Okay who has #meshtastic recommendations? I used to do mesh stuff in New York (https://www.nycmesh.net/) but it's been years and I'm out of the game / not familiar with meshtastic
Discussion
Heltec are the cheap beginner device sold in pairs on amazon. Rak or lilygo cost more but are better devices. The non esp devices have 3-4x the battery life.
Thanks!
These lil dudes? https://www.amazon.com/Assembled-0-96inch-Bluetooth-Development-Transceiver/dp/B08629526P
Yep. Assemble then flash with the meshtastic firmware and bluetooth pair to the app on your phone.
Does the mobile app then "stop being involved"? Like the app's job is to just get my phone connected (wifi or Bluetooth) to the node and from there on I'm sending my packets over that network? (And whether or not they find their destination is up to whatever services are available on the mesh nework)
Or am I misunderstanding and the resulting meshtastic network is only usable through the app?
There are lilygo products that have a keyboard included, most meshtastic devices use a phone app paired over BT as their user frontend. You can turn off every radio except the BT on both phones to confirm that the meshtastic devices are what relayed the message.
I guess I mean can arbitrary client/servers use the meshtastic network to pass arbitrary packets? Or can you only use "meshtastic apps"?
Lots of good "getting started" videos available.
If you order a set of two Heltec ESP32 v3 , you'll be on your way.