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An Introduction to Meshtastic

meshtastic.org

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Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#171

Post by squarefoot »

RobotToaster wrote: post #164
Cyan488 wrote: post #8

I had never heard of this before, then last week I watched a video about it and was hooked. Now I'm seeing it everywhere! Meshtastic and Meshcore are both cool LoRa-based mesh text messaging that operate in an no-license-required band. While this limits your transmit power, it doesn't prohibit encryption - the inverse of most ham radio rules! Some cities have thriving communities of Meshtastic and/or Meshcore. You ca…

The meshcore app is closed source

Does it apply to the meshcore.io app as well? From what I know (not a meshcore user currently) there has been a kerfuffle recently when a developer decided to fork and vibe code the project using Claude, then silently trademark the name and move everything to his own website. The original and legit site should be meshcore.io while the .co.uk site was created by that developer and isn't considered official nor reliable by the community.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#172

Post by VLM »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #109
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?

"What is the use case?" Advertising services But only if use of the network becomes popular (Generally no one thought this would be the eventual use case for the internet)

Unlike ham radio, it allows encryption and doesn't forbid commercial use, so it'll get taken over by commercial interests if it works, or ignored if it remains small or fails. If it works the pioneers will get wiped out and removed from the network...

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#173

Post by sitzkrieg »

idiotsecant wrote: post #138
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…

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

or miles easily on 900mhz if you’re on a hill…

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#174

Post by windexh8er »

celsoazevedo wrote: post #110
Cyan488 wrote: post #8

I had never heard of this before, then last week I watched a video about it and was hooked. Now I'm seeing it everywhere! Meshtastic and Meshcore are both cool LoRa-based mesh text messaging that operate in an no-license-required band. While this limits your transmit power, it doesn't prohibit encryption - the inverse of most ham radio rules! Some cities have thriving communities of Meshtastic and/or Meshcore. You ca…

> in my experience, most Meshtastic nodes are NOT listed, while a good number of Meshcore nodes are. I don't know about online tools, but it should be the opposite when actually using it, as by default Meshtastic is much more chatty (and wasteful) than Meshcore.

Meshtastic is horrible in a metro area. The area I live in has a huge user group and it's almost impossible to get a message across more than 3 nodes reliably. Meshcore, on the other hand, is far less popular but still has a nice amount of repeaters and it's, conversely, very good. I've since moved all of my devices to Meshcore. I'm on the edge of a metro (about 30 miles out) and have a repeater at one of the highest points in my geo and can seamlessly message users on the other side of the metro (~60 miles).

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#175

Post by VLM »

laurowyn wrote: post #32
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?

> 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…

"Setup a bunch of nodes across a significant area of land, run ... sensors"

This is my use case. There are no other options that don't demand something like cell phone coverage (LOL no) and cost $1K/node and maybe $50/month until you give up on the project. For hobbyists this is a total non-starter. Do you have a budget for satellite telemetry, LOL no.

With meshcore its more like $100/node and $0/month forever which is somewhat more affordable than the next cheapest possible competitor.

For a scientific-ish environmental sensor that generates a couple integer data points every hour or so, its vastly more than fast enough. My project is not far enough along to discuss beyond that and I may end up scrapping it for reasons totally unrelated to networking LOL. At least the networking side was beyond trivial to set up.

Very handwavy meshcore is meshtastic plus the lessons about digipeating etc that ham radio guys (like me) figured out the hard way back in the 80s/90s. So I have zero interest in reinventing the wheel with meshtastic and reliving the problems of the 80s in the 20s. I don't think meshtastic devs looked at prior art when they initially designed it, or they would have done things quite a bit more like meshcore.

