Post
Replies:
40
@Edent I've been exploring LoRa as well. Here's my writeup about experimenting with MeshCore for a few weeks: https://mtlynch.io/first-impressions-of-meshcore/
@michael thank you - that was useful and instructive.
Always a delight to be sent random circuit boards in the post 😄
Not sure I'll have enough time before #FOSDEM to set up a full #Meshtastic node, but I'll give it a go!
@Edent I'm glad the box wasn't summarily destroyed in transit for being too suspicious, and I hope you enjoy playing with it as much as we enjoyed making it.
The Femtofox team was strongly influenced by the loss of mobile phone towers in the Northern California wildfires. I still have a dream of solar powered linux nodes as part of a healthy mesh.
The reality is that it's just really really cool to play with.
@Pol nice to meet you 😃
Well, thanks to WebUSB I was able to flash this tiny board with MeshCore. It connects fine to my phone, but I can't see any other nodes.
The hunt continues!
2 media
OK my #Meshcore friends, what am I doing wrong?
Board is on the 3rd floor (over 6m above ground height.
Powered on, connected via Bluetooth, by a window.
Set to UK long range.
Been up for about 30 minutes and hasn't discovered any neighbours.
I know there are a couple of repeaters near-ish.
Just a case of wait and hope? Stick it in the loft? Increase power?
Any help and speculation welcomed 😄
4 media
@Edent@mastodon.social
UK long? I thought meshcore uses uk narrow.
UK long? I thought meshcore uses uk narrow.
@Edent either put it outside the window or further inside the room. To me, where it is, looks like it would block signal. It would literally “skip” — just a thought.
@Edent this doesn't help but I assumed Northampton wouldn't have any #meshtastic traffic and now I'm interested 😀
Aha! I had to unbend the antenna 😁
Now receiving #Meshcore messages. Don't know if any of mine are being seen though.
2 media
- problem is the window
- this type of antenna dont like to kink
- antennas love metal-bases to reduce noise from electronics
@Edent UK/EU Narrow. The default is wrong 
@Edent Before I dropped off, a large part of the UK moved to UK Narrow, so might be worth switching over
@Edent I had a board like that that didn't work at all, so perhaps quality is low. However, how far away are the repeaters and do you probably have a line of sight?
Also stick the antenna on the outside of the window for a while perhaps you have some foil in the glass. But first waiting a few hours is recommended
@Edent For Meshcore in the UK you need to change your radio settings:
Frequency: 869.618
Bandwidth: 62.5
Spreading Factor: 8
Coding Rate: 8
Transmit Power: 22
@dpecos @zipkid woo! I'll try to find you. My Signal and other contact details are on https://edent.tel/
@Edent which one did you get? I might forestall all thinking and simply copy what you're doing ;)
@Edent whichever one is prevalent around you. There could even be both. MeshCore is well suited for wide-area mesh networking. Meshtastic is more intended for personal ad hoc meshes, like when hiking, but it can be configured to work well in an infrastructure-based mesh. You can mostly reflash between the two so there’s little difficulty in playing with both. Each project has a Discord with local threads, and many areas have their own very substantial communities.
I did a talk for the U of Michigan Amateur Radio Club on #meshtastic and the slides are on the WE8CHZ "MiRATS" site here
https://www.we8chz.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Intro-to-Meshtastic-W8EMV.pdf
The fun you have with any mesh depends on the number of other people using the same tech locally.
Too few - frustration, talking to yourself
Acceptable -interesting local net with reliable paths
Too many - mesh network overload due to congestion
For actual emergency comms? Depends. Severe weather nets run on 2 meter / 70 cm ham repeaters.
@Edent my understanding is that meshtastic is older and possibly in more widespread use, but meshcore can probably do more?
I've used meshtastic a lot and found it to be servicible in my rural community. I am interested exploring meshcore, but chickens and eggs have to come first.
@Edent I prefer Meshtastic, but my local mesh switched to Meshcore. MC is not as good. It doesn't do as much. If you turn on a new node, it takes days to populated with the mesh nodes and half of them are unreliable links. I wasn't involved in the vote to switch.
Meshtastic has sensor integration and some simple stuff to get started. It's useful for IoT stuff. It quickly finds local nodes even factory fresh.
Both apps are quirky. Only one of them is open source.
@Edent
I saw a conférence about Reticulum (at CCC IIRC) and it looked very interesting, I don't know a lot about mesh so I have no adive but I would compare it to meshmatic
@Edent I'm on #meshcore because that looks to be more active in my area. (Netherlands)
I sarted with 25 euro investment for a helltec v3 (3.2 iirc) and I learned a ton about wireless signals already. I am planning to build a repeater to get the network more stable and put that out on the balcony where I live.
I'm having fun but it's still very new. It feels like proper emergency comms are still with the hams, but then I need to get a license.
Highly subjective takes, all of this. 😊Learning
@Edent I don't know if Benn Jordan has a presence on Mastodon, but I'm sure he'd have something to say on the subject. ..
@Edent I'd love to understand this too.
@Edent I've attended this seession a few days ago: https://techwerkers.nl/en/events/2026-01-15/
It was recorded.
They recommend MeshCore over Meshtastic.
@pini thank you - that's useful.
@Edent I suspect that @alistairmacdonald may know a thing or two 😃
@Edent from my (limited) experience, Meshtastic is better for telemetry-sending, and messaging is a side effect that people have grabbed hold of. As a result short-range comms work well. Meshcore is designed to be more of a message relaying system. Meshcore also has much longer range because of the relays. The cluster I participate in reaches from Hull to Isle of Wight.
@Edent Neither are actually open source, I used Meshtastic for a year. Great for cities / festivals / mucking around.
Been using meshcore the last year or so.
Meshcore is MUCH more reliable for permanent setups, and usable for long range. We have like 200 meshcore nodes covering our whole state. Regularly messaging people hundreds of km away 12-14 hops.
This would be impossible on Meshtastic.
@Edent I would go with meshtastic because of the bigger reach in terms of community. Meshcore has cool functions, but it's not that big yet. BUT! Since they devices are pretty cheap, especially if ordered bare from china, why not both?
