Trying Meshtastic For The First Time

So I finally tried that Meshtastic thing people have been talking about. It's a short-range communication system for text messages that operates on unlicensed frequencies, so it's legal for anyone to use. Apparently I seem to be the only person in my neighborhood who's using it! Since I can't find anyone to message with, this is mostly a build and brief overview video for the Lilygo T-Deck.
This is the basic T-deck (without the 3-D printed case):
amzn.to/3x6IfJ2
I've ordered some more LoRa modules to play with (amzn.to/3Vi17N6), so hopefully I can get more out of this in the future. Even if I'm the only person in my area with one of these, I can potentially use it with some of my old Pocket PCs or something. Stay tuned for possible updates!
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[@paul329]

i have no idea what is going on in half your videos, but your enthusiasm is enough to sustain me as a viewer.

[@leonzios10]

haha! I was thinking the same thing. I love this stuff but I have no clue why.

[@rodriguezfranco3839]

Same here

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Ditto...😊

[@crookedtool]

"The battery indicator is just a random number generator, as far as I can tell." 😂😂😂

[@AvisPraeda777]

"Meshtastasize" and "Mesh-heads" are glorious.

[@LudoTheGreat]

You always say you're not a how to channel, but your experience with the tinkering that you do is how the rest of us do it as well. It's so nice and refreshing to have someone that shows the entire process in the raw. You never sugar coating it or pretending to be an expert. Hands down the best how to channel on KZbin .😅😂

[@benjaminfaershtein138]

Bring your Meshtastic nodes to Open Sauce! I will be helping run the Meshtastic booth there. Will be fun to see how big the mesh grows during Open Sauce. Also Meshtastic does work great on raspi, I will have a raspi cyberdeck Meshtastic demo running during the event at the booth.

[@saveitforparts]

Sounds good!

[@DanielGliebe]

Yes, I was about to say the same thing. We are the Coilgun booth and potentially the direct neighbor to the Meshtastic booth. I have one of my T-Beam mesh radios connected to the Coilgun so you can literally fire it over mesh using your own radio. Muahahaha.

[@fluxpawlynx]

Yea do it! I like the way you think. Also maybe thats because there's a chance I'm literally the same person but a cat.

[@saveitforparts]

Oh dang, that sounds amazing! I have a big box of big capacitors set aside for a coilgun but just haven't had time to build one! I think we are also a Meshtastic neighbor :-)

[@rrittenhouse]

I feel like we broke some meshtastic nodes during the Dayton Hamvention this year lol.

[@patchvonbraun]

"I really can't figure out what these things are good for, so, I bought a couple more..." Epic.

[@makerpat]

Try installing a small solar-powered repeater (Heltec v3-based) on your roof, with a good antenna. One interesting use case could be in the tunnels at Sandland - put up a few repeaters and see how deep you could get text-based comms. And the GPS unit is necessary for standalone units as a time source is needed for the encryption to work propery.

[@saveitforparts]

Sandland setup would be fun!

[@noahwilde2320]

Go with a rak wisblock for solar node instead. Heltec v3 is esp32 based which will pull about 10x the current of the ram wireless ones. My rak wisblock can last weeks on a single 18650 cell vs my heltec v3 which gets a day or two.

[@Heimbasteln]

Do channels like long fast have encryption? Mine seems to work without GPS, but I have never tried encrypted channels, so that might be why.

[@KingMoronProductions]

Don't use the HeltecV3s for solar setups, they draw 200-300mA consistently, versus something like a RAK Wisblock that draws around 5-10mA. You can get away with a nice small solar panel for a wisblock, or a Pico lora board, etc, but won't get away with it with a power hungry Heltec (ESP32 based). The Heltecs are great if power isn't a problem though, like running on a handheld battery for the day out and about, they've got a screen and wifi and bluetooth, but yeah, of all the Mesh nodes, they're the worst pick for a solar setup.

[@KingMoronProductions]

​@@Heimbasteln The default channel when using the LongFast radio mode is called LongFast (if you were set to MediumSlow the channel would be called MediumSlow), it is technically encrypted, but with a default encryption key of AQ== which is public knowledge and built into the firmware, if it weren't, people wouldn't be able to access it without entering it first. Any secondary channels that you set up yourself (or are given the name and key for by someone else) are also encrypted and actually secure, as they're only readable by the people who have that specific encryption key. So, for example, don't share that private key over LongFast, as anyone out there could read it and gain access to your private channel.

[@jannoswanepoel2506]

The Lilygo T Deck is a pretty finicky device overall - I prefer using the bluetooth modules with my phone's keyboard. I use these for when I go camping or hiking with friends. I also enjoy trying to set up a cell-style network - its just tinkering on a city-wide scale. Here in South Africa I know of a few farmers that use it for their families on their farms, as its more reliable than cell signal in some places. Particularly in South Africa with frequent power outages, cell service can be dodgy - so just having Meshtastic as a backup gives some peace of mind.

