Meshtastic?

[Moab]

My brothers been buying and testing meshtastic gear. I keep reading about it. 

What's your guys take? Limitations? Advantages?

[Anianna]

My brothers been buying and testing meshtastic gear. I keep reading about it.

What's your guys take? Limitations? Advantages?

There's a learning curve.  I have some, but haven't got them working yet.  Most of it comes in kits to DIY or you can buy parts and DIY your own.  I have some build ideas, but I don't have the knowledge base to make it happen yet.  That will probably have to wait until after Christmas because I'm making gifts this year and just don't have the time. 

There's a Subreddit that's pretty good where people show off their builds and ask questions as well as a few meshtastic subs specific to areas or groups.  I was hoping to build a local mesh with my kids, but some of them moved far away now into a more remote area and I doubt the mesh will reliably reach them from here.  I could be wrong, I'm still learning.  I think it would be great for group activities that occur within the range of connected devices, but not sure that the network is well-enough established for much else in most places.

[Moab]

My brothers been buying and testing meshtastic gear. I keep reading about it.

What's your guys take? Limitations? Advantages?

There's a learning curve.  I have some, but haven't got them working yet.  Most of it comes in kits to DIY or you can buy parts and DIY your own.  I have some build ideas, but I don't have the knowledge base to make it happen yet.  That will probably have to wait until after Christmas because I'm making gifts this year and just don't have the time. 

There's a Subreddit that's pretty good where people show off their builds and ask questions as well as a few meshtastic subs specific to areas or groups.  I was hoping to build a local mesh with my kids, but some of them moved far away now into a more remote area and I doubt the mesh will reliably reach them from here.  I could be wrong, I'm still learning.  I think it would be great for group activities that occur within the range of connected devices, but not sure that the network is well-enough established for much else in most places.

My brother has two autistic sons in their 20s. Both genius' in their own way. They set up a network around their town that seems to be working quite well. I'm going to talk to him more about this this weekend. He sent me pics of his equipment. Apparently it is kits like you mention. But it looks quite professional. 

Information I've read and seen in videos says you have to set up basically your own repeaters. Which apparently are cheap and easy to conceal. But I'll know more this weekend. 

I read about it a lot a couple years ago. But the concensus at the time was not enough folks were using it to make it viable. But I think some recent hardware advancements have changed that. 

[Anianna]

My brothers been buying and testing meshtastic gear. I keep reading about it.

What's your guys take? Limitations? Advantages?

There's a learning curve.  I have some, but haven't got them working yet.  Most of it comes in kits to DIY or you can buy parts and DIY your own.  I have some build ideas, but I don't have the knowledge base to make it happen yet.  That will probably have to wait until after Christmas because I'm making gifts this year and just don't have the time. 

There's a Subreddit that's pretty good where people show off their builds and ask questions as well as a few meshtastic subs specific to areas or groups.  I was hoping to build a local mesh with my kids, but some of them moved far away now into a more remote area and I doubt the mesh will reliably reach them from here.  I could be wrong, I'm still learning.  I think it would be great for group activities that occur within the range of connected devices, but not sure that the network is well-enough established for much else in most places.

My brother has two autistic sons in their 20s. Both genius' in their own way. They set up a network around their town that seems to be working quite well. I'm going to talk to him more about this this weekend. He sent me pics of his equipment. Apparently it is kits like you mention. But it looks quite professional.

Information I've read and seen in videos says you have to set up basically your own repeaters. Which apparently are cheap and easy to conceal. But I'll know more this weekend.

I read about it a lot a couple years ago. But the concensus at the time was not enough folks were using it to make it viable. But I think some recent hardware advancements have changed that.

Yea, the guys on Reddit like to build repeaters.  If you make them with a solar panel, they power themselves and you don't have to worry about going out to power them.  A lot of the builds look really nice.  I was going to have Mr. Anianna put one in his downtown office window, but his work got a new building outside of the city, so not sure how effective it will be in his new location.  

[Skidjit]

Still in my infancy when it comes to Meshtastic but the ability to setup a "private" text / data network is interesting. My devices have internal antennas so they are range limited but creating an immediate means to send encrypted texts between family is interesting to say the least.

[Moab]

These are pics my brother sent me this week. We haven't discussed it yet tho. 

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He said he set up the repeater in the other side of town. From the location he stated and my memory of that distance from 30+(?) years ago? I'm guessing at least 5 miles sort of flat but not line of sight. And he said he was getting clear communication. 

How long before the encryption is broken? From what I understand even Signal is routinely being hacked into by the feds and other governments. But even if you can hide your local trsffice from other civilians this is pretty sweet. 

[NT2C]

I just bought a pair of nodes (Heltech) to play around with.  I'll report back in a month or two.  (they won't ship until mid-January)