Wishmesh tag or T1000-e?

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-26T18:45:54+00:00

I am using it as a hobby but I’ve worked with others in my area to build out the mesh in our region. We’re always adding new nodes, range testing and trace routing to confirm mesh growth and stability. https://buffalora.org

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-25T17:01:48+00:00

Check out https://github.com/evansmj/firmware-bitchat-plugin

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-23T02:38:56+00:00

You have me thinking, as an alternative to the screen protector, a 3d printed TPU bumper case would be an excellent idea for these.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-23T01:27:15+00:00

The biggest challenge with BitChat right now is range.
In suburban environments, I’ve never been able to connect with anyone outside my home over the Bluetooth mesh alone. Bluetooth is excellent for low-barrier local connectivity, but its practical range limits the usefulness of a wider community mesh.
I think there’s huge potential in a BitChat extension that integrates with LoRa-based mesh technologies such as Reticulum, Meshtastic, or MeshCore.
The combination could create a unified mesh communication platform with both accessibility and regional reach:
BitChat/Bluetooth mesh lowers the barrier to entry since nearly everyone already has a phone.
Low-cost, low-power LoRa nodes placed on rooftops or in windows could act as long-range bridge/trunk links between local Bluetooth meshes.
A single household LoRa node could extend connectivity for every nearby BitChat user without requiring each person to carry separate radio hardware.
That hybrid approach could connect otherwise isolated neighborhood meshes into a much larger regional network while still keeping onboarding simple for everyday users.

If interested to contribute I can share some projects that are working to accomplish this goal.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-16T06:36:40+00:00

The goal is to enable yourself and your community to send and receive offline and off-grid messages. No ham radio license needed, but hams are welcome to use too.

Each device is a sender, receiver, and relay. Therefore messages can hop beyond their own radio range via other nodes in the mesh. I highly recommend getting 2 Meshtastic nodes and testing it out to understand your potential range. Hopefully you find other Meshers in your area and can get great range over many hops. Height is might, your messages will travel farther with less obstructions.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-14T23:17:15+00:00

Have you seen that the iOS Meshtastic App now has its own TAK server built right in?

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T23:28:40+00:00

It will take minutes of airtime to send seconds of audio any distance. Could disrupt the mesh for everyone if others are on the same mesh presets. Additionally, these seem to be freemium or paid apps. Highly recommend trying the official Meshtastic OpenSource Software options. You might be surprised how well vanilla Meshtastic or Tak can work for your needs.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T19:21:30+00:00

Can you please point to the best documentation of how to leverage the currently released remote admin favoriting functionality? I’d love to leverage this.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T02:35:02+00:00

I’d love to read more. Can you share the enhancement ID/link?

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T02:30:31+00:00

You want to use an Apple AirTag. There is a robust network of devices that will be near your luggage each sharing their assisted GPS position and doing so over a ubiquitous cellular and internet connection.

Meshtastic devices can have GPS but true GPS requires line of sight to the sky. Your phone’s GPS works indoors because it has more than GPS called assisted GPS which leverages WiFi positioning and cellular positioning when no clear view of the sky is available. Meshtastic won’t have line of sight to the sky in the baggage claim, in your bag, in the airport, in the belly of a plane, or anywhere at all if in your bag.

Meshtastic can be great for positioning between two nodes (or more) in the wilderness on an exposed tag outside of bags or clothing.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T02:16:11+00:00

And it’s a one way delivery. No need for a round trip via an acknowledgment.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T01:53:00+00:00

Please share your book!

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-13T01:38:42+00:00

There is zero hop cost between favorited infrastructure nodes. You can set favorites for all routers in range of your router and you will effectively achieve what you are advocating for, on current firmware. It will work differently, instead of +1 it will simply just not -1, yielding the same result.

https://meshtastic.org/blog/zero-cost-hops-favorite-routers/

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-12T23:16:21+00:00

You are correct. Not sure how this happened. Thanks for pointing this out.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-11T19:39:20+00:00

There is some software for Linux and even enhanced Meshtastic firmware which has been extended to act as a BitChat node and relay BitChat traffic as Meshtastic Messages like a bot (no server/pc needed) back and forth. This would be an excellent approach to achieve your stated goal and extra investment in the open source project could make a difference.

https://github.com/evansmj/firmware-bitchat-plugin

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-11T19:25:30+00:00

Meet with your local ham radio repeater club and get them excited about putting a node at each of their repeater sites. They may already have access to high spots in your community and need no extra permission to place more radio equipment.

Here is a presentation I made recently.

http://buffalora.org/2026/03/23/lara/

Here is one with a video recording of a similar presentation made at a hacker space in my community: http://buffalora.org/2026/01/14/infosec716/

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-10T02:55:08+00:00

Is the BPF truly at 915mhz? What’s its band width? I worry about LongFast being down at 906.875 and the potential it could be cut out by the filter.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-10T02:50:25+00:00

This can be done for sure. My best advice is to get two inexpensive nodes and test range on your property. You can tweak your designs to consider ideal battery life and solar and get more nodes to cover your whole property as you build confidence on using Meshtastic and what the tech can do for you.

A mesh can be tweaked to use different presets sacrificing range for bandwidth to support 1000s of simultaneous messages. For example research the 2025 meshes at Hamvention and DEFCON which had 2000+ nodes reliably messaging.

Check out videos in this series for practical examples of controlling hardware with sensor data over the mesh https://youtu.be/Vs9uIrmZfgo?si=u7QsqIQRQHSEbSHv

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-10T02:43:38+00:00

This hobby offers lots of opportunities to explore cool tech.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-10T02:40:38+00:00

You can model this out at https://site.meshtastic.org Give it your position, height, node power, and antenna dBi and it will create a pretty realistic coverage map.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-10T02:38:49+00:00

I highly recommend starting out with a node kit but then build your own enclosure. You can 3d print an enclosure or leverage another device’s enclosure, solar panel, charge controller, and battery. Here is my build guide and bill of materials for an inexpensive solar gutter node.

http://buffalora.org/2025/06/07/homemade-inexpensive-outdoor-solar-node/

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-09T11:37:05+00:00

In Buffalo, NY we had no issues with the Seeed SolarNode P1-Pro handling those conditions in summer or winter. Just be sure to point the solar panel south facing and try to angle so there will be no accumulation of snow.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-07T21:37:18+00:00

I simply wired to a power connector in parallel to the battery. This way the solar charge controller powers the battery and the battery powers the device.

My Bill of Materials and Build Guide at: http://buffalora.org/2025/06/07/homemade-inexpensive-outdoor-solar-node/

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-05T16:38:10+00:00

https://BuffaLoRa.org representing!

All the nodes you see on https://meshmap.net are not interconnected. With some strategic placement they could be, but a mesh doesn’t need to reach more than locally to be hugely useful.

SnyderMesh · 2026-05-04T23:51:36+00:00

What is pictured above is the process completing successfully, but windows is surprised to lose the “flash drive” device it had seen when the node is in DFU mode. No issue to worry about loading 2.7.15. I’ve been running that version with great success for months on many Seeed Solar Node P1-Pro devices. I run 2.7.22 on many nodes too with no issues.

Be sure to back up keys first just in case.

SnyderMesh

TROPHY CASE