[@zvpunry1971]

Meshtastic uses 868MHz in the EU and something between 902 and 928MHz in the US. That is almost line of sight communication. In the right conditions it has a range of over a hundred kilometers (there have been low earth orbit satellites using LoRa). But on the ground it is limited by trees, buildings, weather, curvature of the earth and such things. The real range in these conditions are just a few hundred meters (from living room to living room in the city) up to a few kilometers (from rooftop to rooftop). To get usable range, it needs help by repeaters! Put a tiny one with just bluetooth/wlan on your roof and use it with the phone. Then you can establish connections with the people around you (if there are any). But if you see some hills from your rooftop, then put a tiny one with a battery and a small solar panel up there. Such an repeater has a range around 50 to 100 km and because it is a mesh network, it connects every node it can reach (all the rooftop nodes). And suddenly it works really good, that is when you put it in the drawer of completed projects and start something new. ;)

[@Hebdomad7]

One doesn't simply buy one node. I already have six and they have been really interesting to play around with Once I get some proper cases printed I should be able to put one in each vehicle for a family holiday convoy. You don't need GPS, but you can add extra sensor modules and use them like a mesh connected weather station. It's not like amateur radio where people seek contacts, its people making their own community communication networks.

[@wateringcan2]

That tiny connector at 2:55 is called U.FL. It's strange that they used it here, since it's designed for weight-critical applications like FPV antennas on RC airplanes and drones. U.FL is very fragile and has a limited number of mating cycles, owing to the extreme weight reduction. MMCX is a step up in durability from U.FL. I always *feel* like I'm going to break those, but I haven't actually managed to yet.

[@truthreigns7]

well it was nice that your sister thought of you and sent the unit to you.

[@1mouseman]

My sister only asks for money 😂😂

[@briianhebert]

maybe his sister sent it to him as some sort of punishment game

[@tfr]

i have no idea what’s going on in any of your videos, but you’re such a genuine and down to earth guy who enjoys sharing his hobby with the internet, so awesome watching you share this stuff :)

[@draygosmith]

"... picking up a broken boat, all the usual Save it for Parts stuff." I love this channel 😁

[@kennethrkennedy]

I have a plane that flies over my area with a node. I have contacts over 200 miles away.

[@KandiKlover]

No you don’t. Liar.

[@RyanMercer]

I miss my Treo 650, loved that thing.

[@turnnburns9110]

Love your content, my man! I'm always super pumped when I see a new upload. I've learned so much from your channel, and it seems to never get old! Thanks again!

[@samgraham6355]

Perfect timing! Thank you! Just tried this myself with Heltec V3s,

[@KyleOfTheNorth]

At my old job I repaired Chromebooks and those antenna connectors are the worst thing ever. After you get the muscle memory they're easier but still a pain in the ass. Cheers from the Twin Cities!

[@innercityprepper]

Finally! I am in your neighborhood and I haven't picked up any nodes...yet... but I don't use the standard LongFast channel on my nodes, so you wouldn't see me just yet. I have several nodes plastered all around the east and north metro, and about a dozen pocket nodes to hand out to friends. There is at least a new UI coming for the T-Deck that makes it seem a lot more "app-like" but there's no definite timetable on it.

[@innercityprepper]

Even though I don't use the standard public channel (LongFast) all of my nodes do repeat all traffic that they receive, so if there are meshers around you will at least get a pretty big "signal boost" from the network of nodes I've set up around town. It can be a little overwhelming to learn about all this stuff, and even more overwhelming to make it actually work in a dense urban environment like the one we're in. Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help (and I live about a mile away)

[@innercityprepper]

also I should add - the T-Deck is about the hardest device to actually use, out of all the various devices. It's also one of maybe two or three at most "standalone" devices that doesn't need any sort of other device tethered to it for you to send messages. Most of the portable nodes use the iOS or Android app to take advantage of the OS's keyboard and screen, as well as notifications, sounds, etc etc etc. I have 3 T-Decks that I'm basically waiting to give to people once the new UI finally gets released so they're not so cryptic to try and use.

[@saveitforparts]

Interesting! I'll have to check on that new UI.

[@innercityprepper]

@@saveitforparts Unfortunately it's "date unknown" but it will eventually happen. Meshtastic is an open source project so the more help they get the more likely cool stuff like that will progress.

[@Clembassador]

Make sure in your LORA settings on your device the Frequency Slot is set to 20, that’s the default so you can see all the nodes, if you have it set to 0 it will set your frequency based on your primary channel vs using the frequency slot for 20, I changed mine and I can pick up over 30 nodes in my area now

[@metalwolf112002]

I checked out the mesh map website and at this time, it does have people spread through the US using them, but many of the people show up on the east and west coasts. There werent that many people in the midwest.

[@NoOneFPV]

Hey man, I've been playing with Meshtastic for a few weeks now. I'm in the process of building a RAK repeater with a nice high gain BIG antenna. I've built four small portable units now, two for my best friend and two for myself. I will be building more and giving them to other friends and family because they're so cheap and functional. I think you're going to have fun with it! Also, those tiny little IPEX/u.FL connectors are a LOT easier to snap into place if you have a hard plastic tool and just line it up to the little nipple. Just give it a firm push and they snap into place. As a drone enthusiast, I learned quickly that they're not QUITE as fragile as they appear as long as you use firm, direct pressure and don't give them a way to move laterally. They are useful in areas that has bad/no cell phone coverage or grid-down scenarios. They're also useful for TRULY private (encrypted, requires further setup) messaging. I am setting them up so that if the cell network goes down here (AGAIN), that we will have a backup communication system. I've also deployed GMRS radios to close family members that need alternate communications to get in touch with me, as I am now a caretaker to more than one person and they NEED a way to contact me no matter what the grid does. Also, the battery... It takes the device some time to "learn" the battery characteristics. It gets more accurate the longer it's turned on and functioning, at least that's been my experience so far... but you can't REALLY rely on it that much. It's not RNG, but it's not the most accurate. It's something they seem to be working on! Like everything else with Meshtastic. It's not perfect, it's an emerging technology and most certainly NOT a "mature" project. It's very much a work in progress. Treat it as such and you'll get far more enjoyment out of it! :) Also, if you REALLY want to open up your ability to talk to others, you should look into private MQTT servers that have been set up for your area. I would STRONGLY advice you to NOT set up the "Public MQTT" Meshtastic server for general availability. You will absolutely SWAMP your device *AND* all other devices on the same "LongFast" channel! Use a targeted MQTT server for "public" channel use if you want your device to remain... Not on fire. :) Have fun with it! And welcome to the club!

