Beginner's Guide to Meshtastic! Communicate Off-Grid With LoRa or MQTT!

Off-Grid communication with LoRa has been getting super popular with Meshtastic! I'll walk you through the whole process of installing firmware to your hardware, setting it all up AND connecting to MQTT to expand YOUR node mesh to your friends' node mesh!!
Want to make your own project? PCBWay can help! They can work with you every step of the way, from PCB design, printing and assembly, as well as 3D printing, CNC and more!! Check them out at www.pcbway.com/
Meshtastic Starter Guide : meshtastic.org...
Heltec V3 for US Market : a.co/d/e3aZT76
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[@sn0ren]

Awesome video for getting started with Meshtastic! 🤘

[@TalkingSasquach]

Thanks! Not as good as yours but hopefully someone learns how to get their feet wet!

[@sn0ren]

@@TalkingSasquach I'm just rambling on for nearly half an hour about modulation types and delicious ham. When people want to know how to actually use these things they come to you :D

[@laory1808]

LoRa protocol and Meshtastic are amazing. If only I could convey my interest to those around me in an effective, non-autistic way.

[@NickWindham]

@@laory1808 I tell normies they’re like long range walkie talkies with text messaging.

[@laory1808]

@@NickWindham Thanks, Nick. I'm going to use this explanation from now on lol.

[@bashkillszombies]

Tell them about all the frequencies that LoRa uses around the globe, start by listing them all. Normies love that. :P

[@manchegocheese997]

@@bashkillszombies It's always a great conversation starter, especially with the ladies.

[@dbell2224]

I just had the light bulb go off about what these tiny device videos Ive passed over are about.🤦🏻‍♂️ And I want in!!! It’s pure genius and what I’ve been needing for years.Away from the wired world and no fear of losing signal. This is the part I spend months ripping the whole thing apart.

[@InfernalOd1n]

Meshtastic is amazing. I ordered my equipment last week. Can not wait to get them.

[@Serenityindailylife]

any idea where the cheapest place to order is?

[@Kulderzipke123]

I was waiting for this so much

[@TalkingSasquach]

Hopefully u can get off-grid!

[@yeety5974]

Loooool i bought me one of the lora boards from your vid, didnt really know what i was doing so it sat on a shelf... until last week when i found out about meshtastic. Also thank you for your vids i learn a lot, and have had so much fun making these lil devices.

[@benr6878]

Amazing video, extremely helpful! I realized I want to get into meshtastic so the Sasquatch is where I knew I had to go! So glad I watched this video before others. This one was laid out clearly as always.

[@dafoex]

I follow another guy on here called RingwayManchester who covered Meshtastic. For him the radio was the fun part since he is a Ham and using MQTT kinda took the fun out of going long distances. If that's your idea of fun as well then there's no shame in not setting it up, but I mentioned on his video that there are plenty of other ways to use MQTT that aren't "cheating". My first thought was it's intended purpose of sending sensor data, so you could have a little weather station that tells you what it sees, either periodically or on request.

[@bobbyjohnson116]

T-decks are great standalones once you configure them. G1 stations for routers or repeaters.

[@BBayjay]

Note: Amateur bands can be used in the US as well if you are licensed, (most people aren't using that, but it can be useful for your own meshes)

[@zazugee]

I think the confusion with MQTT is to understand why it was made, actually it was made to share telemetry from a group of censors that connect to a gateway, so that you can get data from sensors spread around a property, house, or a company HQ or zone bc using those LoRa devices is cheaper than building an infrastructure to connect every sensor directly to internet via wifi or cell network it was later that radio amateurs found it cool to use those devices for wireless comm

[@seansmith9452]

@@zazugee I would like to now if Meshtastic could be used to relay flow rate from an exsting red-lion electronic totalizer to 2nd node and desplayed on pc(every 30min) as where these meters are is not closer than 1.5km distance to office

[@ExtremeSquared]

Some people can legally use 433MHz in the US. Requires a couple forms and a test.

[@Mister.BreadBoard]

An amazing video as usual. I've been aware of meshtastic for sometime now and an amazing idea to have a decentralized network that a person can fall back in emergencies. Also, you should totally crate a meshtastic lobby (or topic?) for your KZbin subscribers to chat in 😂

[@randomalleycat]

I just wanted to mention that the TDeck case can fit the speaker and an 8000mAh battery in the standard version, and 5000mAh without the speaker in the slim version. Also you can fit a GPS module in both.

