Meshtastic
Meshtastic® is a project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. This project is 100% community driven and open source!
Links
Hardware
My selection
Lylygo
total: $72, $91 with case
Video: T-Beam SUPREME Meshtastic LoRa Radio Build Guide | PARTS | ASSEMBLY | FIRMWARE
RAK
My choice
RAK is very power efficient, for me it works 3 weeks on one charge of 5000mAh battery
| Part | Price |
|---|---|
| RAKwireless WisBlock US915 Base RAK19007 + Core RAK4631 bare main board starter kit | $35 |
| MakerHawk 3.7V 6000mAh LiPo Battery Rechargeable | $14 |
| Case for WisBlock Meshtastic Starter Kit | $20 |
+antenna below total: $57, $77 with case
Video: Best Beginner Meshtastic Radio on a Budget
Flashing RAK4631 firmware
Ready radio
| Radio link | Price | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Atlavox M1 Meshtastic Radio | $85 |  |
| RAK WisMesh Pocket V2 | $90 |  |
Sensors
Barometric Pressure Sensor
SD Card Module
Solderless OLED screen kit
Antennas
| Model | Price | Estimation |
|---|---|---|
| Wishiot 915MHz Lora Antenna 5DBi Gain SMA Male Omni-Directional Antenna with U.FL/IPEX to SMA Connector | $8 | Questionable |
| ALFA Network AOA-915-5ACM 5 dbi Omni Outdoor 915MHz 802.11ah Same model on Rockland | $17 | Good reviews |
| RAIGEN 915Mhz LoRa Fiberglass Antenna With Magnetic Base, SMA Male Connector 6.5ft Raigen-200 Cable | $55 |
And big choice of LoRa antennas on Rockland
Firmware
Flashing RAK4631
- Plug your starter kit into a Windows PC using the provided USB Cable.
- Then double tap reset to enter Bootloader/DFU mode
- RAK4631 will appear as a drive on your computer
- Next open the firmware pack that we downloaded earlier and locate the firmware similar to this: firmware-rak4631-X.X.XX.XXabcde.uf2
- Copy the uf2 firmware file and paste it on to the RAK4631 drive
- Once complete it will likely give you an error, that is ok, just close out of the error.
- Your device should reboot with the latest firmware installed. If your device was previously paired to phones/tablets/pc/etc, you may need to delete/forget the Meshtastic device in the Bluetooth settings, then repair in the Meshtastic app.