[@Buzzygirl63]

You're not alone, Gabe - BUT, I'm on the other side of town and only occasionally see a node come and go. I have two Heltecs with stock antennas, so I'm sure they don't reach very far but I can't do outdoor antennas... hopefully more people around here will get their nodes up and running. Thanks for the video!

[@innercityprepper]

I've been (way, way, way too) into MT since last December and I've built dozens of nodes, and I've never seen another one pop up in the twin cities that I didn't build myself (aka build it and give it to a friend). I know I miss public traffic by not using the default LongFast channel on my devices, but I've got solar powered nodes up all over St Paul, Roseville, NE Mpls, and some of the eastern and NE burbs, but not necessarily to chat with random people. I'll have to start driving with a node on the default channel and see if anything ever pops up.

[@Buzzygirl63]

@@innercityprepper Good luck - maybe I picked you up at one point. I think I'm hamstrung by the stock antennas. I still have yet to get a message to anyone even using Long Fast. Again - I think it has a lot to do with the crap stock antennas. Wish I could get something outside but it's not possible in my current apartment situation.

[@innercityprepper]

@@Buzzygirl63 You'd be surprised what you can do that's not technically in your home or apartment. For several friends I've put a small solar node magnetically onto a streetlight pole near their apartment, and then you can use a heltec from inside your home and it will slingshot off the better-placed (and better antenna'd) solar node to greatly extend your mesh (and provide mesh resources for others that are using the same frequency and LoRa settings). For others, I've done similar things with their cars, putting a powerful node in their car that acts as a repeater for their smaller pocket nodes like heltecs or t-echo's, and run on batteries while the car isn't running. One of the big advantages of some meshtastic nodes (the ones that use the NRF chipset instead of the ESP32 one) is that they can run for a very long time on a pretty small battery. Easily a week between charges from a single 18650 cell!

[@Buzzygirl63]

@@innercityprepper I’ve got two Heltecs so they’re the ESP32 chipsets and yes they are power hogs. When I first got into this, there were not very many units of any kind of available. I am more curious about this technology than anything else. I am not too invested in it at this point, maybe in the future.

[@terrorizingtheturbine]

On the other hand, my neighborhood is FULL of meshheads.. except the ones in my neighborhood are all about collecting copper for some reason

[@mazar420]

Ridgway manchester did a couple videos on these lots of fun :)

[@TheDankFarmer]

Best use case for me is local emergency communication if the phone networks go down, it's also nice being in control of your own network plus you can encrypt it, and theres not a bunch of rules or licences like going the ham route. I believe you can also do things with Atak/Civtak with the gps modules

[@BangBangBang.]

I think maybe printing up some flyers announcing it. I think you can get people "off grid" with messaging and communications with how popular the backlash is to Big Tech. I want to launch the infrastructure and wait for the users/usage to come later like emergencies or area events. You know "build it and they will come"

[@dougtaylor7724]

Sis hooked you up! Time for a repeater on the tower. Coming up in next video, we install a 100 foot tower.

[@frequencymanipulator]

Yeah, what is the biggest compatible antenna you can get your hands on, and how high can you mount it? 🥳

[@moormoor4281]

It's big in UK England

[@digitalmediafan]

It certainly is. It's all Andy Kirby's fault🙃Over 1200 nodes now here

[@Azamyth]

I use meshtastic during camping trips to popular spots that bog down whichever cell tower is closest i bring a few glued to the back of phones to handout to people from the group when they go off on their own. But i also struggle to really find a use for them outside of those trips

[@innercityprepper]

That's one of the main (and IMO best) use cases for meshtastic - private license-free text comms for small groups over 1-5 mile(ish) area. It's already pretty well-known that meshtastic doesn't function all that well once you reach a certain node amount on a mesh (it's around 100-150 nodes) - and that won't be fixed for at least a year when they re-work the mesh logic in a breaking-change sort of way for the device firmware (Aka when Meshtastic 3.0 is released... current version is 2.3.10)

[@londo776]

Why not just use licence free handhelds much better and you can use voice

[@ProjectGeek1]

Meshtastic has a Python CLI, you can interface with serial devices or IP based.

[@aserta]

8:20 Dear neighbor, i find you on this fine day to be quite displeasing. The smell of elderberries is wafts over here. Ta ta.

[@Zsignal743]

I’m glad you got into it. It’s the coolest technology right now. Hope to see you do new projects on it.

[@NEConforti]

Welcome to the fun. Only hits I really get in my part of Florida are people passing by on the highway. Otherwise, all the nodes in my area are me. Excited to see you get into it.

[@RiffZifnab]

"really inconvenient text messages" seems to be meshtastic's modus operandi. The software interface is still really in development. Cool tech looking for a use case. I have two and should turn one on and keep broadcasting something.

