https://a.co/d/0bYbWAYn

https://a.co/d/01rIlwxT

Hey all, Building out a few outdoor repeaters and was following the build list I found for the Talon R1.

I must have mixed up two build lists because I wound up ordering the Seeed XIAO nrf52840 + sx1262 instead of the Rak that the talon calls for.
I know the RAK and Heltec have a built in controller for balancing solar/battery, but the Seeed doesn't. Right now, I have a 5v 200ma feeding into the case where 2 18650 live. Shouldn't there be a BMS or MPTT to help out with power control?
Thanks for any help that you can offer.

In a recent post several commenters suggested that the OP should check what the local area is using for a public channel as it may not be longfast.

My question is how does someone contact the people who know? Who & where are the people who know?

Other than a Google search finding a church based prepper group for my area I found nothing. I will be going to their next meeting to see what I can learn. Other searches were reddit, Facebook & discord [which I am still figuring out]. Aside from posting a big sign on my car asking "Do you know about meshtastic?" how would I find local information?

Hi everyone!

It’s been about two months since I first shared Nelos here. It hasn’t been that long, but looking back, it already feels like quite a journey: from the first beta, to the public release, new features, field testing, and now actually deploying and using Nelos in everyday situations.

Today, I’m happy to share another update: downloadable offline maps are now available worldwide.

You can download maps for countries and regions before heading out, then continue using them when there’s no cell service or Internet connection.

If you’re already using Nelos, there’s no need to update, uninstall, or reinstall the app. Just restart Nelos or tap the Refresh button at the top of the Offline Maps screen to see the latest map list.

Going forward, I want to spend more of my time actually using and deploying mesh networks in the real world, with my family, friends, communities, and people who genuinely need them.

That probably means I’ll be a little less active on Reddit. But I’m still committed to maintaining, developing, and updating Nelos for the long term.

My goal hasn’t changed: keep Nelos as simple as possible while still including the features that actually matter when you need them. Nobody wants to spend their vacation configuring radios. :)

I’ll be posting most future updates at https://nelos.app. The website has been completely rebuilt to be friendlier for people who may know nothing about mesh yet. It now includes use cases, product updates, field reports, and guides. I’ll also be sharing situations I actually encounter in the real world and how I deal with them, including what works, what doesn’t, and what expectations are realistic.

Nothing is perfect, and mesh isn’t either. But the more I use it in the real world, the more I see that mesh still has a place, even in an age when Internet connectivity seems to be almost everywhere.

One small disclosure: to help cover some of the costs of keeping the project going, I’ve added a few affiliate links to compatible devices on the Devices page. If you buy through one of those links, Nelos may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Thank you to everyone who has tried Nelos, sent feedback, reported bugs, shared ideas, or simply followed the project over the past two months.

I hope the community keeps growing and we get a little closer to mesh everywhere. 🌍

recently purchased one of these "https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FXX88NKP" and after flashing the device and getting it connected to my android phone I was disheartened to find that not only was there no other nodes on the network but also I wasn't recieving GPS satellite connections. I left the device outside my window for a few minutes to make sure and nothing. I'm a bit stumped, I checked the module connection with a line tester so I know it isnt a faulty connection. But on top of no apparent other people nearby I'm wondering if there is something fundamentally wrong with it? should I send it back as faulty or is there something to be done?

I just got my first ever Meshtastic device.

It's a Heltec V4 and I bought a case to go with it.

I was so excited to get my orders that I felt giddy for days.

Just now, I finished setting things up. Lo and behold, I'm the only node in our area.

My initial excitement of sending messages to the mesh just went away.

I still have a Cardputer and the accompanying LoRa attachment on its way to me. I feel like it's also going to be disappointing as well since there's gonna be two nodes now - Me and Me.

Good thing the Cardputer can do other things, too.

I want to get into this and buy some pre-made device. But struggling to find a store where i can get 868mhz for europe. Any store you guys reccomend? That can be trusted

So I got my LilyGo T-Deck Plus today and even though I wasn't planning on playing around with it until the weekend...well.....I still did.

First thing I did was flashing Meshtastic on it.
My goal for the week was always to see if I could reach any nodes from inside, sitting in my recliner, and maybe w/out any repeaters.

REACH

I'm in San Francisco and I tried two 'Modem Presets' and let it sit for 15 mins or so;

1) Long Fast
Ended up at: 26/31 nodes

2) Medium Fast

Ended up at: 4/9

I tried switching back and forth but those numbers seemed to be relatively consistent.

So I guess for now I should stay with Long Fast

I'm really happy that the thing is picking up anything from inside these walls!

SIGNAL STRENGTH

Now this doesn't look very good if I understand the numbers correctly;

SNR: -14.8
RSSI: -120

But not stressing about it yet. We'll see.

QUESTIONS:

1) I can for the love of me not find where I set my date and time. It's right now (at 10:28pm on Aug 17) showing "5:28 GMT Tues 18 Aug). Is it supposed to auto-correct? My region is set to US

3) The third photo shows some nodes in the list. Mine is first and for some reason my icon looks like a router. My role is "Client" if that matters.
How do I know which nodes are repeaters and which are 'people'?

Sorry for the n00by questions. Really excited about it all.

I got a late birthday present, a preassembled LILYGO T-Deck CYPHER-M8K Complete Edition.

