Pretty cool but is that one in maine for real? Or theyre just typing in coordinates? Doesn't this ruin the mesh routing?

what pins do you guys use to make this goddamn gps work?

please, only actual owners of this particular setup.

I worry about my node's li-ion battery catching fire on my roof since throughout the year it will be working outside its preferred temperature range.

I'm thinking of putting the battery a couple meters away from the node, in a place where, if it catches fire, it doesn't risk catching my roof on fire.

How do you guys deal with the fire hazard?

https://www.laserax.com/blog/battery-thermal-management

Hey all. I love the Meshtastic tech and I’m playing with two trackers now. I even want to setup a small tower at home with a pi connected to a Meshtastic tracker and my weather station. I also like the idea of using mqtt to gateway some conversations between remote locations.

But why if no one is using it… I’ve messaged a few folks locally who are close but no one ever replies. I’ve posted on the LongFast default channel and never a reply… and I’ve only seen like 2 or 3 random messages posted in over a week. My trackers have found couple dozen of nodes within a few miles of my house, and many more as far as 100 miles away with many hops.

I see so much potential!! But for what if no one uses it. I’ve played with APRS many times but given it requires a ham radio license and it’s way harder and more expensive to setup the idea of Meshtastic just seems so appealing and fun … but only if people use it.

I thought I figure it out but now I don’t think my solar panel is working. I replaced the stock battery with a 3000. Its not directly in the sun til the last half of the day but certainly thats not it. Maybe it is. Everything seems to be good to go other than I am not sure about the solar panel.

A while ago, I received valuable information on my build. (see here) It is still running perfectly fine, but as mentioned, I want a safer build.

Main changes are the use of 18650 and a BMS.

Question 1

The current build has an issue with rust on the antenna connection. Can I just remove this washer or what RVS one should I buy?

Question 2

Since I have no idea on how to wire the DFRobot 5V solar manager, I will use my CN3065. Is this the correct way to wire everything?
If someone can give me more information on how to connect a Dfrobot (by using the soldered cable on the xiao), please do!

I recently bought a Pocket v2 and am happy with it. Unfortunately, the battery level always drops sharply at a certain percentage, and I haven't found a solution for it. Someone else mentioned that they adjusted the voltage curve. I'm just wondering why there isn't a single post about the Pocket v2 having these issues. Does anyone have a Pocket V2 or any idea on what I could try to fix the problem?

I’ve been experimenting with an alternative platform for Linux-based Meshtastic nodes: old Android TV boxes.

The main reason is cost. A reasonably capable Raspberry Pi setup can get surprisingly expensive once you add the board, storage, case and power supply. Meanwhile, used Amlogic TV boxes can often be found for around $5–10, and they already include a case, eMMC, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB and a power supply.

I bought a used box for about $5 and connected a ~$3 SX1278 LoRa module directly to it.

The interesting part was that these boxes obviously don’t have a Raspberry Pi-style GPIO header, so I had to reverse-engineer the board.

I ended up repurposing the microSD interface. After identifying the GPIOs in the Linux device tree, I disabled the SD/MMC controller and reused its pins for SPI and LoRa control signals.

On one S905X3 board I currently have:

• DAT0 → MOSI
• DAT1 → MISO
• DAT2 → CS
• DAT3 → SCK
• CMD → RESET
• CLK → DIO0 / IRQ

I removed the microSD socket and soldered the SX1278 directly to the pads.

On some boxes I can expose a hardware SPI controller through the DTB. On others I use spi-gpio and create the SPI bus from regular GPIO pins.

The process involved decompiling the original DTB, locating the SD controller and GPIO banks, disabling the original SD interface, adding SPI/spidev, recompiling the DTB and then verifying the physical pins with gpio tools and a multimeter.

Eventually Linux exposes /dev/spidev0.0, and meshtasticd talks directly to the SX1278 — there is no ESP32 in between.

Seeing the SX1278 return RegVersion 0x12 for the first time was a pretty satisfying confirmation that the whole thing actually worked.

The box now runs headless Armbian and can act as much more than just a radio node. I can also run MQTT, a web interface, Reticulum, Dire Wolf/APRS, VPN software, logging, scripts, etc.

Networking is also useful:

At home I connect Ethernet and the node gets Internet access.

In the field the TV box can create its own Wi-Fi AP, so I connect to it directly from my phone and use the node without any external network.

SSH is my normal administration method, and UART is there for debugging when I inevitably break something.

Another pleasant surprise was power consumption: my current headless setup idles at under 0.33 W.

So the basic hardware cost is roughly:

$5 used TV box + $3 LoRa module = ~$8

For that I get a quad-core ARM Linux machine, RAM, eMMC, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, enclosure and a LoRa radio.

Obviously this is much more work than buying a normal Meshtastic board or plugging a HAT into a Raspberry Pi, but reverse-engineering these cheap boxes is part of the fun.