[@iblackfeathers]

if you have one single unit you can enable mqtt and use your phone’s connectivity with a phone app to reach nodes outside your physical range. think of it similar to d-star or other internet gateway for ham radio. similar concept where you can make use of it before getting other meshtastic nodes for testing.

[@AddieDirectsTV]

Dang. I was hoping there was more activity here in the Cities. I’ve thought of getting one of those after seeing Ringway Manchester using them in the UK.

[@innercityprepper]

There is some activity, and it's still growing. Keep at it!

[@dazednconfused31337]

I have a Heltec inside the loft, NW UK. It gets like 7 km to a couple of nodes then picks up group messages, populates others on the map and shows now "37 of 111 online". ChUtil 22%, AirUtil 10% (Router client mode). I tried my other in a backpack and they probably worked intermittently to a 500m radius due to obstructions. But I didn't walk further. On holiday I got 4 miles with the other in a window. Surprisingly the BT works even downstairs and is way better than via wifi. I guess I can only DM those I'm direct to and sometimes can traceroute others only a few hops away - but maybe group chat everyone? Also the mesh can get too overloaded to traceroute... Because a video advised us to crank up all those NodeInfo and neighbourhood position settings and it got too busy. It was awkward to understand who you have a good signal to. My second device would route through the one in the loft and everyone suddenly had -55 signal instead of ~125. So all the various node strengths I see now, are they due to it going through someone else? Try the Liam Cottle meshmap, you can click a node to plot who hears who.

[@SegHaxx]

i've got a few meshtastic radios up near maple grove, with really bad antennas so my range record is 1.2km so far. not very popular here yet, no. i've picked up some scattered mesh near downtown st paul and made contact with someone from the roof of a parking ramp next to the minneapolis convention center if you're "wardriving" for nodes i suggest making sure your radio is on range test mode, so that its actively putting out packets. being a low power tech it doesn't normally advertise itself very much like wifi does spamming the mesh is hardly a worry if you're not even picking up any mesh 🙃

[@mbmann3892]

BRO you're going to love it

[@JH-jp9sv]

What a pleasant hot dish like meshtastic review. It brightened my day. Stay the course. Surprised you didn't see utility company noise around 900mhz. My neck of the woods it's -50Db from a rubber ducky every little while.

[@chrisjc2k]

As someone that recently got some meshtastic nodes to play with, with a hope that it will work well at a busy festival when the mobile networks fail (which happens quite often due to the number of people concentrated in a very small area) I've got one of the tiny ones with a tiny antenna. When I've stayed in tower hotels overnight in london and recently dusseldorf I leave it overnight by the window and usually manage to pick up a couple of nearby nodes but alas my messages to channel 0 seem to get delivered but no one ever responds. Ideally it would be nice to have a proper permanent node at home with a large antenna on the roof as I can see from others testing that you can get a very decent range with a good antenna. They're fun little devices to play with!

[@londo776]

but pointless

[@chrisjc2k]

@@londo776 it’s not pointless if it works and does the job

[@mindshelfpro]

Thanks for not being afraid to show your failures

[@andynull8869]

even-a-blind-squirrel-finds-a-nut

[@Aeduo]

Even though it's not a hardware review, it's still a decent example of the user experience. I imagine like was said, someone really in to hacking and tinkering who could write firmware for it could probably make it do some neat stuff, but out of the box yeah it's pretty limited, and pretty janky with what it can do. I'm guessing most users just learn all the interface quirks and live with it and they just never get fixed. :/

[@KumaThaBear]

I wonder if you could put t-beam nodes in the tunnels to bounce messages around the different caverns down there, and with enough, maybe get a signal outside!

[@Petzel_KZ9ZAP]

The T-Deck is definitely a challenge. I started with two T-Decks which helped quite a bit in understanding them, since I could talk to myself. The keyboard and screen seem like they would be nice but I've found it much simpler to connect a phone through Bluetooth or a PC through USB and use the web app. I've had similar experiences with the keyboard and device itself being unresponsive but I've found that the unresponsiveness correlated to my lack of knowledge and the more I got in tune with using the T-Deck, the fewer problems I had. The T-Deck firmware is beta, so we can hope there is a lot more development to come and that the T-Deck will become a useful standalone device. I too have yet to connect to any other Metastatic device, other than my own. I take one device with me when traveling around the area and send random messages on the public channel but I've yet to see another device.

[@bluefoxtv1566]

Reminds me of a toy i had back in the 2000's. It would set up a mesh network and you could play games and text others that had it and were in range.

[@edbersan]

Cybiko?

[@bluefoxtv1566]

@@edbersan Yes that is the one i had.

[@BrAiNeeBug]

ChUti is the Channel Utilisation, so how much is going on or how much noise is there.

[@migalito1955]

Nice sister..... I've considered picking one up. I am undecided because I am in a very remote location. Plus once they catch on the number of users ends up slowing down speed of the network thus communication can be iffy.

[@aserta]

The trick with the antenna jack (on the board) is to hook the (opposite to the cable) lip first, then push down on the wire end. Then they become a breeze. Also, yes. The washers go on the nut side. Regular washer, grover, then nut. If you have an extra washer, then the manufacturer intended for it to be on the other side, but in this case, clearly, there's no room for that, so you double up the existing washer or chuck it in the parts bin for the next lucky dip. :)

[@RichardPhillips1066]

Useful for highly rural communities with no internet, but would require organising to be implemented effectively

[@donnymazon8516]

We are trying to get a big network going over here in PA and u may need a GPS to show on the map

[@dean5263]

Great video. I'm excited for you that you now have a HackRf to play with, I have had one for 7 years now. I am hoping for your sanity that you are not plagued with the dreadful static discharge into the antenna, the tiny IC used for the receive amp (a duplicate IC is also used for the PA) is a horrid thing to replace when they stop working.