[@cmac7168]

How easy would it be to create a meshtastic board that plugs into the flipper with the flipper as its interface for typing, reading messages etc?

[@juanjocastillo]

Damn... Sasquatch... I want LoRa now... Great vid!!!

[@KillRoy0351]

Wow I actually built a device before you launched a video on it, cool

[@AppleScabs]

I've never been so early to a video!

[@TalkingSasquach]

Glad to have ya!

[@nester6460]

Love your pirates blunder sticker. I've got a few of the same ones lol

[@InVinoVeritas.]

Great video!! Re: MQQT root topic, is there a tutorial or recommendation for setting up own topic & how others can join? Thanks!!

[@L0rdK0nda]

You can even turn on a kb backlight on the Lily go with left alt+B

[@TalkingSasquach]

I was wondering how to do that!!

[@cyberhawk99]

I love this little device!

[@TalkingSasquach]

They're a lot of fun to play with

[@BrianJurkowski]

Actually, you can use the 433 MHz LoRa devices if North America IF you are a licensed amateur radio operator.

[@TKear25]

So if I'm hunting deep in the woods could I message my wife's cell phone? Is that possible with this? Would she have to have a special app on her phone?

[@matthewdiaz25]

I can't find a comment that answers my question so sorry in advance if it is answered. I have my board, switches, battery and gps... can I solder everything together and than flash the board or do I flash the board and than put everything together? Thank you in advance

[@SethSchneiderw]

Is the LongFast chat using MQTT or is that a separate thing?

[@KillRoy0351]

Where did you get that heltec case (the big one that sits on your desk)?

[@foxronyo]

I've asked a few friends, and they said that they aren't aware of anything like this existing at Burning Man, which is a shame, as it sounds like something that would be really helpful given the festival's remote location.

[@Gater_Byte]

I've used this for our DEFCON Darknet-NG contest , and worked with meshtastic developers in their discord and can confirm Burning man used it also in 2023

[@londo776]

Just use walkie talkies

[@wallacewillard7131]

Will a macbook work for flashing?

[@jcalbano]

great video! do you have a contact or link for case simon muzy?

[@ScottBot2000]

I’d love to see a Meshtastic node plugin on flipper. I have 4 nodes and a base station for camping. And we have gps coordinates on the car to get back to camp

[@sk9la]

my favorite is the wireless tracker from Heltec It got LoRa and GPS radios, as well as bluetooth/wifi thanks to the ESP32S3 chip However unlike the v3, it's chunkier

[@christianstanton768]

Theres a LoRa firmware for m5stick but it doesnt seem to work does anyone know when there will be a meshtastic firmware for it

[@minecraftinthehouse3060]

Awesome video I love the idea of off the grid

[@ZombieSpaceBear]

Meshtastic things! ATAK! has a plug in for meshtastic.. That heltec is good for about 0.25km with that antenna and case

[@BulWei1981]

Can you make a vid about nrf24 Scanner and nrf24 Batch for the Flipper zero? This would be great 👍🏻

[@akshykhade]

is it possible to confire UART data into channels ?

[@nonactive3654]

I got a m5 stack cardputer to play with this. Anyone messing with that?

[@c4ristopher]

Is there a device that can do both voice and text?

[@nerdyolli9229]

New distance LoRa record is 331km or 206miles. Mountain to Mountain over the sea connection.

[@chadwolf3840]

Are the comms ecrypted?

[@Mister.BreadBoard]

Sorta?? I believe every channel 'can' have its own encryption key. But it has to be set up from your side first.

[@ryemuehlmeyer192]

Symmetrical AES 256

[@BunnyMcHusky-cg1tj]

Well I activated two nodes in my town…and they’re the only two in the state it seems. Canton OH

[@brannnnnnn]

I'm 4 minutes in and I have yet to under "WHY?" - i've learned how, when, and where these devices are useful.

[@john1182]

I have 2 hand helds and I'm building up a repeater in my small town. hopefully I'll put another repeater up on the main hill in town (family home). My neighbour has a few too. The worst part is were the only ones in town using lora 😢

[@londo776]

Exactly my point completely useless then use a mobile

[@john1182]

there is the hobby fun part of it which most people do it for

[@londo776]

@@john1182 completely useless in my neighbourhood As I said before no nodes within 80 miles What's the point if you can't use it And it's pretty limited anyway if you could use it

[@john1182]

@@londo776 there are only 5 nodes where i live me and my neighbor's and repeaters we put up, its a fun thing for us (he ued to do this stuff in the military) were using it for some remote sensors etc with the esp32 board. im thinking of putting it on the farm to monitor water / open gates too. thats were it gets good

[@00Jimmy00]

where to buy lilygo in EU ?

