Meshtastic LORA nodes. Anyone playing?

I'm still waiting for some nodes in the west Woburn area. Not a fast-growing area of the MA mesh.
My T-Beams are getting beat up, so I'm trying out some Rak hardware.
Take care with your next update, 2.5.3.a7ad5ee has problems. I just moved a T-beam back to 2.5.2.771cb52 which is working a bit better.
 
The maps are not entirely true. I think they only count nodes connected to MQTT (AKA connected to the internet). I have two nodes in my house right now and they don't show up anywhere, and I don't know how they would short of MQTT. There are also self-reported maps, which should be taken with a grain of salt.

I've sent out a few messages on the default LongFast channel to see if anyone's out there, and so far no responses.
 
ToddDubya said:
The maps are not entirely true. I think they only count nodes connected to MQTT (AKA connected to the internet). I have two nodes in my house right now and they don't show up anywhere, and I don't know how they would short of MQTT. There are also self-reported maps, which should be taken with a grain of salt.

I've sent out a few messages on the default LongFast channel to see if anyone's out there, and so far no responses.
Click to expand...
My three radios do not have internet connectivity and do not have mqtt enabled
 
ToddDubya said:
I checked out that Meshmap.net. Nobody anywhere near here.
Click to expand...
No. But I like that map, showing all the hills. I gotta go back and look at the MassGIS software. I want to figure out something with hills and sight lines. I gotta find out how to turn on symbols for hills of whatever height. It would be REALLY cool if you could get some sort of slider widget, and change elevation to make different ones come and go. Then add in another slider for "distance from X".
 
I just looked on my phone and it sees my two nodes plus these. I'm not sure how it knows that Raven1 is 5.9 miles away because I don't have GPS on mine. Maybe it uses my phone GPS? Based on where it shows up on the map, I'd say that distance is accurate. He/She looked to be out hiking earlier today.

I assume the "Hops Away" means I see Raven1 through one of the other nodes. That's pretty cool.

Lastly, the node connected to my phone is in an upstairs window with the antenna oriented vertically, and it sees the extra nodes. The one connected to my laptop is downstairs oriented horizontally and it sees only my two nodes. Height is might? Sike, now they both see it. I gotta spend more time getting to know this GUI. I don't understand all of the info it gives me.

1727832669929.png

I wanted to do some range testing but I spent the entire afternoon/evening on the phone with my family. Tomorrow it is.
 
inerlogic said:
depends on how you have the app set up
Click to expand...
Thanks, I had to dig deep for it. It's actually in the phone settings, not the app itself.

Next up, does anybody know why my messages don't come up in chronological order? It's like it leaves the last message I received at the bottom, but adds new sent messages in order, above the last received message. So if you try to recreate a conversation it makes no sense.
 
I just did a longer test with the home unit upstairs in a window with the antenna oriented vertically. I stopped at every corner and sent the intersection. If it failed, I gave it one retry then moved on. The best distance I got was 2200 feet.

One part of the route I walked was kind of down over a hill, so that makes sense, but there are some dead spots relatively close to my house. Must just be trying to squeeze through houses with asbestos siding or something.

I'm gonna get some better antennas and see how they do. Not even being consistent around my own neighborhood isn't terribly useful.
 
rogersmithiii said:
Thinking of ordering a couple of these, and encouraging folks to put up some nodes. The technology sounds interesting, and best of all for hams, it's cheap. :)


Is anyone messing around with this?
Click to expand...

I was planning on it but since my flux capacitor sh*t the bed, I'm relegated to old school tech.

Can you explain what this is and what it is for?

Thx
 
You can send messages between them from your phone without using the cell network. Think of it like off grid texting. Many also support additional sensors for all sorts of applications.
 
Is it WiFi or Bluetooth? Or neither? Or both?

From the sounds of it, one person's network can connect with another person's nearby?
 
It depends on the device. You connect your phone (for example) to your device via Bluetooth or wifi, and the device connects to other devices over the (LoRa) mesh network. The devices don't talk to each other using Bluetooth or wifi.

The WisBlock devices I bought don't have wifi, only Bluetooth.
 
On @Admin 's advice, I ordered a few antennas from Digikey. Lacking a way to test the antennas I have, I am going on faith that they suck and that what I'm ordering is going to be better. I have a few dollars burning a hole in my wallet that may go towards a NanoVNA. That would allow me to test antennas at these frequencies. My analyzer only goes to 600MHz I believe.


View: https://youtu.be/V3f-Y3EfsBU


One thing that's been irking me is both devices keep getting disconnected from my phone/laptop. I lost all of my messages, which is no big deal, but twice now I've had to manually reboot them to be able to reconnect. That doesn't bode well for using them places I can't readily access.

I wonder if it's related to my logging laptop, because both times it happened I just happened to be using that laptop. Maybe it's trying to use my phone as a hotspot and mucking up the Bluetooth?
 
Im using the android app and I haven't seen any connection issues. Unless there is something flaky with your laptop's bluetooth or possibly the BT on the mesh node itself.
 
