Side note: how do y'all carry your antennaed nodes while out and about? Like to the gym or errands
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
79 points (100.0% liked)
Meshtastic
1426 readers
41 users here now
A community to discuss Meshtastic (https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For situations like this, I like to use devices with internal built-in antennas such as the Heltec MeshPocket, Seeed T1000-E, or RAK WisMesh Tag.
But all those devices are best used with a local repeater.
What am I even seeing here... Is it a wireless leash for a dog or something? Apparently I have heard nothing about this branch of tech, because I recognize none of the products you just mentioned. Man I feel old.
Its a low powered long range radio that runs meshtastic firmware!
It allows people to share text-based communications without needing the internet or cell towers, think of it like walkie-talkies that can talk to multiple people at once and automatically relay messages from one radio to another, creating a mesh network.
You're not too out of the loop, if you're on Lemmy!
wait, so this is basically a text machine/pager that allows other users to band together and uses each device as another relay? cuz that's fuckin rad and the nerdiest thing i've ever heard at the same time
Yessir, and it's funny that you say pager because there's a device that does just that!
https://meshtastic.org/
This is exactly the thing i've been looking for!
Welcome to the rabbit hole. Hopefully you don't spend as much money as I did initially lol 🤣
Don't listen to this guy. Spend as much money as you damn well please. And go down the rabbit hole so deep you think you'll never find your way back out. Lol
How did you find us here? It's hard to explain succinctly but think of it like a 2-way pager. Only instead of proprietary radio towers, it's just personal LoRa devices creating a mesh communication network. You can put one on your dog and it will collect it's location via satellite and broadcast it's coordinates to other nodes on the network.
Thanks for the rec! Yeah I have a sensecap solar on my roof in client base, was very impressed with the range I got on my walk today.
I have a rokland 5.8DBI fiberglass coming in the mail tomorrow I think, so I can hopefully get away with an internal
Oh nice, somebody in my local area just ordered the rak Wismesh repeater and is going to put it up in a week or so, so that will be even more coverage in my area.
You should see what they've built out in the bay. Routers on all of the surrounding mountains. Its beautiful. I sent a message that went out to yuba city all the way down to San Luis Obispo last night.
Thats about 271 miles (437 kilometers) as the crow flies
Yeah, this one that was just ordered by some person is going to probably be a client base or client because we already have a router that serves the area decently well.
If he sets it to client base tell him to be careful with his favorites! Can mess up routing if he favorites a router
Out of curiosity, how would it mess up routing if he favorites a router? Because if I'm understanding the way client base works and the way the new routing protocol works, if he favorites a router, then his node would just re-broadcast that same packet without decrementing the hop. Unless I'm missing something.
It's designed to help weak/mobile/indoor nodes in poor radio locations, not routers. When you favorite routers or other strong nodes, your CLIENT_BASE aggressively rebroadcasts their traffic (acting as ROUTER), which can actually suppress better routing paths and add unnecessary congestion. The feature works best when you favorite only your personal handheld/EDC devices that need the boost from your strong base station. Favoriting already-strong infrastructure nodes defeats the purpose and can negatively impact overall mesh connectivity.
This is entirely dependent on your mesh topology of course. In our larger mesh with a lot of routers in advantageous locations, a client base favoriting a router would do more harm than good
Doh. Now that you pointed out, that makes total sense. And I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me earlier. But thanks.
Another more informed guy in our group just posted this, seems like I may have been wrong https://meshtastic.org/blog/zero-cost-hops-favorite-routers/