[@londo776]

You need to get the Clifford heath version it solves that problem

[@dean5263]

@@londo776 Thanks, I'll look into it.

[@MontegaB]

Check that u.fl antenna connector. You should see some nodes in any reasonably populated area

[@Kustav]

I'm convinced there are some use cases where meshtastic would be an ideal tool to have. Its also weirdly appealing to have a sorta 'off the grid' text messaging system... even if not many people use it. Keen to see what you do with it next.

[@carpespasm]

The main uses I can imagine for them that beat normal cell texting is at conventions where the cell towers are choking on users, off-grid quiet radio coms like hunters spread over an area checking on each other without a radio squacking, and for folks trying to discretely communicate during protests using the encryption functions.

[@pappyjohn8142]

Always interesting AND entertaining

[@Psychonaut1974]

I recently ordered me one of those, it will arrive in a couple of days. This video makes me even more anxious to get it a.s.a.p :)

[@PaulBigwood]

Now you need to set up a bunch of nodes out at SandLand throughout the caves. You could have connectivity in the sandbar!

[@KandiKlover]

I heard about these last year and have been keeping an ear on the default frequency with my communication received but never heard anything yet. Weird that there’s a bunch of videos of these all of a sudden lately.

[@davewalker7126]

Like the DMR craze of a few years ago, its the new landfill

[@rebilacx]

I had the Palm Treo as well back in the day! It was a cool phone for it's time.

[@jeffhensley501]

Try connecting it to your wifi, using the Network configuration in Settings. Then you could turn on MQTT and pick a topic that is regional to you (picking the root topic will just overflow the device's ability to keep up with the traffic). That will let you see nodes that are around your area using the web connection. Then you could drive near those spots and see if you pick them up on RF.

[@willderousse]

Use tweezers to install the tiny antennas. Align it with the tweezers and maybe a small jewel screwdriver to apply a small amount of force to snap it into place.

[@pd4dd71]

have some nodes for 2 weeks now and its neat to fiddle with it. . there is getting more and more activity in the southern parts of the netherlands also.. anyway loved the video ...

[@moormoor4281]

Thanks

[@mixedmonthly]

In theory your mini comp 10:49 you could run meshtastic as web client and if you have enough resources you run Wintak as well can do stuff in festival settings or hiking camping places with poor cell reception or for encrypted chat but you are visible

[@Stormcloakvictory]

I honestly love MMCX connectors for my headphones. Only problem I've encountered tho is that on cheap Chinese ones, QC and fitment isn't amazing. Some are too loose and love to disconnect/fall loose, and other's are a bit too shallow resulting in the same, but when they come without defects, they're good.

[@DirtyPlumbus]

Will you be building up the HackRF? I imagine you'd find all sorts of uses for it.

[@saveitforparts]

I'll definitely be doing more things with it soon!

[@DirtyPlumbus]

@@saveitforparts look forward to it. 👍

[@MasterSirman]

Where can i find one of those keyboards? x) 10:09

[@saveitforparts]

I think it's this one: amzn.to/4dyOhRT

[@urbexandbrokenthings4806]

in oklahoma we only have Meth-tastic!!!

[@hackbyte]

Maybe look at the channels from Ringway Manchester and Andy Kirby.. They're both hams from UK and have some fun with meshtastic in different setups. ;) Just from the get go, you could put some distributed meshtastic CO2 and O2 sensors into the sandland caves..... could be interesting. ;)

[@londo776]

meshtastic is crap For many reasons no Voice Is one, Try and send a text using them it's almost impossible and long winded. so 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 pmr446 Would be better off grid.(On the south coast of the UK). Ringway Manchester and Andy Kirby are fools they need to get out more

[@enigma51ted]

God blesss you from central MN, just blocks from a major HAM Shack in Waite Park :)

[@AddieDirectsTV]

Wait. What?!

[@suntzu5562]

I use it for mesh networking connectivity on ATAK for mountainous search and rescue

[@suntzu5562]

Provides real time GPS position sharing with a team and overcomes terrain with people acting as nodes

[@spokehedz]

I just got a few of the Pico+Waveshare modules, and it is so much better using it via that hardware serial.

[@tomkeyser8384]

A reminder for those that don't know. I'll always hook up the antennas before you power it up

[@papafrank7094]

Yes, if you don't install the antenna first, you will fry the unit. Also, PLEASE RTFM or lookup the directions on YT to assist you in the install. And have a reasonable expectation of the device and what it can or cannot do.

[@innercityprepper]

Normally that is sage advice with RF stuff, but having built more than 40 meshtastic nodes (and run a couple of them extensively without antenna accidentally) the super low wattage that is being used to transmit on these things (~0.25W) doesn't fry the circuitry. I drove around for a whole day with the ipex connector on my car-based node disconnected without me knowing, and it would have sent hundreds of pings, AND I was trying to range test with it...and it never showed any ill effects, and continues to work fine to this day.

[@andynull8869]

but it is low powered but ok good practice.... I am curious if this is true edit: it seems the comment above answered my curosity

[@saveitforparts]

Didn't come with a manual, I did check out a couple KZbin videos on the thing before I assembled it though.