[@Steph.98114]

I actually know someone who broke thw record, they got communication from Melbourne to Tasmania across the bass straight.

[@xti2020]

Love that tshirt

[@canadiansike7389]

Oh hell yeah!

[@noxiouskarn]

good call on blocking out the GPS ;)

[@DirtyPlumbus]

Meshtastic is still highly trackable. The device is constantly putting out a ping. Anyone with a loop antenna could find you.

[@londo776]

I would have great fun jamming all the signals

[@noxiouskarn]

@@DirtyPlumbus we had a short discussion in his discord about before posting this video to obscure his GPS and to not have any data from other nodes on screen that shows their distance to him. so turn of GPS. and he did because a a lead promoter of the hackerspace he can easily be a target. go to a location open WIFI and scan for near by wifi snap shot it and then go to wigle run at least three ap's against the database in the town you were in you will be pinpointed. it's triangulation just like your RF method but this lets someone from another side of the world target you. I'm glad he took the advice and blocked GPS for his presentation. his previous screen scans leaked some ap Bssid's so once his town is found so can his house... just hoping he makes it a little harder every video. :)

[@noxiouskarn]

@@londo776 if you Jam say 10 nodes the messages will route around your jamming and any node internet will get that looped back... this system is almost jam proof but you could ruin 10 peoples day if they don't have Mqtt enabled with internet

[@DirtyPlumbus]

@@noxiouskarn definitely good advice, even if you're not a potential target. RF tracing would require being relatively close by.

[@monstabonza9168]

That was not a network that was 200+km I believe it was two individual nodes, but I could be wrong

[@PimentoZ24]

plz send nodes

[@tristan8820]

Is PCB Way good?

[@TalkingSasquach]

@@tristan8820 I’ve never had a bad experience

[@jmr]

Dude, you have more add on then Flipper now.

[@Nothing2Do417]

GPS doesn't broadcast your location at all (not even the satellite know your location)

[@LeeNelson71]

I’m fascinated by this, but don’t get the use case. If you live in a rural area, where this would be must useful, there are no other nodes in range. If you live in an urban area, where the meshes are dense, couldn’t you just walk or drive to the person you’re trying to communicate with? It seems gimmicky , unfortunately.

[@ess2870]

I live in hurricane central. I could check on loved ones and friends after the storm and drop a node at each house. Now we can communicate without infrastructure for things like ice/water and health emergencies. I also off-grid camp. I can throw a node 40ft into a tree and now my dog that has a tracker on his harness won't run off, we can communicate with the kids fully encrypted "and they still use their phone, since getting a FRS radio is dorky". I can setup a motion sensor at camp and it will alert me if someone comes poking around when we're gone. I can use the environment sensor to monitor the weather for a rain warning. There's a million, real world applications that are currently in use. It's past the gimmick stage and actively being developed by teams.

[@ess2870]

@thereal-ghost Who's talking communication with everyone during a global outage. I have my FRS,GMRS,HF and NVIS setups for that. I can't strap an HT to my dog and get GPS reports. I can't attach a motion sensor to my 7300 and have it broadcast to my MQTT server. Also, what frequencies are you using for encrypted communication? None legally....

[@k3yomi]

❤

[@TalkingSasquach]

Thanks for the support!

[@OneAndOnlyZekePolaris]

Not enough nodes!!!

[@Kulderzipke123]

Holy shit🎉🎉🎉

[@TalkingSasquach]

It's a psychobilly freakout!!

[@bobbyjohnson116]

Don't forget 2.4ghz global lora band

[@CoolCalmGabe]

I like banana.

[@Iron_Condorr]

🍌

[@HMSGamer]

I like trains

[@Ihavenobrainlol2]

🍌

[@Iron_Condorr]

@@HMSGamer 🚄 🚋 vroom

[@dafoex]

Personally I'm a pizzavore

[@XRinger]

915 MHz is the "name" of the band. The Meshtastic US main channel 20 is on 906.875 MHz. So, don't build a 915 antenna. It might have a high SWR on the default, ch 20. I don't buy an Meshtastic antenna unless it has some good reviews on 906.875 Mhz. Never turn on a Node, until it's got an antenna installed. It might overheat the transmitter. Most OEM antennas will work, but they normally don't perform, due to a too high SWR or being made for the UK frequencies.

