Meshtastic!

We Turned on Some Meshtastic Nodes… and the Network Noticed 😄

So, in what can best be described as the blind leading the blind (but enthusiastically), we recently dove into Meshtastic as a group of beginners.

Luckily, we had a friend who actually knows what he’s doing come down and give us a proper walkthrough. He put together a great intro talk (which I’ve included below plus the slides), and somehow managed to make LoRa mesh networking feel both approachable and dangerously addictive.

If you would like a copy of the slides, they are here:

And here’s the really cool part:

As we brought new nodes online during the meetup, people already on the Meshtastic network noticed us. In real time. Which is both awesome and slightly spooky in a “the mesh is alive” kind of way.

One group even reached out and shared their club: https://varava.club

So of course, we did the only reasonable thing; invited them to our local farmer’s market event and repair café! Because if you’re going to join a mesh network, you might as well make new friends along the way.

Why this was cool

• We’re beginners, and it still worked
• The network isn’t just theoretical here in the Valley, it’s active and social
• You can literally show up, turn on nodes, and become part of something bigger

After that, a couple of us got hands-on with some Heltec V3 radios (think: A, B, C; 1, 2, 3 level of learning). There was a lot of “wait, is this flashing?” and “did I just brick it?” but eventually… things started working.

One key thing we covered in this video: Heltec V3 radios need a keyboard in order to type messages. There is a phone app for that, or you can use an adapter cable to drive it from your computer, which I will be looking into more. We discussed the LilyGo T-Deck which is a similar radio in the body of an old blackberry, so it has the keyboard attached and is more of a standalone device. I hope to have one of these to show at the farmer's market event April 4.

Some external antennas which were recommended to me are the Meshtastic Long Range 915MHz Lora Magnetic Base Antenna which can attach to cars, and the Lora 915mhz Antenna 5.8dbi Long Range Antenna which is the fiberglass one we had at the Saturday event.

If you’re on the fence about trying Meshtastic, this was a pretty good reminder that you don’t need to be an expert to get started. If you need help getting set up, feel free to reach out. We can set up some “office hours” at the Staunton Innovation Hub and troubleshoot together.

Worst case: you learn something.
Best case: the mesh notices you 👀

We were mostly using the default LongFast channel during the meetup (which is probably not ideal long-term). Next step for us is setting up local/private channels so we’re not spamming the main network.