#337 LoRa Off-Grid Mesh Communication: Meshtastic (ESP32, BLE, GPS)
Video Statistics and Information
Channel: Andreas Spiess
Views: 737,088
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: arduino, arduino project, beginners, diy, do-it-yourself, eevblog, electronics, esp32, esp32 datasheet, esp32 project, esp32 tutorial, esp32 weather station, esp8266, esp8266 datasheet, esp8266 project, greatscott, guide, hack, hobby, how to, iot, lorawan, nodemcu, project, simple, smart home, ttgo, wemos, wifi, BLE, Lora, Lora mesh, communicator, GPS
Id: TY6m6fS8bxU
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 14sec (794 seconds)
Published: Sun Jun 07 2020
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.
I thought this was interesting. I really like the idea in principle. Just keep in mind it requires community adoption. If you know your neighbors and they are of like-mind, this could work.
This is awesome. I wish Lora equipment was less expensive. Esp-now seems like it's also a good candidate for this use, but last I read the protocol was not capable of automatic peer discovery. It seemed like it was designed around clients knowing their own address and the address of other nodes ahead of time, and the address space is extremely limited. Seems profoundly and unnecessarily limiting. But I haven't worked with it, can anyone else confirm?
I'm envisioning a very small backpack for cell phones that could connect to the USB port and enable peer to peer functionality identical to meshtastic.
The frustrating irony of all this is that phones are already perfect for this type of signalling. Both the wifi and ESPECIALLY the LTE radios already have exactly what they need to mesh network with each other and communicate peer2peer. It's so screwed up to me that they are only enabled to communicate with towers because that is what they can monetize.
Lives have definitely been lost when hikers or other explorers were out of tower range and couldn't signal for help, when they probably could have signalled a nearby phone. Likewise, rescue aircraft could carry the same radios and try to connect directly with lost people.
Too bad you can't power these things with solar and never have to recharge. Seems like the recharging problem is the biggest drawback. And you couldn't use solar if you're going to bury them. If you do use solar, someone might just steal your little device.