Meshtastic

Does anyone know Meshtastic? Its a system/protocol that uses LoRa to mesh with other Meshtastic nodes. Each node can send, receive and forward messages or sensor data. You typically connect the node to your smartphone via Bluetooth and control everything with the Meshtastic app. There are also standalone devices like the Lilygo T-Deck. The nodes are cheap and easy to set up and everything is encrypted which is really cool! I have around 105 nodes in my area which i can reach and thanks to the meshing i can get distances up to 30km and more! The people also use it for emergency purposes if there was a blackout because the nodes can use solar and battery to power themself. They dont use much energy at all. What do you think of Meshtastic? I really like that i can be independent and secure when messaging my nearby friends and built my network myself. Its kinda like the evolution of walkie-talkies ^^

Heard about these some time ago, but quite a lot of questions were left unanswered. Is the code base open source? Is it patented? Who owns it? Who manufactures it? Is the application interface sufficiently documented? Is future support somehow guaranteed and if yes, then how? And so forth. Apps are the last thing I would place my trust when real emergencies happen, but who knows, maybe these things are worth of consideration.

Yeah, I have set a first node in my town few days ago, just to take it down now for upgrade. I also plan to set up a solar powered node in some near future. I currently have Seeed Xiao ESP32S3 which costs $15 and is super easy to set up, but it's a bit too power hungry for solar, RAK devices are supposedly more suitable for that. >>86069 >Who manufactures it? You clearly have not heard about it, or at least you did not even try to find out what is it. The whole point of Meshtastic is that it's not manufactured by a single entity, most nodes are homemade, based on some popular mcu boards. All of the remaining questions can be answered within a minute of searching, but I'll leave it to you. App is not needed, it's just one of many ways to access your node. It's not that unreliable though, it will work till the battery is dead, but most phones can last a few days if not used.

>>86071 Gave it a keener look. Who is Meshtastic LLC? Could not find any info. On the other side, as Wikipedia reveals, the whole LoRa is patented and uses proprietary SSM. Of the whole stack, only LoRaWAN might be considered in some ways to be open and I could not stumble on any mention about the P2P architecture being based on that. Really, where is the real documentation for adults? So... meh. Too proprietary and hidden layers. Fun toys, perhaps, but I'll pass at least for now, thank you.

>>86051 I remember using lora for a research project back in college. I think the main problem would be that first the protocol itself wasn't made for high data rates, and the mesh architecture would make this even worse because the network will only be as fast as the slowest node in it, maybe not in the beginning but once bottlenecks develop, like the series of nodes between two cities, that will become the general rule. But I might be biased, I love my city but a local network here would oscillate between boring classified ads board and literal hell (csam, revenge porn, harassment campaigns and incitements to violence).

>>86084 I thought lora was text only

>>86074 Lora is only the Modulation, Meshtastic is the Protocol afaik. The Protocol is explained here: https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/mesh-algo/ Code is open source and found here: https://github.com/orgs/meshtastic/repositories >>86084 The mesh is not as fast as the slowest node. Slow nodes are skipped if they not respond, it's quite failsafe. Also we have like 100+ nodes in my city and around. There are no ads or malicious content. Not everything is as bad as the Internet and you can report these nodes to the BNetzA here in Germany. They will trace it back if they know the malicious node name. With the latest Firmware are also DM routes established so that there is not much spam going on when people are writing DMs. >>86125 LoRa is only a modulation, you can send data over it. Its slow yes, but small images are possible. Meshtastic only supports text and sensor data.

>>86051 Cool idea, but currently it lacks a practical application. Everything that can be achieved by a mesh network can be done by any semi-decent wireless Internet. Still, it's a handy tool to remember about when soykaf will hit the fan on a global scale.

I've seen videos of people attaching Meshtastic solar powered nodes to high up towers using drons with magnets attached to latch onto the metal tower

I find it a bit underwelming since it cant handle high amounts of data. I'd rather someone set up a mesh network that is. a proper replacement for the internet and/or cellular phone networks not just sending short messages and some sensor data.

>>86051 OK. What's the bandwidth's min and max and how stable is it?

Is it possible to reduce the scope of the emission (which with radios flies in every direction) by using IR projector arrays and sensors?

>>86169 >Everything that can be achieved by a mesh network can be done by any semi-decent wireless Internet. It depends on what you mean by internet really. Is it like the current one with its checks and authorities?

Meshtastic is /really/ bad in urban environments, because so much chatty telemetry, drives collision rate to near 100% And the flood routing algorithm is very soykafty MeshCore is a better system for an emplaced deployment, by far

>>86750 Perhaps freifunk and B.A.T.M.A.N would interest you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freifunk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.A.T.M.A.N.

>>86051 Actually had a use case for LoRa, which worked. An outdoor music festival where the people who own the land want more money than what a cell phone tower repeater would give them. Total dead zone of reception once you leave the parking lot, which was on a higher elevation plane than the rest of the event. Since I already had a friend's LoRa receiver in the address book. Let a friend know I arrived and was able to find him super quick in a crowd of 10,000 people. Bandwidth is laughable. Think 1980s modems, but with even worse latency. Still think it should do more than SMS. At least some variant of PictoCHAT. So instead of saying '8==D' in public chat or friend. Actually, draw it in a low-quality bitmap. But that's my 8-year-old side talking.