power efficiency over dual-band complexity. The router successfully maintains its configuration and operates as a client router/repeater (connecting to an upstream SSID and broadcasting a local network for client devices).

Field Testing & Status

With the internal wiring fully hardened, Searcher 1 now powers up cleanly and reliably on both internal battery power and external DC sources. While final configuration of the Reticulum Network Stack is still pending, the node was bench- and field-tested using MeshCore, passing packets without issue.

Estimated Field Runtime: Under normal operational loads and expected field traffic, the 4000mAh battery configuration yields an estimated 10 to 14 hours of continuous autonomous operation.

Next steps will be to integrate the full Reticulum stack and conducting range verification tests with our Base and Relay nodes. Build runbooks and schematics will be updated on the Project Shepherd site soon.