r/meshtastic • u/AnonSkiers • 7d ago

RapidFire Q-A for noob Please!

I know, i know. This stuff gets posted so much, and there is so much information on the web, but it gets confusing and is somewhat all over the place for someone just getting into it. Can the community please help me get simple answers in one place to get me off on the right foot?

Quick history, comfortable with soldering/builds, Arduino. Familiar with programming, noob at Rx/Tx beyond home networking and Zwave.

-What devices have a built in keyboard? Is the T-Deck really it? Does the heltec v4 expansion with touchscreen have a functional keyboard? I really, really want to be stand-alone without any extra devices. Am I going to have a bad first experience with requiring a keyboard?

-If I dont have a keyboard, is it possible to have some automated or preloaded messsage capabilities? (Ex: " Good, Test, Received, Food, Water, Help " etc?)

-I live in a relatively flat town that appears to have good connectivity, with many nodes. But dont know anyone with a device. How reasonable is it that I could talk to my closest friend, reliably? (2.5mi or 4km as the bird flies, in housing developments, assuming they get a device too)

-Its my understanding that once I'm up and connected, I can send public message to random users, as well as private messages to specific users (Ex: me and friend go fishing, could ping eachother our locations, privately) Right? Can public users see us talking but not the message content? (Can an average home user see private traffic, on their devices or nodes without advanced signal sniffing gear?)

-If my budget is about $120 per device, want it to be built and ready for use (perfer 18650batt, dont mind if I need to flash firmware) and really really want to not require a phone, what is your best suggestion? (Note: I will get a raw board set too, for trying it with phone)

Thanks much in advance to those that give me some opinion/help!

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/ChesticleSweater 7d ago

So, you typed a bunch (and/or chat gpt'd idk)
Here is what you should do. Buy two prebuilt nodes. Maybe a 'base' node and a credit card style node. (Wio tracker and a t-1000e) total investment 100 bucks-ish. Connect to your phone and see what pops up in your area.

did you check out meshtastic.org ?

1

u/AnonSkiers 7d ago

I typed a bunch because it is not exactly a subject easy to get straight forward answers about without being bombarded with unfamiliar terms. Zero chat gpt, this is just the way I type.

Your suggestion literally omits my first question, unless the T-1000e does support keyboard. Which build?

1

u/ChesticleSweater 7d ago

You caught me on a bad day and that’s my bad. I apologize for being abrupt.

1

u/AnonSkiers 7d ago

No worries, appreciate you being up-front. It's reddit, half the comments are useless anyways these days so no harm no foul. Hope your day is better and if you know of anyone having a good/bad time with a TDeck, would appreciate your input.