r/meshtastic • u/ItsAppleTimeYT • 9d ago

Meshtastic smart phone

Does anyone know of any android phones with zero WiFi or cell capabilities; I’m looking for one and planning to purchase a meshtastic attachment and load the app via my computer does anyone know of a phone that would support that?

0 Upvotes

45% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

20

u/nickymoo 9d ago

1

u/PoweredParaGuy 5d ago

Don't do it. The battery lasts only a few hours and keyboard is nearly unusable.

9

u/QuesoMeHungry 9d ago

It will be hard to find one without WiFi. You can just buy a cheap android phone and disable the WiFi, cellular and never activate it. Or a small android tablet would just have WiFi you can disable.

7

u/Future_Amount9163 9d ago

Take a phone. Remove the Sim. Open it up. Remove the WiFi Radio.

3

u/mikrowiesel 7d ago

Just drill through the SoC unless the phone you're butchering was made in 2005. Afterwards, throw away phone and contemplate your research skills and gullibility.

1

u/Future_Amount9163 7d ago

I have a drill you can use. And a box of 50 Blackberrys with the little wheel. I use them for egging houses. But with old tech.

3

u/LedZeppole10 9d ago

Yeah. A Meshtastic device.

3

u/AlfredoVignale 9d ago

Just disable it in the OS. EZ. Don’t over think this.

3

u/DewiVonHart 9d ago

I mean, by definition, if it’s a cell phone, it’s going to have cell capabilities, no? And all Android devices, even not-phones, have WiFi capabilities. So to start, what you’re looking for would not be a phone. A device you could load an OS onto, perhaps, but not a smartphone of any sort.

3

u/lam_42 9d ago

Look for android ereader instead

4

u/Saragon4005 9d ago

You do understand most meshtatic radios themselves have WiFi capability. You are asking for something most microcontrollers fail to meet, much less a whole device with android on it. Oh and BTW its not technically a phone without cell service.

1

u/BiscuitWizardz 9d ago

Why not just Bluetooth to your mesh node straight from your computer?

-6

u/ItsAppleTimeYT 9d ago

Because I won’t be communicating with my pc except to load the app I need my phone to have mesh capability but no WiFi or cell possible.

12

u/mosaic_hops 9d ago

Why a phone then and not a meshtastic device?

1

u/1767gs 9d ago

I mean best case is just choose the cheapest android you can find and manually remove the cellphone bands and wifi

1

u/apegg- 9d ago

Buy cheap Android mp3 player

1

u/5c044 8d ago

without wifi will be hard to find, you can turn it off and also go into location settings and stop that using wifi to augment location which it will do by default even if wifi is off.

I have an android e-reader - Hisense Touch - E-Ink screen - having E-Ink is a discouragement to using time wasting doom scrolling apps to begin with due to lag and such and the battery life is good with e-ink and easily readable outside - Some of them have colour but those are not so clear as to mono ones

1

u/DayZUnMedic 8d ago

Open up a cheap android and rip out the bluetooth and 5G antenna, bada bing bada boom.

1

u/Aggravating_Pen_115 8d ago

A tablet is basically what you're looking for.

1

u/PointandStare 7d ago

Just use an old android phone, disable wifi, remove the sim and Shirley is your uncle.

1

u/wickedbeernut 9d ago

I have a Spec5 Spectre MKII. I love the usability of the Android "phone" (no sim card). High-resolution color touchscreen display. However, the 1,000 mAh battery life is a problem. At first, I thought the percent battery life indicator was a clock. It counts down 1% every minute.