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I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

jonaharagon.com

11–20 of 152 posts

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#11

In general I'm happy the longer range options are about, but I'd much rather see IP based ad-hoc communication. Wifi 802.11ah "halow" is such a more versatile structure than these limited networks. More of everything, of course! But I'm far more interested in making the wifi we have more ad-hoc capable, more useful anywhere any time, for whatever, especially on the longer range bands like 900MHz.

Do you know what the MSS is on a Halow network? Curious if it makes sense to run usual TCP and UDP based applications on them or whether we would need to switch to things like CoAP.

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#12
post #3

> To be perfectly upfront with you, this post will be glossing over many Meshtastic and MeshCore features, because I feel they are both non-serious solutions compared to Reticulum for reasons I will explain later on in this post. Yeah, that's the general feel I get every time I poke into Mesh*. Neat radio tech, fun toy to find other nearby nerds, instantly-obvious problems that are fatal to growing beyond being that…

This is by design. It’s like BBS again

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#14
post #3

> To be perfectly upfront with you, this post will be glossing over many Meshtastic and MeshCore features, because I feel they are both non-serious solutions compared to Reticulum for reasons I will explain later on in this post. Yeah, that's the general feel I get every time I poke into Mesh*. Neat radio tech, fun toy to find other nearby nerds, instantly-obvious problems that are fatal to growing beyond being that…

This is by design. It’s like BBS again

Amateur Ham technicians were doing packet radio long before (AX.25) the Internet made it into homes. =3

https://aprs.world/

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#15
Every time I get excited about one of these techs I end up finding it has approx the same range as a late 90s cordless phone unless you live on the Nevada salt flats, and a data rate that could probably be beat out by Morse code on a GMRS radio. Sadly I live in the opposite of that terrain with approx the same population density.

Regardless I have a few LILYGO Meshtastic Esp32 boards that are neat to play around with!

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#16
post #4
post #3

> To be perfectly upfront with you, this post will be glossing over many Meshtastic and MeshCore features, because I feel they are both non-serious solutions compared to Reticulum for reasons I will explain later on in this post. Yeah, that's the general feel I get every time I poke into Mesh*. Neat radio tech, fun toy to find other nearby nerds, instantly-obvious problems that are fatal to growing beyond being that…

That weakness is a strength. Everyone you meet on a mesh is a real breathing nerd, who due to proximity has a lot in common with you. They are not trying to influence you or sell you anything How many places like that are left?

> Everyone you meet on a mesh is a real breathing nerd, who due to proximity has a lot in common with you. They are not trying to influence you or sell you anything

I wish... the Hamburg Meshcore mesh has some dumbass spammer spamming far-right youtube videos in the public channel for example. And from what I hear, Meshtastic also has issues with this kind of idiots.

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#19

Every time I get excited about one of these techs I end up finding it has approx the same range as a late 90s cordless phone unless you live on the Nevada salt flats, and a data rate that could probably be beat out by Morse code on a GMRS radio. Sadly I live in the opposite of that terrain with approx the same population density. Regardless I have a few LILYGO Meshtastic Esp32 boards that are neat to play around with…

I mean morse code on GMRS is actually an amazingly strong physics solution. Take the benefits of VHF propagation and combine it with high power limits and a coding scheme that is on par with FT8 for noisy channel resilience. No way a potato powered microwave is going to compete.

915 MHz mesh isn't a fair comparison. APRS is, but that requires licensing and unencrypted communication, so it gets less traffic. Quite good and fun though. I get point to point pings dozens of miles away daily.

Re: I'm Getting into Mesh Networks (Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum)

#20

Every time I get excited about one of these techs I end up finding it has approx the same range as a late 90s cordless phone unless you live on the Nevada salt flats, and a data rate that could probably be beat out by Morse code on a GMRS radio. Sadly I live in the opposite of that terrain with approx the same population density. Regardless I have a few LILYGO Meshtastic Esp32 boards that are neat to play around with…

it works incredibly well at Burning Man, so you are completely right!
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