[@TalkingSasquach]

I appreciate the very thorough comment! Thanks!!

[@nachonacho9785]

Sweet

[@faceless.appalachia]

Meshtastic is great, but I wouldn't depend on it in a bad scenario.

[@repairstudio4940]

Lora is so unsecure and very iffy with local regulations, cool though.

[@dafoex]

Most countries to my knowledge prohibit encrypted traffic on radio. Certainly for amature and unlicenced bands. They can't stop us from doing maths, but they'll try.

[@repairstudio4940]

@@dafoex try they will, Big Bro with their Big Reach...🙄.

[@canadamadman5306]

This information is incomplete for beginners. This is basically advertising for the devices. All the important stuff is missing. Like how to set the Chanels up. Or the acd. Im disappointed. But thankx anyways.

[@shayne87]

Frustration, thy name Meshtastic. For me it isn't the glowing experience seen on KZbin. It kinda reminded me of my first time running Linux. I have to put it away for a timeout while trying to get it to work, or I may just snap the damn thing in half. 19k ppl/sq mi and apparently I'm the only one with a node?

[@defaultzenabled4261]

Channel named bitwised tutorials is stealing your content just a fyi

[@TalkingSasquach]

Thanks for the heads up! Technically I'm creative commons, so that's "allowed"

[@defaultzenabled4261]

@@TalkingSasquach got ya. Just wanted to warn you guys using it to spread misinformation

[@dafoex]

@TalkingSasquach Based

[@victortorres1585]

Hi 👋

[@texxras7771]

Very good !! You one clever swiss maybe? sasquatch😂 legendary thank you !!!!!

[@TalkingSasquach]

Thanks, I appreciate you!

[@robal6418]

Great video but the constant zooming in and out made me feel sick

[@KJtheofficial]

One of the first comments on this vid :D

[@TalkingSasquach]

It's the thought that counts!

[@bose5160]

915 MHz for long range? LoL k.

[@DirtyPlumbus]

Well it's longer than Bluetooth. Lol

[@londo776]

Just

[@urbezzubka]

2nd

[@TalkingSasquach]

Grats!

[@bashkillszombies]

5:10 Stop doing that. I die of cringe every time. Also, 3d printing is polluting the world with more plastic useless junk, please cut it out.

[@londo776]

its crap For many reasons no Voice Is one Try and send a text using them it's almost impossible and long winded. you need a phone most of the time to do it. so why not Just use your mobile, And how are you going to power remote nodes So many reason why it's rubbish The Nearest node is more than a 80 miles away from me. as You can see completely useless, It's a fad and it will die down soon, Using Smoke signals will get you better range, To be honest even shouting will, even using CB or cheap Chinese dual band radios or(uk like your frs)pmr446 Would be better off grid.

[@nerfherder4284]

Seems like a knee jerk reaction with little knowledge of the subject.

[@Randy-nb6fw]

tbh unless your in a place where lots of people have them they really dont do much

[@londo776]

@@nerfherder4284 just counter some of my points if, you think I'm wrong

[@Peelerville]

Here in the UK they are very popular, I’m in the south east on the coast and can reach up to London and as far as Holland in Europe which is 120 miles, as of today I can pick up 130 nodes around me, there is also many nodes being powered by small solar panels, as for hard to use I totally disagree, the Meshtastic app on iOS is as easy as messaging. The main reason many of us are setting them up is an alternative if the mobile network goes down and you need to do basic communication . I personally have 4 of them, one at home, one mobile and two repeaters spread out 15 miles from me.

[@londo776]

Let's be honest the mobile network is not going to go down unless the Russians attack or we have a nuclear war

[@CMDR_Scorpion]

Node!

[@gshockhodinky]

👍📟

[@AbeNaws]

Just realized I hadn't subscibed yet All better now. But if you want to review the hackbat, I think that would be interesting.

[@crankbrainjayne]

Bro after these messages channel 4 f*** man I grew up on that s*** right there that little fire hydrant guy I remember that guy he was like in my childhood.

[@TalkingSasquach]

Hell yeah! I love those bumpers and I try to use them as often as I can!