There is approximately infinite interpersonal drama in both projects with all kinds of legal wrangling and much bike shedding apparently to prevent progress. I would not be surprised if TPTB are using funded LLM bots to disrupt those projects. Its pretty bad but as long as you stay away from the communities and socializing, both projects produce good code. I suppose for people that like that sort of thing, either project would be very attractive.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#176

Post by VLM »

moffers wrote: post #4

I took a plunge into learning about mesh networks, specifically because I love the idea of p2p/decentralized systems of communication. To be honest, I was surprised to find that my expectations for “where we are at” with this type of technology was pretty off-base. For some reason I thought by now it would be straightforward to do a little more than text messaging over a truly public and decentralized off-internet me…

The thing you missed to search for Nyquist limit as applies to the triad of battery power use vs data speed vs range. There's also error rate in the equation...

You can more or less only communicate with people agreeing with one specific tradeoff and the majority have spoken and they want slow long range texting, so you'll only be compatible with their mesh if you're compatible with that use case.

The software works fine if you set up super high bit rate, although you will not like the short range. There is no such thing as a free lunch and something like Y2K wifi speeds will have Y2K wifi ranges and battery use LOL. Also you will not mesh with other people's infrastructure if you intentionally use a modulation scheme they don't use. Its quite capable, really. But if most people want to max out their possible range and secondarily max out their battery life, it isn't going to be very fast...

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#177

Post by mtlynch »

bergie wrote: post #153

We are in the South Pacific with our sailboat, and are using Meshtastic every day to talk between ourselves and with various buddy boats. The boat has a solar-powered repeater (CLIENT_BASE) on the mast that increases communications range significantly. This all works great with no local SIM cards or other subscriptions or infrastructure needed. We plan to run experiments with Reticulum when we stop for the cyclone se…

Parent wrote a great blog post about this for anyone interested in the details:

https://blog.noforeignland.com/off-grid-boat-communications-...

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#178

Post by bramgn »

prism56 wrote: post #114
bramgn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to hear your experience, as it sounds similar to where i'm currently at. I'm in the south of Norway and there's not much activity on Meshcore yet. I had set up a repeater on a nearby hill, and then one Saturday I started receiving messages in the public channel. At first I thought someone was passing by in town, but I soon realized (and confirmed) that these were messages from Denmark! Some were 200+ KMs away (m…

Yes! I used that antenna coverage functionality to plan my repeater locations. It worked well. I just picked up a T1000-E to take on holiday next week, interested if I see anything in the air of in Europe.

Did you equip these two dedicated repeaters with a solar panel?

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#179

Post by celsoazevedo »

windexh8er wrote: post #174
celsoazevedo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in my experience, most Meshtastic nodes are NOT listed, while a good number of Meshcore nodes are. I don't know about online tools, but it should be the opposite when actually using it, as by default Meshtastic is much more chatty (and wasteful) than Meshcore.

Meshtastic is horrible in a metro area. The area I live in has a huge user group and it's almost impossible to get a message across more than 3 nodes reliably. Meshcore, on the other hand, is far less popular but still has a nice amount of repeaters and it's, conversely, very good. I've since moved all of my devices to Meshcore. I'm on the edge of a metro (about 30 miles out) and have a repeater at one of the highest…

I tried Meshtastic here in London (UK), but was struggling with anything more than 1 hop away. There's no coordination, everyone's using the long fast preset, etc. Then found out about Meshcore, flashed the firmware, selected the UK narrow preset, and it's a day and night difference.

Still wouldn't rely on this for anything serious because it's not reliable at all, but it's nice to be able to send a message across the city or to the other side of the country.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#180

Post by bearded_comrade »

bergie wrote: post #153

We are in the South Pacific with our sailboat, and are using Meshtastic every day to talk between ourselves and with various buddy boats. The boat has a solar-powered repeater (CLIENT_BASE) on the mast that increases communications range significantly. This all works great with no local SIM cards or other subscriptions or infrastructure needed. We plan to run experiments with Reticulum when we stop for the cyclone se…

I've always thought that meshtastic (or something similar) would be great for cruisers. Have you encountered anyone else using it?
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