Meshtastic: Build Your Own Private Off-Grid Network!

Meshtastic is an open source mesh wireless network project that can be built on inexpensive hardware. It has a mind-bottling amount of use cases from resource tracking to IoT management to emergency communication. With Meshtastic, you construct mesh nodes for either relay or communication and string 'em all together into a mesh network that scales to cover small or large areas.

In this video, we discuss some of the possible use cases, and then Crosstalk's David Barger walks us through equipment selection, setup, and testing of a Meshtastic wireless network. Buckle in - you're not going to want to miss this one!

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
02:09 - Hardware Selection
05:35 - 3D Printed Case
09:22 - Flashing Firmware
11:05 - Meshtastic Configuration
14:58 - Meshtastic Modules Overview
14:59 - Sending Messages
15:43 - Range Testing
17:35 - Troubleshooting Issues
18:53 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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[zerofoxd]

Welcome to the party! I designed a case for my own Meshtastic node in February, it went a bit viral and I had to start a business… 6 months later I’ve shipped over 2500 cases worldwide. It’s been wild and humbling!

[webluke]

It's funny that my friend, with whom I was installing a new Unifi network at his business, was talking about using something like Meshtastic for communications between him and his friends when they were doing winter sports. I got a bunch of Meshtastic gear a year ago and played with it for a month, then got bored because I was the only one to communicate with. Now my friend is 40 miles away, so that won't work unless we strung a bunch of solar-powered repeaters through the desert of Western Colorado.

[traviswhitten]

I see this being very useful for putting these with Solar Panels in remote places in National Forests/Hiking trails.

[orangebudha]

I’m able to send messages to San Diego, from Los Angeles, many nodes in between, community is growing

[olafschermann]

Pro tip changing battery connector:
Don‘t cut both wires in one go, scissors short the battery and you either create sparks, kill the longlivity of your battery or in worst case make fire. Cut one pole, solder in the same pole fpr the new adapter, heatshrink it - and THEN cut the other pole. Alternative cut the 2 poles at slightly different locations that you not create a short if insulation fails at a later time. Solder joints can have sharp pints, especially if you don‘t solder at a regular basis which cuts thru the insulation.

[deathmetalpopart]

Not gonna lie, I thought about setting up hundreds of these to be self-contained throughout phoenix to have my own private network across the city. I don't have the funds to do this, unfortunately, but it's a potential use case

[support]

Been cruising around NV, AZ and NM with one in my pack back with a larger antenna. Collected over 250 nodes, most in Albuquerque.

[simcopter]

Heck yeah! Glad to see you covering this project.

[olafschermann]

Thank you for mentioning meshtastic. Didn‘t know that.

[lifefromscratch]

I've been a ham for years and I didn't expect meshtastic on this channel. haha

[chuckles]

Man, when I was working out in the sticks we didn't have any wireless monitoring of our equipment, we had Walky-talkies and we'd walk or ride out and call in if things needed refills. This would've been great cause we were pushing the limits of those little radios.

[mitchellcrazyeye]

This reminds of Beartooth - a device with basic text messaging for outdoor, away from cell coverage areas. I'm not sure what happened to them, but this looks very promising! I'll have to pickup a few kits and play around.

[patto]

Hahah I’m currently setting up a network here in South Sydney. Only real negative I’ve come across is just waiting for gear to turn up from AliExpress, but that’s standard for Ali lol

[mikeonthebox]

It's crazy that the case is more expensive than the components themselves.

[andresmonteverde]

good work pals, very clear and well produced

[meisievannancy]

South African farmers would be grateful for such a network. They have been murdered by what appears to be state sponsored cell phone jammers and have had to set up radio networks but not so easy to get to the radio when the criminals are holding some parts of the family hostage while others could still communicate to neighboring farms.

[Kush-fwfr]

nice ive been looking to get into meshtastic . hopefully i will do it soon

[GrannyDryden]

Interesting video, thought i'm still clueless on what it is/does and its use case/application. Seems a bit too niche to me.

[Biokemist-ok]

This is fantastic!!!! Thank you so much for sharing your build and the information. If I had a nickel for every time that I forgot to put on a shrink would have at least 25 cents. For some reason my girlfriend is looking at me with a side eye and shaking her head...lol

[DocAraxa]

It would be perfect if we could use it in great catastrophes! But the range is a limit, and will allways be!