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An Introduction to Meshtastic

meshtastic.org

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131–140 of 192 posts

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#131

Post by filcuk »

Melatonic wrote: post #125
filcuk wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using one of those devices with a tiny eink screen... as a pocket ebook reader. Sorry for the bait. Fun and easy project though, lookup Pala one if you're interested and dm me for improved firmware (restrictive license)

Sounds intriguing. How is the battery life? Color e-ink or BW? Would be great if it also ran some type of Topo mapping software!

BW. I don't think colour would do much, as the screen is 250x122. Battery may depend on what you can find, but the one I have should last several weeks (still testing). I started on a tiny LiPo I ripped from my cat's floppy fish toy.

To give more info here, it uses Heltec Wireless Paper, which is a self-contained unit and just needs a battery added.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#132

Post by nohup2 »

cheema33 wrote: post #81
varispeed wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have the mesh and then what? Do people communicate to distribute prohibited anti-government propaganda or is it a network of people who otherwise be too shy to talk to each other by other means? What is the use case?

I would love to be able to get text alerts when an event occurs, from a location that is not connected to the Internet, about a mile away. The need is not critical, so there is no desire to spend money every month. And reliability of the solution does not have to be high either. Something like this might work?

Yes.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#134

Post by tardedmeme »

euroderf wrote: post #112
sandworm101 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People forget that this network isnt for everyday use. It is for use in ad-hoc scenarios where cell or even satellite coverage falls apart. The most powerful aspect is that these things are deployable . A communication chain can be established as fast as people can move. Natural disasters are the most obvious use case, but more interesting are things like search and rescue. Go somewhere properly remote such as the hi…

This does not sound terribly different from the original use case for the internet. Are there similar routing algorithms in place ?

Mesh routing beyond the small scale is an unsolved problem.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#135

Post by nsxwolf »

randerson wrote: post #59
varispeed wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have the mesh and then what? Do people communicate to distribute prohibited anti-government propaganda or is it a network of people who otherwise be too shy to talk to each other by other means? What is the use case?

Its one of the few places you can be fairly sure you're chatting to people, not bots, who have no agenda to sell you anything. Of course if it ever becomes popular, that will quickly change. But for now it is like early IRC.

No one has once ever spoken to me on it.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#136

Post by compumike »

Check out this map: https://api.phillymesh.net/map for live data from the Philadelphia area.

The edges drawn are between nodes that have been able to hear each other in the last 24 hours, based on observed traceroute packets.

(Even then, it’s only a subset of the actually-connected nodes: the map only shows nodes that have published their position on the public channel, and have set a flag that their data is okay to uplink to a server over MQTT.)

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#138

Post by idiotsecant »

sandworm101 wrote: post #93
laurowyn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is the use case? It's primarily just an experimental system. Demonstrating that fixed infrastructure isn't actually necessary to communicate. Beyond that, it's a mixture of HAM radio for communicating with people outside of your immediate circle, and disaster prep. The best realistic scenario I can see for using it is after a sever weather event like hurricane, tornado, tsunami, etc. that takes out significant…

People forget that this network isnt for everyday use. It is for use in ad-hoc scenarios where cell or even satellite coverage falls apart. The most powerful aspect is that these things are deployable . A communication chain can be established as fast as people can move. Natural disasters are the most obvious use case, but more interesting are things like search and rescue. Go somewhere properly remote such as the hi…

The range of these things is approximately the range of a loud yell.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#139

Post by itishappy »

Melatonic wrote: post #124
sandworm101 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People forget that this network isnt for everyday use. It is for use in ad-hoc scenarios where cell or even satellite coverage falls apart. The most powerful aspect is that these things are deployable . A communication chain can be established as fast as people can move. Natural disasters are the most obvious use case, but more interesting are things like search and rescue. Go somewhere properly remote such as the hi…

But how are enough people going to get the hardware in that ad-hoc scenario ? Something that can also use devices we already have seems like a better solution. I'm surprised BitChat has not seen more popularity. Something that combined that + a dedicated hardware mesh transmitter (for longer range when needed) and allowed adhocactual network use between devices would be pretty damn cool. Also arent LoRA systems mostl…

> But how are enough people going to get the hardware in that ad-hoc scenario?

They already have it because they ready HN! Only somewhat fascitious... A few motivated individuals can provide connectivity to thousands. There's probably a few such folks in your city already!

> Something that combined that + a dedicated hardware mesh transmitter (for longer range when needed) and allowed adhocactual network use between devices would be pretty damn cool.

This is exactly how these systems tend to work in practice. Just connect your phone via Bluetooth then use the Meshtastic app. The app can function on it's own to send messages to other phones without cell service, you just won't get the range.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#140

Post by devilbunny »

nsxwolf wrote: post #52
varispeed wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you have the mesh and then what? Do people communicate to distribute prohibited anti-government propaganda or is it a network of people who otherwise be too shy to talk to each other by other means? What is the use case?

I built one and found absolutely no use for it. No one ever, and I mean ever, answers you. It's sort of like ham radio, where you get your technician license and get on a net and discover people are just talking about their antennas. Except it's worse, because all the antenna discussions are happening on Reddit and Discord and not on the network itself. People are very enamored with what you could theoretically do wi…

The one practical use I could imagine would be something like remote gate controllers and such with the mesh network coordinating activity. But that is very niche.
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