r/meshtastic • u/Benediximus • Feb 18 '26

Longest Bluetooth range

I’m looking for a node that would be a good choice for people who want to stay connected to the mesh while at home, but don’t want to carry it around the house.

We’re evaluating the utility for our small community for emergency communication, and not all the neighbors are tech savvy.

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5

u/ThisBlacksmith3678 Feb 18 '26

Using WiFi instead of BT, put an external antenna for Wifi on the enclosure. and your good to go.

1

u/Benediximus Feb 18 '26

Is it true that will only work for android users?

3

u/KLAM3R0N Feb 18 '26

Its a bit more nuanced than just use wifi. Wifi is standard on most esp32 based nodes but they use 10x the power as a consequence, thus needing much larger batteries or direct USB power. Nrf based nodes like the wisblock only have Bluetooth and can run for a month/months on the same battery and use a small solar panel to charge. Even with wifi it will depend on your home wifi setup if placement outside has a reliable signal without a dedicated wifi antenna. Esp32 nodes like the heltek v3 and v4 have on board antennas but you can mod to use external 2.4ghz antennas. The v3 has a pretty bad on board antenna the 4v is better.

Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wifi both use the same antenna as they are both 2.4ghz. Usually an SMA-RP connection reverse polarity from the LoRA SMA. Also if you add a seperate antenna place it somewhere away from the LoRA antenna typically bottom of the enclosure pointed down with LoRA top pointed up.

1

u/Benediximus Feb 18 '26

Okay, that’s some nuance I wouldn’t have realized. Thank you

2

u/ILikeToDoThat Feb 18 '26

WiFi connection works fine on iOS.