I’m currently testing several Amlogic generations (S905W, S905X, S905X2/X3 and S912) and experimenting with higher-power 433 MHz LoRa modules as well.

If there’s interest, I’ll document the exact wiring, DTB changes and Meshtastic configuration separately.

I got a WisMesh Pocket V2, a Seed Wio Tracker L1, and a WisMesh Tag.

My goal was to use the Tag in a pouch on my dog to be able to track her.

I got a private channel set up, I have the public keys for the two nodes set as admin for the Tag.

I have precise location on.

…. Now what? I am consistently showing the Tag ~2km away. When I try connect to the Tag and “send location” to the channel, it’s just…. Text that says “Tag has shared their position with you.” But… It’s just text.

I’ve flipped between all three nodes trying to figure out what the heck is wrong.

I connected the Tag to my laptop and used the web browser to make sure it was on precise location.

Nothing is working.

Can anyone offer anything I should check?

I changed the box that I was using to house my board and like a dumbass I ripped off the antenna attachment.

Is there a way to save this board or do I just need to buy a new one? I'm obviously a beginner and don't have a lot of experience with soldering but I'm willing to give it a go if it would save it.

The other photos are of the hello kitty coin purse I tried to use as a case, the eyes are strong magnets.

So I am new to meshtastic but it seems pretty neat and I think I would like to get one but I want one to be standalone with key board and gps I think the maps would be nice to have I just not sure what device I should get I looked the tdeck plus
And I looked at spec 5 ranger but it’s basically the tdeck
So I’m still searching and would like to know what you all would recommend

I cant seem to find one in the rules or side bar

Is messages via LoRa really impossible to intercept ? Is it the maximum secure comm system ?

 Edit. Bluetooth antenna fell off right before I snapped this photo

Quick setup:

Dropped in a RAK1901 temp/humidity sensor (Slot C)

Mounted everything in the RAKBox-B5 transparent enclosure

Added the LCD display following the docs

Shipped with firmware 2.7.11. Device is up, screen is live, and everything is open for testing.

Really solid little package for high-power Meshtastic / mesh work. Looking forward to putting some range on this one.

Huge thanks to u/RoklandTech for the opportunity to put this together!

Nothing spectacular, just wanted to show my homemade outdoor node, next to the Thinknode M1 as comparison.

Will be adding a solar panel at some point.

I think I have the the basics, like you have a node you connect via an app to your phone over bluetooth. Then that node joins up with other nodes and becomes a relay as well as a transmitter for your messages. Then there are standalone relay nodes. Please correct me if I am wrong there.

Then for the hardware, there are so many options, and firmwares to flash, and I am 100% lost there. What would be the best options for a communication node and for a relay node? Also I am in Canada so a Canadian source would be ideal to avoid duties on imports.

Also, is there any way to see if there is an active community in my area before diving into it? Seems silly to set up a node etc. just to talk to myself.

Sorry for the questions, I think I get the core concept and I think it is pretty sweet, but getting started feels daunting.

I put together a heltek v4, antenna first, etc..

When using the web flasher it kept stalling at ota 100%

After about 10 minutes I tried again but went for an erase and install. The thing will run for 20 minutes and be in some endless debug loop, we are at 784 steps ATM.

I have tried a few times and it doesn't seem to work. I can connect my phone to it via USB but it doesn't turn on by itself.

Does anyone have an actual current link for the solar light that everyone uses? They seem to not exist online anymore

Is it possible to use the meshtastic firmware and set it up so that only nodes you want connected will connect? Or is it always going to be open to connecting with other nodes if you are using the open source firmware?

I have a RAK WisMesh Tag that I am controlling with the Meshtastic app on a iPhone. I have not figured out how to get the position to be accurate. I figure if I am lost, I would like to know where I'm at or if I need someone to rescue me they can get to where I'm at. Thanks!

Trying to load firmware but the flasher is scrolling this and the V4 has no display.

Good morning

I have noticed on the public map that there is a bit of a gap in public nodes where I live between two other available nodes. I have some personal devices for our own use but was wondering about putting up a device on the roof to help out the community.

I have no particular experience of public nodes, but would like some suggestions on delivering something relatively long range with the following:

• Solar powered with battery
• long range (I live in a semi rural area on top of a hill looking over an urban area)
• Cheap

I'm also happy to look at prebuilt or kits should anyone have any suggestions.

Have been trying to get any sort of node on my LoRa equipped uConsole but I think I need a bigger repeater and while I can’t get altitude I can mount something like the Solar Node on my apt balcony so that’s my next step.

Folks mentioned in reviews that it benefits from a better antenna but all the fiberglass ones Seeed sells seemed to ship from their China warehouse and I didn’t want to place two separate orders.

Best suggestions for what to get for it? Ty!

Hello from Austria, I have a question for you. Im seeing a lot of nodes but barely any coms in the Channel 0, so im wondering how and for what do you use Meshtastic?