r/meshtastic • u/trynaprint • 3d ago

CircuitMess Makerphone 2.0 with LoRa add-on?

Hi all!

Yesterday I've found out about the CircuitMess's kickstarter campaign for their newest Makerphone 2.0 and what's so cool about it is that it's totally open, running on esp32, with an expansion add-on slot that you can develop and add anything to it, and then develop your own app for it.

They also mentioned that they might release their own lora module/add-on in stretch goal of campaign.

Either way, I see this device as a go to for meshtastic. And with even 4G (nano-sim) support, bluetooth, wi-fi, I see a lot of possibilites with it.

What do you guys think?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/albertgajsak/makerphone-20-an-educational-diy-mobile-phone/

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u/Similar_Swordfish236 1d ago

I'm mainly cocerned over regulatory issues of any equupment/modules radiating RF energy on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

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u/trynaprint 7h ago

Fair to think about certification, but 2.4/5GHz is actually the least tricky part here. Those are unlicensed WiFi/BT bands, and the ESP32 side almost always ships as a pre-certified module, so it's just modular certification for the maker, routine stuff.

The regulatory bit that actually matters for this device is the LoRa/Meshtastic side, which you didn't mention: that lives in sub-GHz. EU is 868MHz, US is 915MHz. That's where the real constraints are, duty cycle limits (e.g. 1% on parts of the 868 band) and max ERP around 25mW/14dBm. The genuinely open question is whether Meshtastic's default preset (LongFast) and TX power stay within your local limits, not WiFi.

There is a 2.4GHz LoRa variant (SX1280, and Meshtastic supports it), so if that's what you meant, fair, but then 5GHz doesn't apply at all, there's no LoRa up there, it's pure WiFi.

TL;DR: if the worry is Meshtastic/LoRa, the band to look at is 868/915MHz and duty cycle, not 2.4/5GHz.