Meshtastic - An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network built to run on affordable, low-power devices
Long range (LoRa) mesh networks are interesting alternatives to communication, especially when state actors are blocking internet access for various reasons.
The documentation is a little lacking. What exactly is the range of each decide? I see the record of 100+ miles but can I easily connect people within a few miles?
What exactly does this do? Is it just a messaging app?
Meshtastic allows to send text messages, sensor metrics and GPS coordinates to nodes in mesh. It’s like a walkie talkie but on steroids.
Meshtastic have 2 components: 1 firmware, 2 software. You flash firmware onto device that’s compatible. You can then download software on your mobile phone (Android or iOS) there is also web UI that can be used on PC. You connect to the radio device using Bluetooth Wi-Fi or USB cable (depending on device some don’t have Wi-Fi but then they drain less power).
Range varies vastly depending on many factors. Just like any radio device the antenna quality and position is everything. In practice if you have only 2 devices that are both mobile handheld by person the range will be depending on terrain about few miles. If you add another device the range and dependability improves. Meshtastic tries to send each message 3 times and if it doesn’t get ACK reply it will show message failed.
You can setup radio to be a relay as well as store messages so that connecting nodes can still retrieve messages even when they originally missed the transmission. You can setup Jedi to be administered remotely (sending configuration through other radio).
Meshatastic supports encryption AES 128 and 256. The weakness is that if any of the radios where ever compromised adversary could get the key from the device and able to decrypt future communications.
100+ mile range can be achieved with terrain like elevated hill or mountain where there is line of sight. See docs https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/range-tests I’ve read some use balloons to improve range during events. Both methods require dedicated relay node.
Currently there is a limit to how many nodes you can have in the mesh.
Dude this is a great response. I’ve spent the last hour trying to piece together how it works and you nailed everything perfectly.
I’m a ham so familiar with radios and have been trying to setup some Wi-Fi links between friends but this seems a little more practical.
Is a few mile range possible with houses etc in the way? We’re all about a mile away from each other, although I may throw an antenna on top of my house (maybe 10m up)
I've done my little stupid tests. I have 2 Heltec LoRa 32 V3s both with the stock antenna. Inside the city I can get 500m on LongFast and 700m on VeryLongSlow. The other node was placed inside a building on the 1st floor.
Not sure if they’ve improved it but meshtastic also used to require a module per device/phone so sadly you can’t dot them around and allow multiple people to share them like with group events.