[@innercityprepper]

@@andynull8869 The only way I've seen any meshtastic device get fried (and this happens a lot if you aren't careful when buying parts, etc) is if you use the reverse polarity on the battery connector and plug in the battery. That'll fry anything though, not just these things.

[@brandon7219]

Treo 650 fan here!

[@michaellichter4091]

That sounds like an adventurous device, I'm curious to see how it develops. That was quite interesting. Google has also built something similar with Alexa, as new devices are equipped with a LoRA chip.

[@nrobsoekim]

Welcome to meshtastic. The waterfall should look similar to the logo //\ as it is sweeping across frequencies.

[@RNMSC]

The LTE antenna is something that will work, but that external antena is a better fit. I like 'The Alley Cat"'s t-deck case a bit more than the one you received. Yes the board antenna connecter pretty much sucks. GPS is handy if you want Mestastic to track where you are, and get the time from something useful. There is no internal RTC clock within the system. But not, it's not required. And yes that internal map is related to having the GPS as well. I'm working on setting up a couple of repeaters, one on the roof here in Robbinsdale, and another up at my not really an edition of SandLand) I bought the land to retire on, I'm retired now, but can't really move up there at the moment. Need to get back out of retirement for a few years. What some are doing with LoRA but not necessarily Meshtastic, is part of home automation. for sensor traffic carrying. As the ESP32 doesn't really have a multi-tasking OS, (it has firmware that provides something like that, but it's not a full OS that can launch more than one user app.) So unless it's integrated into Mestastic itself, it's probably not going to happen while Meshtastic is on the device. That might change, who knows. My own preference would be to be able to take notes that get synced up to my server at home w/o having to rely on Google or someone else to not be reading them over whatever comms channel I use. Shopping lists, etc. There were about a hundred or so users at Hamvention this year, and they ran into issues with the configuration of channel 0, as some of the things that the default configuration does is send fairly short messages over long transmit times. This is good for range, not so good for high volume traffic. When properly configured, with properly tuned antennas, these things have demonstrated phenominal range for something working just under a Gigahz. As part of my relay setup, I'm considering pairing two devices, one for local high speed coms, and another for distant but slow traffic, and see if I can reach others. Have fun!

[@tomservo5007]

is sending/receiving LoRa messages via satellite still a thing? If so, I would like to see that setup

[@saveitforparts]

I'm not really sure, I have that on my to-do list to look into when I have time.

[@gabrielex]

I think it would be cool to connect it to something else like a weather station or some sensor in your physical mailbox that can notify you.

[@jonlangford7622]

I was wondering when you would get to this. Thank you.

[@Stiviii_01]

Where you get the case for t-deck I am looking around but i not find please help to get

[@MPLS_Andy]

I'm in Minneapolis and been thinking of getting into Mesh. Maybe soon there will be more nodes here!

[@thriftynick27]

Did you happen to go past Minot, ND on an Amtrak the other day?

[@saveitforparts]

I did! I had a node in the window of the train and sent out a couple test messages in larger towns, did you see one?

[@saveitforparts]

KZbin isn't great for following up on comments, but could I mention this in a video if I do something on Meshtastic relating to this trip? We just got home and I haven't had time to edit anything yet. I'm also on a couple Meshtastic Discords that I need to pay more attention to, or you can email me (gabe at saveitforparts dot com) if you want.

[@thriftynick27]

@@saveitforparts Yep! Got one from your T-Beam delivered to my T-Deck. I replied but I think you were out of range. I'm using a 2dBi stubby antenna. Someone on the reddit told me to look up ur name on KZbin. Cool channel! I subscribed.

[@thriftynick27]

@@saveitforparts Yes, that would be cool! I got a couple pics of your messages I can send you as well.

[@Kallinenjp]

I agree 100% with your sentiments about use case, I like innovation, I like radios, etc, but I just don't know what I would do with something like this. It's like a weird inconvenient cell phone.

[@innercityprepper]

Pretty much the entire point of it is to be a texts-only "cell phone" when there is no cell signal.

[@myfavoriteviewer306]

Lucky! I never got a nice meshtastic kit from my sister. Well, I don't have a sister, but still. 😂 I've been so tempted for quite some time to get into this, but I'm pretty remote. Might not get interesting unless I pretend to be someone else's sister and surprise them with a kit.

[@Badg0r]

You've inspired me to get a few of the devices and I'm learning about this before installing them. Are there any updates from your side? I've been looking on KZbin for weeks now. Meshtastic needs an influencer to grow and reach the audience.

[@saveitforparts]

I do have an update where I tried it from a small plane. I'm still learning about it myself!

[@GNARGNARHEAD]

do they have a bulletin board system? yeah, not quite sure of the applications, might need it if these corpos keep sizing the internet 😆👍

[@UncleBildo]

Can relate to tiny crap and ape fingers. My fingers would be more at home picking boogers out of a lowland gorilla's nose, or busting open termite mounds. When I was tearing apart computers and occasionally reassembling them right, I struggled. These days, damned "keys" on a smart phone are a challenge. When you can push 8 keys at once with your finger tip, and you are old and getting near sighted anyhow, they make you invoke the old gods and fill the swear jar quickly.

[@ve3meumc704]

51.8" square loop fir 915 works fantastic

[@ste76539]

I've bought a few different 'Liligo' products, without exception, they all seem best described as 'flaky'.

