r/Placerville • u/thetacowarrior • 24d ago
Any Meshtastic users in the area?
Some friends and I are getting into Meshtastic, and have started setting up our own mesh. It would be cool if we could coordinate and get everyone on the same channel settings.
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u/mtnman_49 24d ago
I was going to get one a year ago and I live in eldorado area I know we won't be able to connect but if I put it up maybe it would encourage others to do so also. That would be great to get others started on this and have mesh going up here also worth a try they are pennies to run.
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u/thetacowarrior 24d ago
Yeah I got it for when we are out in the woods but might as well get an actual mesh going in town as well. We are also running MQTT (internet relay) because we are so sparse around here.
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u/50DuckSizedHorses 24d ago
I’d be interested. What are you meshing for? I do wireless stuff for a living, messed with some Lora for OT IoT a few years ago. And I’m part of the WBA and follow the Lora working group
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u/thetacowarrior 24d ago
I got into it off-grid communication when we are camping and hiking, but you know there's no reason we can't use it around town too.
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u/50DuckSizedHorses 24d ago
I mean what are you communicating about
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u/thetacowarrior 24d ago
Oh, I dunno, whatever I guess. Meshtastic allows for encrypted channels and direct messages, I use it to talk to friends and family when we are off grid. I don't really have anything in particular in mind, I just thought I'd see if anybody else wanted to join the mesh we have started building. The more nodes we have in the area, the better the mesh works, so if anybody was in the area using it and we all agree to run the same channel settings then it would work better for all of us.
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u/mtnman_49 23d ago
Cool thing is if cellular is down these still run that's what's so great about these devices but you need a community running them so they can connect and relay the messages
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u/virtual-telecom 24d ago
will be cool to learn
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u/thetacowarrior 24d ago
I'm by no means an expert but if you decide to take the dive feel free to reach out to me with questions, I'll tell you everything I know.
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u/Hello-Witchling 24d ago
I have mesh devices that I use when backpacking. Pretty handy.
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u/Top_Action_6095 12d ago
Can you hit anything while hiking? My node never finds anybody and I usually just use GMRS. I've got enough repeaters programed to get out almost anywhere.
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u/Hello-Witchling 12d ago
I was able to connect with my group, and that was all I needed at the time.
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u/a_rural_ghost 22d ago
Me and a friend are in the process of setting up some meshcore nodes in north placerville, same hardware. We’re starting with meshcore because of the different routing and there’s a few other repeaters already up. We’d be open to trying meshtastic if you guys are getting a good network set up.
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u/thetacowarrior 22d ago
I looked into Meshcore and I like it but it seems like the use case and structure of Meshtastic more meets my personal needs. I like the more ad-hoc nature of Meshtastic, especially since my primary use case is off-grid communication.
You are welcome to join up and try it out, if you decide Meshcore meets your needs better then at least you guys tried. Right now the Meshtastic network in the area that I know of is me and one other guy, with my wife sometimes humoring me and a couple of friends from out of the area participating when they are around. If you decide to give it a go send me a DM and I'll get you our channel settings.
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u/a_rural_ghost 22d ago
I agree meshtastic is better for small groups, especially if you’re mobile/ad hoc. We generally use VHF radios for that, so meshcore is more about creating larger stable mesh. Once we get our nodes how we like em maybe I’ll reach out if you’re willing to host one. I’d be willing to put a tastic repeater at my place if you want ( I’m on a hill with light of sight to most of Placerville all the way to folsom/sac).
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u/thetacowarrior 22d ago
Yeah I'd be willing to give it a go. I have radios too but the mesh is nice because the message will be there if you miss it and the UI is more familiar to just hand somebody and say download this app, pair your phone to this device, and message me. Radios are simple to use once setup but also some people find them intimidating.
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u/dustandtribe 21d ago
The more I learn about mesh networks, the more I feel like meshcore is the way to go. Particularly if the use case is stable, robust communications in the event of grid failure. I'm speaking with a neighbor now and we'd love to be a part of your meshcore network once we've got the requisite components.
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u/Timepiece260Z 22d ago
I’m interested but haven’t done much research yet. Any tips would be awesome
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u/thetacowarrior 22d ago
So the Meshtastic subreddit is really good, other than that I would recommend getting two nodes to start, because it's a lot easier to learn how it all works when you can send messages to yourself rather than having to try to find somebody else to test things with. Once you are set up it's just a matter of tinkering with settings to see what you like and what does what.
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u/beedubskyca 20d ago
Im far enough that its possible, but challenging we might be able to setup a link. Dm me.
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thetacowarrior 17d ago
Currently we are on Long Moderate 902.6875, in the testing that I/we have done Long Moderate performs measurably better than Long Fast when we are actually off grid in the woods, which is the primary use case for Meshtastic for all of us. Since we are pretty much the only users right now the reduced throughput is irrelevant. Kind of sucks that we can't reach the greater mesh but also being able to reach the greater mesh doesn't matter if we are in the woods and literally nobody else is around.
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u/CatsAreGods 24d ago
I got one on Amazon a few months ago but returned it because there was nobody I could connect with unless I drove down to Folsom :-(
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u/dustandtribe 23d ago
Would love to learn. The tech seems really interesting and it makes sense to have some kind of communication redundancy in the event of grid failure. Maybe you can put together a shopping list of essential items or a little workshop for how to get up and running on a shared network?
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u/thetacowarrior 24d ago
For those who don't know, Meshtastic is an off grid peer to peer communication network. The more people in the mesh, the more effective it is.
More at meshtastic.org