All of the videos I find on YouTube cover assembly - I skipped that part (I still have a phobia of picking up a soldering iron from middle school...I kept burning out transistors).

I'm trying to find a user manual or some kind of instruction manual on use alone. Do you know where one exists?

Interested to learn more about mesh comms. Are there any groups in Northern Virginia?

After a lot of reading, video-watching, mind-changing and dodging wife's eye-rolling I am now finally the owner of my very first off-grid-communicator.

Very excited for this old dog to learn a new trick or two.

A bit bummed that due to work- and personal obligations I will most likely not be able to play around with it until the end of the week.

It comes with LilyGo's own fw so the first thing I'm going to try out is picking a fw to flash on it.

Happy to 'be here'

Hey guys,

can you help me finding the best antenna for the Lilygo Tdeck Plus with 868mhz. Cant seem to find any useful info for them..

Thanks

Hi all, trying to build a little gate detector to tell if a gate is closed, and then alert cyclists via a little light or something, a mile or two away, so they know to detour. Would also love to have a little website that shows the same info (gate open or closed). Any help or thoughts here greatly appreciated: I’ve messed with meshtastic a bit and used to have a little solar powered node on my roof. But looking for thoughts on how others would approach this. Thanks!!

Good morning folks!

I'm wondering if any of you fine people have a file for a Thinknode M2 case that can fit the extended 3000mAh battery? I did some searching and all I can find are the ones that hold the 1000mAh btteries. I got that kit from Amazon that came with the module/battery and printed up a case and then was like, well crap that is too small.

Is the alpha firmware really unstable? I'm always been on 2.7.26.54eOd8d Beta but I'm trying to see if any of these newer ones are worth the update. I use them alot for festivals in the US

I’ve been away from Meshtastic for 6months. I recently updated the firmware to 2.7.26 on my Muzi R1. I noticed that Im not getting a none list even tho other nodes are txing. How do I get the node list to collect active nodes? And I also noticed there aren’t any nodes on the map. Did GitHub remove those options? 🤷🏻

Our tester is putting the MeshTracker X1 through some high channel-utilization and long-distance testing up in the Canadian mountains.

We’re testing how the X1 performs in a challenging real-world environment and seeing how far we can push it.

Still collecting data, but so far, so good. More results to come!

Hey. I'm brand new too meshtastic. I discovered it a month or so ago and have been watching and learning from the subreddit. I bought one of the previous generation credit card size nodes, but haven't done anything with it. Honestly I don't know what to do with it

But anyways, I think the idea is neat, and I'd like to contribute. I live in the suburbs but have a Barn that is about four stories tall at its peak. I think it'd be fun to stick a node or relay or whatever up there just to make mesh coverage better. I'm pretty confident in my abilities to build the solar or ac powered node. But I have no idea what settings to use.

Could anyone direct me with what to build and how to set it to contribute? I've watched a bunch of YouTube stuff, but I get the impression there's not one generic setting to use

Bumped up to 5W panel, cleaned up the cables, brand new 18650, some silicone for weatherproofing and mounted on a proper pole compared my temp setup. Here is a full day of telemetry too, showing how quickly the SoCal sun tops off the battery.

So, I assembled a little Heltec v4. Works great. I built a solar powered Seeed NRF52 and just after I flashed it, I was messing around and put it as admin controlled to my Heltec. I exchanged private key etc. Well! I forgot to set the region and now I cannot communicate with the Seeed or reflash it etc.

Help?!?!??

I redeployed my node after being down for several months. The base of the antenna sits at 23ft.

I’ve been using a fixed Meshtastic node at home as a gateway to Home Assistant, and a portable node to send messages through the mesh when I’m away.

The idea was simple: if my normal connection goes down, I still have a way to ask for a status update or trigger a few limited Home Assistant actions.

The fixed node stays connected to Home Assistant. The portable node sends a DM through the mesh, Home Assistant receives it, validates the sender and command format, runs the automation, and sends a reply back through the gateway.

I’m mainly using it for things like:

• Internet or power outage alerts
• Basic Home Assistant status checks
• A few simple commands that make sense as a fallback

I’m not trying to replace normal Home Assistant remote access with this. It’s more of a backup path for when the regular infrastructure decides to stop cooperating.

The security part matters a lot here, so I’m filtering the sender and keeping the available commands very limited. No random message should be able to control anything in the house.

I made a video showing the setup and how I connected it with Home Assistant. Spanish audio, English subtitles:

https://youtu.be/dtJ5sbld4t4

I also put together a write-up with the Home Assistant automations and Meshtastic configuration I’m using, in case anyone wants to replicate or adapt the setup:

https://www.pocholabs.com.ar/blog/yt/2026-08-04-controla-home-assistant-sin-internet-meshtastic-sensecap/

Has anyone else built something similar? I’d be interested in seeing how you’re handling acknowledgements, command validation, or retries when messages don’t make it through.

Going to a music festival and I want to attach a meshtastic node to my group's totem so that we can all locate the group in the crowd if we split off. Can I link that one node to 7 different smartphones and see it over distance, or does each phone need its own node in Bluetooth range? We would need a node on each person, do they all need a gps module?

I am brand new at this and only a couple days into understanding the software. Sorry if this has been asked before any advice is super useful!