meshtastic

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Meshtastic® is a project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. This project is 100% community driven and open source!

https://meshtastic.org/

founded 2 years ago

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J4g2F@lemmy.ml

New Router! (and questions) (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by ch00f@lemmy.world to c/meshtastic@lemmy.ml

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So just installed a rooftop relay based on a Rak wireless module. I can now reach over 120 nodes (around 20 “online”).

I guess my question now is…now what?

I come from ham radio, so I was hoping to make come connections and maybe have some conversations, but the best I got was a single reply to a CQ, but I got no response from my follow-up.

Does anybody actually have conversations over the general Meshtastic channel? Is it all encrypted channels? Or is nobody talking at all?

Is there any way to determine how much traffic my router is handling?

This is in Seattle, BTW.

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[–] gatohaus@eviltoast.org 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

One year later..

I’m in the same boat. Did you have any luck?

Love the mounting method btw. I’m gonna copy it. :-)

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

I pick up plenty of chatter, though I wouldn't say I have real conversations. It's still nice to get people's updates from time to time.

I actually took it down right after this and replaced the coax with a better cable to improve performance. I also added lightning protection and ran a 10 gauge wire down to a ground spike.

So far, its battery has stayed topped up even on cloudy days. Still haven't proper weathered a Seattle winter yet.

[–] Bocky@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Step 1, change it to client mode.

Nice install!

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What’s wrong with router mode?

[–] Bocky@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They said not to use it unless your node is mounted exceptionally high. They specifically said not to use router mode on roof or backyard tower nodes.

Router_client s being removed next release

https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/releases/tag/v2.4.0.46d7b82

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Oh. That’s interesting. I mean it’s on the roof on a hill with a view of all of downtown Seattle, but it’s not “exceptionally” high I guess.