Is anyone at DMS playing with Meshtastic these days ?
I’m just getting started and it looks interesting and maybe useful.
A node on a pole on the roof might help spark interest, and would help local meshes grow. Something like this with an outdoor rated antenna would be very near a turnkey solution:
For those wondering “what the heck is Meshtastic?”
I got real deep into this a few months back and I came to a few conclusions.
With that in mind, maybe we support both Meshcore and Meshtastic? For inside the makerspace no repeater is needed for Meshtastic, and leaving the makerspace’s general area would statistically be impossible once you have a few nodes inside that also repeat so it would be functionally useless on the roof. The Meshcore would be far more useful, but has less adoption and the competing frequency settings make it harder to get use out of anyway.
What I decided to do personally was play with Meshcore since it’s more reliable, and to just use it myself while I wait on Meshtastic to decide to fix things with their default settings or Meshcore gets more adoption as the more robust implementation.
HRCC on YouTube has some videos about Meshtastic at Hamvention. There were some issues, but I suspect that’s a stress test far beyond anything we’d ever see at DMS.
Meshcore seems too early in development to me. And I was unaware of the closed source aspect.
I’m interested in a node at DMS to help get broader coverage. Waco has a much better mesh than most parts of the DFW area. Which seems odd. good spot to fill in a gap, and Meshtastic seems like something in our wheelhouse.
I’m talking with some of the hams in Mesquite about getting a repeater node up in a very high place, which will help the bigger picture.
While I’m very very new to both open source programs/communication, Meshcore/Meshtastic really interests me because I like the more decentralized aspect of it as opposed to relying on a single server or node.
I don’t have a whole lot of information on the difference between meshtastic and Meshcore other than general reliabilty issues with meshtastic and the fact that Meshcore is unfortunately relatively closed source, But it surprises me that with it’s relative popularity in the decentralization community how it’s not more effective or more developed; if not the physical network then at least the program side of it. There’s gotta be someone out there who’s sunk years of their life into it finding the perfect way to optimize it.
Check out NTXMesh.net. They have some setup guidance.
I think the flooding issue has been addressed to some extent in more recent versions.
I have messed with Meshtastic for a year and some change. I’ve built a few nodes using different hardware to explore the ecosystem. My experience with using it for messaging is that it’s unreliable and practically unusable in the field. I want to try MeshCore but haven’t made time to do it yet (most of the hardware works on both). Meshtastic is a neat idea that seems fundamentally flawed. MeshCore seems to have addressed at least a couple of those flaws.
Since Meshcore charges a fee to unlock features, and Meshtastic is widespread in the DFW area, I think Meshcore would be a poor choice.
Meshtastic looks like something that would be fun to tinker with, but it seems it does not meet the DMS standard for perfection. 
Coverage is really pretty good over in Colleyville. Plans are afoot to get more coverage over here on the East side.
Are you referring to the one time $10 cost for the mobile app? If it makes the project sustainable, functional, good then maybe it’s worth it. Note the other software releases are free (firmware, command line, Python library, etc.). If someone wants to make a better mobile app for free for MeshCore, they could. The cost seems like not a big deal because the devices are more expensive than that anyway, like $10 isn’t a make or break amount of money relative to the rest of the costs involved. Meshtastic is unusable in the real world based on my experience so it being free is kind of moot. DMS can do whatever, but Meshtastic seems fundamentally flawed in ways that aren’t going to get better unless they make breaking changes to the ecosystem. Already mentioned is do both, that’s probably the best option.
What would it take to make a free mobile app for meshcore? I don’t think the currrent version has any strictly proprietary technology or features. So there’s not really any reason it couldn’t be done in a similar way. It’d be cool if there was a way to encypt messages and communication through it as well, at least in a more secure method than just your basic E2E encryption.
Unless I’m missing something, the iOS Meshcore app by Liam Cottle is free.
There is also “MeshMapper” touted as a “MeshCore Wardriver” app that looks interesting, haven’t tried it yet.
The app is free but some features in the app are paid features (paywall). Unless something has changed recently.
Missed this thread, originally posted on Discord under the Amateur-Radio Sig. Setting up two sale-bought Heltec V3 boards.
First node is a pocket tracker. Case is the MeshTac Tactical MAX variant, printed in black PLA on my Bambu A1 Mini. Power is a single 18650 with a hardware toggle switch for isolation. Adding an ATGM336H GPS module for standalone field autonomy.
Second node I was planning to tether indoors for now, with an eventual move to an outdoor solar build.
After reading this thread I’m reconsidering the split: run one Meshtastic and one MeshCore instead of both on the same firmware. Did anything ever come of establishing a community presence at DMS?
