Sweet, have fun! Heltecs are some of the easiest devices to get started with. Just make sure to keep it charged :)

IIRC all devices would update according to firmware, so I believe it’s 30 minute updates. You can change that to much faster timeframes before chirps are sent out, but that will begin to drain battery life. (Can also manually request position and request updates in app)

If you’re concerned about battery life stay away from ESP32 devices and look strictly at nRF52840 devices, from RAKwireless and soon LILYGO/Heltec as well.

I personally haven’t used them for this use case, mine are primarily being setup as solar repeaters to build a local emergency mesh network. But I’ve seen some very neat use cases for Meshtastic so I’m curious if this could work!

Good luck :)

Thanks for the post OP, updating my VaultWarden docker instance ASAP.

Ahh fair enough. I can see where you’re coming from.

I find the added redundancy to be a beneficial addition in my scenario, particularly for emergency situations where cell service is out (due to overuse/congestion).

These don’t need multiple points of redundancy to work but it does add peace of mind imo. Decentralization is a core principle of Meshtastic so that’s also another strong point that pushed me towards the protocol.

But I can respect not everyone has the same requirements or interests :)

It’s achievable by any frequency supported by Meshtastic. The average range you can expect, with good LoS, is between that 5-10km range.

However, if you have different circumstances you can expect less or even far above the average.

https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/range-tests/

The range test article above shows the current record for a successful ping/chirp to another node (Point to Point, no additional hops). It’s at 254km currently :)

If that’s the only gripe you have, then it just seems like you’re looking for reasons to not use this technology.

That’s okay, it’s not for everyone. If you prefer to use your HAM radio, by all means feel free to do so and occupy those frequencies.

Myself and others in the Meshtastic community will still welcome you with open arms, if and when you decide to check it out.

Very low cost of entry ($30-40), mesh capability for redundancy, and its on fairly accessible public bands although it occupies a specific part of it. Also it comes with end to end encryption.

It’s just a far more cost effective solution compared to having a CB radio, where you’d need to be licensed to have certain features or to communicate on VHF/UHF etc. You also wouldn’t need to learn any sort of HAM based etiquette to operate these devices.

Although if you need the extra capability, like voice comms, and want the flexibility that comes with HAM you can also incorporate these into that system.

For now, yes. There are certain extensions and 3rd party plugins that are seeking to expand on that by adding BBS capability or JS8call (for expanded text & basic audio).

There’s limited bandwidth to work with on just the 915mhz band but you’d be surprised what you can push downstream.

Yeah, I personally have a handful of nodes scattered around my local area.

They’re mostly situated with family, so it’s become a sort of adhoc emergency comms network if a hurricane or other natural disaster causes issues for me locally.

The two points I can agree with here are redirecting traffic to their website and the lack of some context before doing so.

I don’t have an issue with OP posting about this frequently, but to be fair if you’re doing it to farm traffic to your own website with the most minimal effort involved possible then it becomes an issue.

OP should definitely at least put some effort into this going forward.

You wouldn’t need internet access for these to work, although there is a public community WAN server you could join to operate under MQTT (which is their internet facing WAN function). They function off of LoRa RF on the 915mhz band in the U.S. (and other bands elsewhere) to do the bulk of the communication. BLE is also utilized for management.

These do need more than 1 node to operate properly, but since it works off the concept of a public mesh (with options to privatize), you don’t need two of your own devices in a developed location.

However, if no one is around or within line of sight… then you’ll have to work a little harder to get contacts/connections going.

Is there a set “tipping point” in this community? Or are we back to arbitrary rules like Reddit?

It’s technology related and OP is eager to share, again you really don’t have to click on the link or look at this post if it bothers you.

Add another casualty to the list:

https://killedbygoogle.com/

I don’t understand your comment. This IS technology, thus it’s perfectly fine to post here. You don’t need to click on it or view it.

And I can appreciate OP wanting to share a new concept or idea, or promoting this project further as it’s interesting imo.

Lol, I still remember this scene. Damn, super troopers was such a good movie, still is.

I’ll second what the person above said, this is incredibly cool.

I mean they’re close enough, and fajitas are definitely great. I can’t blame you for making that connection.

100%. Make sure to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule with all things you do.

+1 for a self-hosted Vaultwarden instance. If you’re technically capable and have extra hardware laying around this is the best way to go.

I’ll second this. Prometheus + Grafana is what I’m using now, but you can definitely add more extensions/monitors to get far more detail, like Loki which was suggested above.