{"id":2063,"date":"2025-01-24T21:14:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T02:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2025-01-25T04:03:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T09:03:47","slug":"meshtastic-device-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/2025\/01\/meshtastic-device-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Meshtastic: Device options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As promised, another post to specifically discuss beginner Meshtastic device options. Whatever you order, if you&#8217;re in the US make sure you order the 915MHz version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started with a RAK Wisblock starter kit and a LilyGo T-Echo.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CHKZJK9C\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CHKZJK9C<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aliexpress.com\/item\/3256802839792781.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.11.397d1802Rl4KK7\">https:\/\/www.aliexpress.com\/item\/3256802839792781.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.11.397d1802Rl4KK7<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I ordered both because I was impatient. I knew the LilyGo was what I wanted to start with, but I also knew it would take a while, so I ordered the Wisblock to learn while I waited. And that worked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some lessons from both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They will come with an older firmware. First thing to do is to flash it with the latest stable firmware.  http:\/\/flasher.meshtastic.org<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don&#8217;t fire it up without the antenna(s) connected. It could fry the unit. Just like in amateur radio.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Channel 0 should likely default to LongFast with its default key, I think that&#8217;s AQ== but don&#8217;t take my word for it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>If you want to try DC540&#8217;s custom channel, add it as channel 1. Name: DC540. 256-bit pre-shared key: OVRpanBCYjZ2WmVIZTRheVlSZDZZWGxUcElFNFRSaWo=<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Install the app on your phone, pair with your unit (Pin is probably 123456), and then watch Nodes and Map for things to pop up.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alternately, connect to your computer (use a USB-C cable that supports power AND data) and browse to client.meshtastic.org. Click &#8220;new device,&#8221; connect it to the serial port that&#8217;s obviously your device, and manage it that way. It&#8217;s a bit wonky and dies sometimes, just refresh the webpage to start over.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ideally in the next 15-20 minutes you should see some local nodes pop up on your node list and map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, the LilyGo seems more powerful than the Wisblock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But something I noticed, when you&#8217;re looking at your node list, you can see what type of device the other nodes are running. One thing I noticed is that the farthest node I could see was running a Station G2. So that tells me that maybe the Station G2 transmits more powerfully. (Or maybe that user has a better antenna, or an external antenna).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, I started mucking around with MQTT. MQTT is the same type of networking, but over an MQTT server on the internet. If you&#8217;re frustrated by lack of nodes, you can light this up to see more and communicate with other weirdos around the world. But be aware, you&#8217;re cheating, and it&#8217;s going to cut into your radio knowledge improvement. Is it worth it?  Probably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When using MQTT through a mobile-paired device, you turn on &#8220;proxy through client.&#8221; If your device has its own wifi, turn that shit off. As far as I can tell, you can&#8217;t use MQTT through a serial-connected device without its own wifi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That led me to my next purchase, the LilyGo T-Beam Supreme. It has built-in wifi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Station G2 also has its own wifi, but I&#8217;m not there yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More later. This should be enough to help you get started. Any questions? Join our Discord and ask in the Meshtastic learning channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As promised, another post to specifically discuss beginner Meshtastic device options. Whatever you order, if you&#8217;re in the US make sure you order the 915MHz version. I started with a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/2025\/01\/meshtastic-device-options\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Meshtastic: Device options&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[105,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meshtastic","category-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/nodemap.png","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/2066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dc540.org\/xxx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}