Meshtastic

[WRFP399]

Anyone here using this system? We just started to dive into it.

[SteveShannon]

Ham Radio Crash Course has a couple videos about it. I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet. 

[WRFP399]

So I have a few devices, Lilygo T-Beam V1.1. I placed one up high and placed another one at home and drove around with another. The best I could do so far was about 3.7 miles from the car (device placed on roof) to the node up high. This is with the "Long_Fast" preset. They are also very glitchy and often require a reboot.  So far they are fun to experiment with and maybe as use in a PACE communication plan but reliability is an issue so far.

[WRFP399]

Just messing around with it I was getting 10 miles of communication.

 

The RT1 was just dropped next to a road on a hill while I walked around some trails.

 

 

 

[WRUU653]

I know nothing of this other than the little bit I read but that seems impressive to me. Thanks for sharing real world testing. 

[WRFP399]

Rigged up my first outdoor solar "repeater". Inside this ABS box is a SLA batter (lithium can't do cold weather charge), a small solar controller, a step down converter to get from 12 volts to 4, and a Lilygo T-Beam 1.1 without a screen. 

 

It uses 90mA at 12 volts when transmitting and 30mA at 12 volts when sitting.

[MichaelLAX]

16 hours ago, WRFP399 said:

Inside this ABS box is a SLA batter (lithium can't do cold weather charge)...

I try to avoid lithium in my pancake batter as well (unless my guests are bi-polar!) 

[WRWH978]

I bought two of these to play around with, got about a mile with the stock antenna in my neighborhood.  I had a few text messages go through even though the app indicated they did not when it was out of the mile radius.

Anyone have a recommendation for a better antenna? Thinking outdoor pole mount. Thx

 

 

[rdunajewski]

I've been tinkering with these as well over the last month. Just driving around with the antenna inside the car I got 1.9 miles through dense suburban terrain. I've had a full conversation with someone about 1.5 miles away with the antenna inside the house near a window. It doesn't appear to be busy here in NJ, but I do see a couple nodes pop up here and there.

Thinking about attaching a node to a drone and getting it 400 ft up for about half an hour and see what I get. 

I also set up an MQTT server for linking my mesh with my father who is about 25 miles north of me, and that works well also. You can't really use the public MQTT server because it will completely flood your mesh and probably lock up your devices from all the traffic, so be careful with that. If anyone is interested I can create a channel on the server to tinker around with.

[ShaneJ]

@rdunajewski Rich, I am really interested in the procedure you followed to set up your private MQTT server. I have a group of friends in the Tucson area where we are thinking of starting a mesh system to coordinate various search and rescue related activities.

Best Regards,

Shane

[nokones]

I got about a mile and a half with my DTR700 in a holster on my belt sitting in a car and was able to monitor other DLR1060s that were out in the open.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, nokones said:

I got about a mile and a half with my DTR700 in a holster on my belt sitting in a car and was able to monitor other DLR1060s that were out in the open.

Line of sight (and only a few walls), I have clear connections between DTRs at 2 1/2 miles

 

[DominoDog]

Now is the time to be concerned about meshtastic. Apparently some jerk company named nexnav wants 900mhz spectrum for its own nefarious uses.
 

FCC is taking comments on the thing.

Not my video but has fcc link in description 

https://youtu.be/cTkWu7GgTQs?si=_dDi9xdPQxOHkgbS

 

[WRXB215]

@DominoDog Thanks for point this out. People should sound off. Even if you don't care about mesh and don't fear this being used for nefarious purposes, we still need to push back. If you give an inch, they take a foot. And sooner or later there won't be much spectrum left for us.

[tweiss3]

I submitted comments because I don't want to loose 902 for amateur radio.

[WRYZ926]

Definitely comment against this change. We don't need to lose any more frequencies. We lost part of the 1.25M/220 Mhz band a few years ago when UPS petitioned the FCC for a portion of that band. And to make things worse, UPS never uses it.

[amaff]

9 hours ago, DominoDog said:

Apparently some jerk company named nexnav wants 900mhz spectrum for its own nefarious uses.

lol wtf? They're an avionics company...

[WRYZ926]

And nexnav wants the spectrum for GPS use.

[DominoDog]

11 hours ago, amaff said:

lol wtf? They're an avionics company...

Not sure why this has any bearing on anything, whether they design radars or swimming suits.

[Lscott]

13 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Definitely comment against this change. We don't need to lose any more frequencies. We lost part of the 1.25M/220 Mhz band a few years ago when UPS petitioned the FCC for a portion of that band. And to make things worse, UPS never uses it.

We never got that spectrum back either.

[WRFP399]

Eh. I ain't worried. The ISM band is filled up with so many LoRa devices they aren't just going to suddenly stop it. 

 

Meshtastic has continued to grow and be developed.  The Apps continue to be refined and the firmware for the devices has ever improving functionality. There are a ton more devices on the market and we are now seeing MeshTastic devices ready to go without assembly. 

https://store.rokland.com/products/wismesh-pocket?srsltid=AfmBOopDuYyc38PNZ6uV2JIoHmiSzKw7670XSZsNnOQ2waQAdeyZL-00

[WSAA635]

I've been thinking about getting into setting up a node but I'd like to get a few friends to set up nodes so we'd have a small mesh in our area. All the other nodes are either too far North or East to be of any use to me where I live. 

It'd also be nice if the power could be boosted to a couple watts so you could get more range so it'd be more useful. 

[Codex]

I just ordered a few of these to test with as an off grid encrypted message compliment to my GMRS radios. The look really interesting for disaster communications and emergency grid down situations. Not sure how many are in my area, but I bought enough to setup a neighborhood mesh if nothing else. I also have access to a location on the mountain about 8 miles away that overlooks the entire valley where my town is and plan to put up a node as a relay there.

If nothing else, I will have a few toys to play with on vacation or when camping in no cell areas.

[Guest]

i just set up my first node as well. not any other nodes near me, but I am also connected to the MQTT so i do get an acknowledgement of my test texts.

Was wondering if there is a weatherbot on meshtastic that can send you current condx etc like on APRS? If you send your zip code to a specific weatherbot address on APRS, a reply comes back with current WX info in your zip code - sort of silly, but cool nonetheless. is there a similar service on meshtastic if connected to MQTT?