So, I’m looking into getting commercially available meshtastic nodes. Buying a bulk set of like 5 of them, and handing them out as birthday presents to my friends to help adoption in the area. A few of them have expressed interest in what I’ve been experimenting with, but don’t want (or can’t afford) to invest themselves.
What would be the most cost effective device to invest in?
My basic requirements are going to be
- Screen mandatory (these are not all techy people, they need to see that it’s on and doing something)
- GPS would be nice, but probably not worth the device cost
- Bluetooth only- I assume everyone will only be using these with the Android app
- Full housing, battery, antenna provided (no setup)
My top 3 so far are the
- ThinkNode M1 ($53)
- Lilygo TTGO T-Echo ($65)
- RAK WisMesh Pocket ($84)
I’m leaning towards the ThinkNode for price and features alone, but I like the form factor and E-ink display of the Lilygo more.
I got started recently also. I bought a Heltec V3 kit which was tolerably easy but not dead simple. Hardest part was the initial connection via webserial connection in a Chromium based browser. I also bought a Elecrow Thinknode v4 power bank. It has a power bank, wireless charger, flashlight, and radio, and looks super dank. Sadly the radio in the first unit didn’t work for me. I’m expecting to give it another go when the replacement arrives. The unit felt solid, so I think I got unlucky or I made a user error. We’ll see.
I am glad that I didnt get some prebuilt sealed unit for the heltec so I could unplug the battery. I was out of town for a few days and unplugged the battery so it could just run off USB power in my office. It worked the whole time. I accessed it through Wireguard using the app and I could see a couple hundred nodes and the occasional public chat, even when I wasn’t home.
Did you have it powered on without the antenna connected at any pointf? The TX amp stages inside these low power LoRa chips are very sensitive, if they do not have an antenna connected to radiate the power they’re outputting, they can burn up very quickly. It’s very important to always keep some kind of antenna, even a tiny stock 0dbi antenna, connected while you’re fooling around.
The unit I was referencing has a built in antenna, but thanks for the reminder. A lot of people don’t know this.
I reread my comment and I was vague. I meant the first of the power bank units, not the replacement. The Heltec board works great.