I'm very interested in whether anyone uses LoRa/MESHTASTIC, not so much in technical projects but more regularly in daily life. Thank you.

Mar 15 · 9 months ago · 👍 dariolob, OminousSacabambaspis · 🤘 1

5 Comments ↓

Following this as I’m quite interested in trying to set it up!

To me: the practical utility is quite niche. Maybe if I had a big property and wanted something like a notification of trespassing or to monitor a microclimate. People have tried to use them at big events like Burning Man but the protocol doesn't scale to that many nodes in a small space. The way most people seem to use it is as a hobby, to build an electronics project and then to try and communicate with local and more distant nodes. Sort of like HAM radio but without needing a license. Because it isn't HAM, you can also run with encryption but to me this adds complexity. Because it isn't HAM, it's also much more difficult. HAM can hit hundreds of kilometers from a node. LoRa can manage 10.

I use Meshtastic every day in Portland, OR - we have roughly 600 nodes in the area. I've messaged all the way from Portland to Salem - but that's spotty, don't expect that distance all the time. It's more when the stars align just right haha

MeshCore is a new up-and-coming LoRa project. There's a small bunch of us reusing some old Meshtastic nodes for it. It seems a bit simpler and more likely to get your messages through. You should give that a look too!

anyone else? :)