OK, so I see these also involve a laptop and bluetooth. Or is that just to set them up?
Is there a big picture overview or introduction on these things and how this tech works anywhere?
Just want to know ahead of time what is involved here timewise. Also need to find a few people to get together with and see if they'd like to join in.
 
Coyote33 said:
OK, so I see these also involve a laptop and bluetooth. Or is that just to set them up?
Is there a big picture overview or introduction on these things and how this tech works anywhere?
Just want to know ahead of time what is involved here timewise. Also need to find a few people to get together with and see if they'd like to join in.
Click to expand...
YouTube --> the comms channel

Everything you need to know is right there. The Comms Channel
 
Thanks D.

Edit: Holy crap, there's a lot there! Might have to save that for night time. Too much happening. Chores, Saturday stuff, range time, dog time, wife time ;-) , etc.
 
I haven’t dipped my toe into Meshtastic yet…

Can I set up a system that scans the LoRa frequency band and records hits? I’m checking to see if an Unidentified SDS100/200 can do so, even if it can’t decrypt.

I’m looking to see if there’s anyone I can hear. If not, I already have a few silent radios…

I keep a FRS radio running on scan and always jump when when some rare propagation event pops up with some restaurant or daycare chatter. And damned if I haven’t heard 2 CQs on 146.520 MHz in about 150hr of driving between NH and Upstate NY this year. I even had 2 answer my call near Albany and Utica NY!
 
The basic software seems to remember nodes that it's seen and any information those nodes have put out (location, battery level, etc) as well as how many hops away the node was.

I think I've already explained it, but you connect your phone/laptop/tablet to your node with bluetooth/wifi (whatever your node device supports) and it talks to other nodes via 915MHz and "joins the mesh". From there, messages are routed through the mesh network to get where they're going. If you want to send/receive messages you have to have a phone/laptop/tablet connected to a node. Node = meshtastic device.

Not to further derail, but:

I had the same luck with FRS/GMRS on scan. One time I heard two guys working on an electrical outlet in their house. That was the best reception I've gotten. But FRS/GMRS are for talking to people you know, not calling CQ like ham radio. So there's that.

I gave up monitoring repeaters on the highway. When I take long drives like for Thanksgiving/Christmas I monitor 146.520 and hear just about nothing. But everyone else is doing the same. When I'm not trying to pay attention to directions I'll throw my call out a few times and I've had good luck with that. I even add in "southbound on I-whatever". I don't know if that helps or not, but I get responses. I've had some real nice conversations with folks. I told one guy I had an FT-857D with me and he said he'd buy it off me at the next rest area :). One time I got a guy who must have been on a hill overlooking the valley I was in. He could tell from static exactly where I was. Next time I'm going to put a 146.520 sign in my back window.
 
Well I got my new antennas and today I walked most of the same route as the other day. I got message ACKs at a lot more intersections than before but then when I got home and compared what was received vs what was acknowledged, it didn't line up. I only had messages from a couple more spots. The laptop "connected" to the node at home was also not connected, and I had to kill the app and restart it to get the messages. Maybe some got lost in the shuffle? I'd think they'd all get lost, not a few here and there from the middle.

These things are buggy for sure.
 
Well that was cool. Suddenly I had a whole pile of new nodes show up and a guy flying by said he was in a plane over Pittsfield. We exchanged a few messages before he was out of range. I couldn't see him, but he sounded like he was not too far from me at least at one point. I'm guessing all the nodes I saw pop up were because he was acting as a repeater.

Note to self, try and get a node up 1.5 miles high.
 
ToddDubya said:
Well that was cool. Suddenly I had a whole pile of new nodes show up and a guy flying by said he was in a plane over Pittsfield. We exchanged a few messages before he was out of range. I couldn't see him, but he sounded like he was not too far from me at least at one point. I'm guessing all the nodes I saw pop up were because he was acting as a repeater.

Note to self, try and get a node up 1.5 miles high.
Click to expand...
Get at least ONE node up high. My neighbor put one on the hill behind our houses. We can pick up 40 nodes now. I still have to get my repeater node up, it will give us more coverage.
Increase your hop limit to 5 and see if you get more traffic. With so many people setting up a high node at their house and one inside the house, if they dont have the outside node configured properly it will burn 1 hop before it leaves their yard.

Screenshot_20241018-071435_Meshtastic.jpg

Screenshot_20241018-071456_Meshtastic.jpg

Screenshot_20241018-071511_Meshtastic.jpg
 
How do you not use a hop to get through a node?

My problem isn't running out of hops, it's talking into the ether. What stinks is the tree in my yard that would be the best is next to the power lines, so I'm not keen on throwing a rope up in it to hoist up a node. Maybe I can try it in a worse tree.
 
The role is set in the settings. All devices can be any rote, i.e. Client, Repeater, etc. There are many different roles to choose from. The videos @Admin keeps suggesting go through all of it.
 
This system is very interesting. I spoke with Derek last night about it. Currently I am cramming for my General License, the course is the first weekend of November with the exam on that Sunday. So, until that is done nothing else will be on the plate.
 

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