It's not even "I wrote some software and put it in a product and the product did a harm and I'm maybe fractionally culpable in a way that's really hard to apportion" any more. It's just "I set up a computer to do crimes and I spent ten million dollars on electricity to prove it could do crimes […]

Emergency Communication:

I was certain that I read something about using Meshtastic for emergency communication, but this appears to have been removed. (Some hints remain, MeshCore also has some hints of this too)

So let's use a practical example to try to dispel this nonsense.

We've had a […]

Range discussion:

I've tested the range I can send/receive messages at by taking my T-Deck in the car and periodically sending messages at landmarks, e.g. cross streets, prominent buildings, etc. and seeing if a base station at home can receive the message. The longest direct message I've […]

Hardware discussion:

LilyGo hardware: the big thing to remember when buying stuff from LilyGo is that they make Development Boards, not products. And no matter how "product" the thing you have in your hand is, it's still a development board and has big compromises because of this.

I have a […]

Conclusions:

Going back to my original goals here, I want to track luggage as it travels between countries after it is lost.

Actually, let's dial this down to just tracking luggage I have lost while travelling by train.

Based on the testing I've done so far, I'll have somewhat spotty tracking […]

Community.

Or rather what community?

I've received no messages I haven't sent. I've only seen ~4 other nodes, and as far as I can tell, I'm using the correct settings for Australia (ANZ region, channel 20, Long-fast)

If there's a community around this, I'd expect them to be on the public […]

Software:

There are four major interfaces through which you interact with Meshtastic: The "small" interface on boards with LCDs, AKA BaseUI, InkHUD which is supposed to be used with e-paper displays, MUI for larger devices, and the various "big device" apps including Android, web, etc.

BaseUI […]

Fundamental design issues:

They promise "No Infrastructure", but sternly warn people not to use the "router" or "repeater" modes without planning. Essentially if you want to spin up your own infrastructure, you need to plan it like infrastructure. I've also heard reports of Meshtastic being […]

Marketing vs reality:

Meshtastic is advertised as an "off-grid, decentralised mesh network" that is just "pure peer-to-peer connectivity". This and the rest of the copy on their homepage implies that all you need to join the network is just a piece of hardware, flash the firmware, and you're […]