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

8:00 It needs to be be part of another system, usually with no need for internet for low-bandwidth comms. The practical use cases _(including the fact it acts as a node-finder)_ for the LoRaWAN is to couple that with triggering of satellite data downloads and also DVB-T and DAB (TV and Radio) not far off how the old Nintendo games-console SNES connected to a satellite dish but needed a dial-up modem for upstream _(Satellaview but this time for serious Blender3D and mapping,, especially WaterML compatible map-data with Gaussian heat-maps using pg_vector for vector-similarity-comparison and RUST API postgresML LLM for probability estimation like Markov-state-transitions and Rosenblatt-Parzen window method probability estimation, not just fun games)._ The LoRaWAN in that set-up would however provide telemetry, reliability-metrics _(MTTF, MTTR, ROCOF, MTBF, PODOF, MTTA, FIT, etc.)_ and file-integrity-checksum _(as with hashing and UUID and latitude-longitude-altitude-zenith and bearings, plus pitch-roll-yaw nintendo-Wii-remote accelerometers akin to X-Y-Z co-ordinates and a digital-compass sensor data, with a cronjob time-date-stamp)_ and also quiz pro-forma submissions, and SSH "sc-im" spreadsheet data such that WaterML compatible map data, with node-triangulation, can be generated. It would run Gnuplot and gnumeric, and this could also show the carrier signals from a PLL. The S-band and K-band and (with El-Hail too) weather satellite (and HRPT) USB dongles could work with it. It would need a proper CPU _(and, with at least 4GB RAM so it can do DCHP better than a mipsel, so a CPU would be say a A53 or amd64-i586 would do for known-quantity instruction-set and protection rings for a camera to scan QR coded input or an agreed-upon RISC-V)_ and not just a microcontroller. All the above would have a USB and RFID hardware key security dongle for logonID and encryption. A known-quantity large amount of data would need to be assumed _(a few DVD ISO file's worth)_ such as Endless-OS ISO _(with its magnettorrent and file)_ because it has a known-quantity dependency tree and a great many wiki articles. It would already be on there as a pre-requisite and would not be assumed to download since it is so large a file _(even though in theory it 'could' do)._ A hash and directory to a file (such as a text file) on the ISO could then be referred to because everybody using the system is assumed to have it already, thereby making imparted information more detailed without needing to send all that data every single time. Also Tesseract OCR could work with SRT files subtitles generated or imported and exported as the system would be compatible with ogg vorbis theora in gxine. All the above would also help the satellite dishes rotate _(and have pitch-roll-yaw in accelerometers and a compass sensor)_ to get a signal whilst moving the dishes. Every now and then a person might also _(although it would not be mandatory)_ include a raspberrypi5 for the accurate clock built into it _(checking things like signal response or latency and so forth)._ These are all _(as per the saveitforparts channel)_ quite low cost components and could be placed on a vehicle and-or school or health-building or fire-assembly point _(or any disaster assembly point including a shelter)_ for disaster preparedness but also for making DVB-T and DAB TV and Radio (and satellite data) better. The amateur radio GNURadioHAM could also be added if a person has the licences to improve that with data modes additionally in the spectroscopy. Filters for the dongles would need to be built-in with pertaining BNC connectors to MCX _(with oscillators needed, be it TCXO, VCXO, OCXO or whatever)._ It would need to run something like Linux or BSD with reverse proxy like DNSCrypt (and Ansible) with RSync. Having a few low costing _(playstation2 usb camera) cameras means that one can have the IR-filter removed to show infrared images in the spectrum for things like body gait movement _(perhaps with sobel edge detection)_ using DLib and Eigen maths libraries with C++ and Python and GTK4, and detail can be added with the LLM later, such as via high precision Gaussian Double in say OpenCL2.3 heterogenous computing. The Orbcoom IoT satellite data snoop could also be added. DAB radio _(but also DVB-T TV)_ could do with requiring LoRaWAN be built in and that some manner of data storage be allowed _(and assumption of say 28GB in Fat32 such as a 32GB NAND storage device, and a second in ReiserFS since it is fast although without metadata and can support large drives too and is historically compatible in some OS even if a mix of read-and-write capabilities, like Fat32 is compatible historically but has limitations)_ over SATA or Parallel port _(ECP or EPP)_ or Ethernet-RJ45, and RS232 UART serial TTL. The bidirectional _(and ECP, EPP modes at say 5MBps speed)_ parallel IEEE1284 _(with a 2nd and 3rd passthrough port)_ are the most important as long as in conjunction wit the Serial RS232 UART TTL connection because the IEEE1284 is also a GPIO, let alone being able to interface to a control surface, but also for storage. The data storage does not need to be particularly fast. If an ethernet port is on there _(which would be iPXE mandatory),_ it should be only 100Mbps with a tiny driver, and there should be say 4 or 5 RJ45 ports whereby one is the WAN input, and the other 3 or 4 are the usual LAN in-out ports either to be split like a normal router or capable of binding _(or link-aggregation as a switch, also with LACP and LAG modes),_ and this means those three 100Mpbs RJ45 ethernet 802.3 can be used as a 300Mbps (and 1 discrete, or 4 at 400Mbps) link for those who are geeks who insist on more speed-bandwidth and yet the large driver size of the RJ45 port _(which has SR-IOV and VMDq in the NIC)_ won't need a large driver like a 1GBPs RJ45 Ethernet NIC often has, and so the small driver could load even over a serial connection in small bandwidth if need be or even (eventually) the LoRaWAN, thereby solving potentially a great many catch22 downtime scenarios. Such a gadget should be capable of having a house-brick sized battery, with charging circuit, to run for a day at least in a power-loss event _(although if a person wants to put a car-battery sized one in, they could do via buck-convertor)._ A different C-sized battery _(with another spare for during the dead-battery swap)_ would power the clock and BIOS settings or similar firmware _(also with options on a Altera MAX II CPLD since it is actually a repackaged FPGA)._ The rig could have a expansion socket for an RTOS module which is not mandatory to get it running (keeping cost low) but there for those who want to upgrade to fancy features. There could be IOMMU implemented by say a northbridge chipset and then also SLAT _(including VT-d and VT-x)_ in a NVMe _(PCIe v4 with bifurcation)_ so that if a person wants to upgrade adding a faster NIC, they can do as a nerd and everybody else need not be bothered by following their higher cost upgrades. The system would not need a modem (in the sense of ADSL or 56K etc.) but could have a sound-card input _(Jack-Audio, Open-Sound-System with Chuck-Audio, FluidSynth, ALSA, LADSPA compatible and with MIDI DA-15 port, aplaymidi and FreePATS GM with awesfx sinstalled)_ and output for mic-line and line-out and headphones, useful for troubleshooting but also for those who insist on adding data-in-out (RX and TX) via sound-wave square-wave modulation. The device should have a FLIRC style receiver for IR but also a IR-Blaster to send and receive data (RX and TX) and so the parallel port could have a driver stack waiting for a EDR Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP dongle to plug in. This then not only allows other sound devices and sending or receiving of data as streams and files but also a Nintendo-wii-remote controller could work with it. The Linux kernel has long had support for that. All the above does not require massive infrastructure _(the satellites already exist)_ and is inexpensive _(sometimes even often eWaste that can be upcycled)_ parts. A community server now and then (maybe with a DHT) could allow for Squid_serverGPLv2 for bandwidth management and cache to allow small bulletin board messaging. While all the above could have a MIPI interface if a person who wants to second can install a LCD screen, instead the lower costing screen in the video _(or and 2 pin-outs for 128x32 LCD monochrome LCD screens)_ would be the standard on it, and in addition to that blackberry-style-keyboard, the numeric keypad found on a QWERTY keyboard _(including those 9 home-end-delete-insert keys and arrows and an extra shift-select to change their functions yet again)_ with one clickable analogue joystick. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

