this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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Meshtastic
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its a fun project...but I have real problems making meshtastic reliable as is.
Im hoping meshcore can eventually backport things into meshtastic. Or meshcore becomes a more open standard. Both could work.
Have you looked at Reticulum at all? I know it's not a drop-in replacement but it can also do messaging over LoRa and it sounds like it's a bit more resilient than Meshtastic's flood protocol. Also more complicated though.
I'm only just getting into this stuff, so I'm basically wondering how they compare for someone with more experience using LoRa devices. Does it seem workable?
I've read the least about Meshcore so far - it looked like a corporate alternative to Meshtastic but I might not have given it enough consideration.
Yep I played around with it. Its biggest pro is that is can work over many different protocols (as you alluded to). Bad part is that I have real issues getting it to work without internet. I hope it goes far though!
I really hope that they make it easier to work with. I have a hard time getting it to work. There a lot of setup and assumptions they make. An all in one setup would be great for adoption.
Can you expand on the problem you are running into? Does the receiver device matter? I was looking at some on tindie that have gps as well for 55 bucks each, which seems the cheapest option for having both.
Lets say I want to talk to a buddy of mine a couple of miles away. I can see him via one node away. Sometimes when I message it doesn't show up. Sometimes none of the messages show up if its a busy day.
This isnt an isolated problem. Ive had my node on my roof for over 2 years now. Its a bit sporadic no matter which device I put up there. Threw an RTLSDR up there and found there's a lot of traffic happening around the US frequency in my area. But it shouldn't affect it all that much. Hope that makes sense!
I own 4 meshtastic devices. They are awesome when they work! But I personally wound't rely on them for communication. An old walkie talkie would probably get better reception if need be.
Do undelivered mesage queue and eventually come through? I would agree with the walkie talkie idea but would need longer range.
Edit: also, do different frequencies not affect much? Sorry for all the questions lol but i appreciate your time
I think theres a small queue? Im not sure. I know it will attempt at telling you if the message is recieved if it can. But beyond a couple of hops, its anyone guess. Longfast looks like a lot of half made messages.
It works best if there isnt as many hops (as you can probably imagine).
From what im seeing, frequency is fine. I have seen different devices use lora to communicate pretty decent distances, if there is line of sight. Its decently reliable.
Meshtastic tells you if SOMEONE heard and repeated your message (the cloud icon). You don't know if it has arrived to the intended destination. Unless you're in direct range of each other, then you'll see the person icon.
Thanks for the clarification. I never knew. I know they just changed the UI on android recently to help differentiate with some of the nuances like this, but I haven't dug into the changes yet.
The iOS version of the app is SOOO much better. But its getting better each day.
One thing that city people have a problem with is smart electricity meters doing their own mesh thing on the same frequency. There's so many of them that a lot of the time they drown out the polite little chatter of nodes. This is certainly the situation in the EU 868 MHz band.
Thats a good point. I didnt realize the EU had that potential issue.
Thankfully in our area its a different frequency altogether. No where near each other. But I have seen an air conditioner absolutely wreck an entire spectrum when its on. Just blasts everything in static. Its surprising what causes noise.