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An Introduction to Meshtastic

meshtastic.org

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Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#161

Post by fodkodrasz »

firesteelrain wrote: post #157
fodkodrasz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A PMR or DMR radio can also do that. And is cheaper and user friendlier.

DMR without needing the site to setup your ID etc?

might have mixed it up with dPMR, HAMs have lots of overlapping similar stuff... and love gatekeeping.

Nevertheless IMO the mentioned demographics/use-cases want something turnkey ready, ~single button, and currently LORA based stuff is not like that, and is clumsier and needs a certain level of... tinkerer mindset, compared to a commercial license free radio system (which might have been set up with a minimal effort), where learning curve is basically volume knob and PTT button.

I have handed out simple FM radios for total tech-illiterate people (mothers, children, elderly physical workers) in an outdoor event with 0 cell coverage, and comms worked perfectly over the dozen square kilometer area. Biggest incident was a lost radio handset.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#162

Post by ingohelpinger »

varispeed wrote: post #26
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…

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?

are you a fed? lol.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#164

Post by RobotToaster »

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

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#165

Post by disastronaut »

moffers wrote: post #14
Panda_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Reticulum Network Stack is a more generic lora capable protocol. It is intended to run over almost any two way link so it's less bandwidth efficient per packet than Meshtastic but in return it gives you packet routing rather than flooding. It can be run over TCP, LoRa, WiFi, etc. https://reticulum.network/start.html has an overview and how to connect. There is a manual with a lot more information on how it works…

This is awesome. I love that people are working on this. I wish for the day I can own a box that boots up, and gives me the 90s-00s internet experience without needing to ask permission from a bunch of middlemen.

For the oldest school feel - https://spectrum.ieee.org/run-a-meshtastic-bbs

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#166

Post by uyzstvqs »

lu5t wrote: post #67

If you're interested in Meshtastic, just try Meshcore instead. It's the natural hobbiest progression. Eventually you'll get tired of Meshtastic being nothing but telemetry from unknown nodes, nobody talks, it's a ghost town of weak links. Meshcore on the other hand has people actually having conversations, networks that span whole states, and diagnostic tools that actually work and are informative for describing the…

Having tried both, I definitely agree.

* MeshCore has a lot more reach than Meshtastic. Often 100+ kilometers compared to just a few kilometers. Even if MT is more popular in your area, there's a good chance that MC will give you far more actual range.

* The online node maps for both are unreliable. I don't recommend relying on them for anything.

* Meshtastic uses a basic flood algorithm, up to 3 hops by default and with a hard limit of 7. Every device works as a repeater.

* MeshCore distinguishes between Companions and Repeaters. It uses flood routing by default, and attempts to establish smarter direct routes where possible. Companions are end-user devices for sending and receiving messages. Repeaters are ideally mounted high up in a static location, and they forward packets they receive. Companions normally don't act as repeaters, but can do so if needed in off-grid situations using the "off-grid repeat" setting.

* Some are concerned about whether MeshCore is open-source. The firmware contains everything important, and is fully open-source. The official companion client app is closed-source freemium. But it's simply a GUI that talks to an API over Bluetooth, TCP, or Serial. The official CLI client is open-source, and you can use any client app you want, including the popular MeshCore-open app.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#167

Post by ssl-3 »

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…

I keep BitChat running on my phone.

Never had a peep from it. 0 connected peers, always -- in every environment.

This leads me to believe that it either does not work, or that I am the only one using it (in which case it also does not work).

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#168

Post by thenthenthen »

icedrift wrote: post #121
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 lora nodes is a bit of a myth. It is better than higher frequencies but you shouldn't expect anything more than a km with obstructions, realistically half that. Not to say they don't fill a niche, but bandwidth and range limit it's viability to small operations; even an optimal network cant handle more than a few hundred tweets per hour.

With no Line of Sight and crowded urban environment, it worked only slightly better than Wifi for my previous employer. Not even 100 meters.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#169

Post by jeromegv »

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

The firmware is open source. There are many apps, some are open source, some are freeware.

Re: An Introduction to Meshtastic

#170

Post by jeromegv »

juancn wrote: post #23

I find it weird that the hop limit is 3 bits, wouldn't that limit the effective range a lot? Unless an intermediate node lies and doesn't decrement and retransmits anyway.

Yep that’s one of the issues with Meshtastic and why it’s hard to scale it past a certain point. Meshcore has much higher hop limit
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