Meshtastic

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A community to discuss Meshtastic (https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction)

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Sal@mander.xyz

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Built my own base station with blackjack, hookers, and the completely wrong hardware lmao (infosec.pub)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz

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Its a LILYGO T3S3 (a module focused on handheld use) stuck into a housing I modeled myself and 3d printed out of ASA plastic. It has some Chinese "high gain" 915MHz antenna inside the grain silo looking part, which is oversize to prevent too much signal reflection/distortion from the plastic being too close to the antenna. Its powered by 18ga alarm system wire that I draped down the roof to a 5v power supply on the deck. And since I'm renting, non permanent modifications only, thus the clamp to the vent pipe.

Its what I had, just to get started. Quickly realized I needed to be on my roof to get any good connections in my node-sparse area haha.

So far it's working well, I have 13 consistent mesh connections with 3 direct connections, when before I would previously only get spotty connections to the mesh at all from inside my house.

I'll buy some better base station hardware later, once I put one up at my girlfriend's house a few miles away....

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[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, they are. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission allows 1 watt EIRP on the ISM bands.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

HAWT

[–] michael@piefed.chrisco.me 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The only issue you may have with the 1W is that they will be able to send to nodes that will probably not be able to contact you back. Because they are lower power.

So while you may be able to send really well, receiving may be a bit more difficult.

Ive heard of people saying that the 1W will muddy up the radio space since its basically one node "screaming" over others. Im not 100% buying it as 1W is still pretty quiet compared to other electronics in other spectrum. But thought I would mention it.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, after thinking about it 1w will probably be overkill, since the two places I can run base stations right now are not very well located. If I get a chance to put one on a hilltop I might go 1w with a big antenna for receive performance, but not right now.