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Meshtastic

Posted <2024-09-19 Thu 21:02> by Aaron S. Jackson.

There was recently a thread on reddit which caught the attention of a few of us radio nerds on the Nottingham Hackspace Discord. It was asking about Meshtastic users in and around Nottingham. The main comment that got our attention was someone claiming it had links to the dark web, along with a bunch of other weird pseudo-cyber-sec nonesense.

Anyway, Jason ended up getting the first Meshtastic node, and then another, which became the "Nottinghack Router". I followed along shortly after, and so did several other members of the hackspace. We've formed quite a nice mesh network now. The node I have running in my loft has currently logged 81 other meshtastic nodes, and some were due to tropospheric ducting, reaching all the way own to Milton Keynes!

My loft setup is not particularly glamorous.

For portable "operation" I designed and 3D printed a small case which fits the Heltec Tracker. It can be cable tied to handle bars - I should probably make an actual mount for it.

Steve also designed a much nicer case for the Pico W based nodes.

However, most importantly, we had lots of fun with balloons. Jon, Gareth, Jason and myself spent a Friday afternoon filling up 60 balloons with helium, in a slightly futile attempt to get some altitude. Sadly we didn't get much from doing this, but it was fun, and may have inspired some future weather balloon projects…

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Comments and feedback are welcome by email (aaron@nospam-aaronsplace.co.uk).

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Copyright 2007-2024 Aaron S. Jackson (compiled: Thu 19 Sep 21:12:28 BST 2024)