[@saveitforparts]

OK I like the screen name but did I just get spammed by ChatGPT? 😂

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

@@saveitforparts Your subtitles wordcount is higher. Gotcha! ;p I am prepared for the long-comment-phobes. :D There could be a convention on youtube whereby if uploaders want to set the word-count limit to the old comment system, they can do, and then it puts flag in the description text to say they have arbitrarily decide upon it. Anything technically in depth generally requires detail _(especially in comparison to the video spoken wordcount let alone text shown on the screen)_ to provide something other than a Chrimbo Cracker motto masquerading as a succinct sage proverb _(in comment form)._ People don't seem to like the fact that Google increased the KZbin wordcount, and yet youtube are specific about various things they want to be the case on youtube such as the written guides on not having black-bars on widescreen video captured as 4-3 aspect ratio and so on. Even though a print-preview would have been a worthwhile technology, Google got it right on the word-count. Those who want shorter comments can say so in he video or description text. I've tested this over years in commenting systems and emails and the word-count people seem most comfortable with as a maximum is between 200 and 400 words maximum. They can use one of those AI apps to condense something into brevity, however, if they mess up, they cannot say the person who wrote the longer detail had not told them so. Everybody can be happy. :) As for the LoRaWAN (RX and TX) inclusion in TV DVB-T and DAB radio, in the British Isles we have a TV Licence so it would help wit that in the above. The popularity of the TV Licence is a mixed bag. I would say this inclusion would help its popularity and, as it is not internet, it is a form of prepping in a different technology for comms. It would also have Vimwiki on it with po translation addon-plugin for different languages. Makes sense because it can all be done command line if needed to trickle the data by low bandwidth connection. In USA there is not quite the same TV Licence scenario, so the relevance might not be so obvious. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

[@kenneth6731]

That's the nicest digital paperweight I have ever seen!

[@qsmile]

The beefy antena seem to best part. 13:07

[@g4lmn-ron401]

I had a play with Meshtastic and was totally underwhelmed. You do need a GPS or manually set the co-ordinates.

[@EricTechstuffs]

Being a ham. I am confused by this...as you are. Is it supposed to be an of grid communication system Text only no voice ? I think that zello radios does a lot of this ?

[@DHChkDsk]

using an old PocketPC sounds like a great idea, maybe there is some kind of serial CF-card to interface with it or IR ^^ I think Bluetooth was not very common then sadly

[@AnotherFreakingDude]

A lot of these problems can be fixed playing the meshtastic code, or by adding some hardware. For example, the battery indicator is voltage based, by measuring the current you can get way closer to reality (but it may require hardware mods). So yeah, really cool but not for the average consumer.

[@randykitchleburger2780]

Good cells have repeatable characteristics

[@PhonePhreak3z]

Been waiting for this video!!!

[@antispiral3311]

Gabe - great channel, I learn a lot here! But what channel do you use for meshtastic? Usage is still low overall and they don't tell you what channel to use. Thanks for the content!

[@saveitforparts]

LongFast is the standard one that most people seem to be on