Getting Started with Meshtastic - Devices

what's up everyone and welcome back to the coms channel in today's video for the getting started with mesh tastic series we're going to cover some of the device choices you may encounter and there are various different features and options so you can make an educated decision that fits your needs join me as we dig into it back we're approaching a restricted area restricted area is one mile West now there's a number of device choices out there and surely more to come but this video will just cover some of the more common devices that you'll run into some of the information in this video is from a page in the mesh tastic docs and I'll include a link to that in the video description there's also some less common devices mentioned there so be sure to check out that page as well after watching this video the first device we're going to discuss is the lilyo t- beam this is probably the most common device that you run into because it's one that most other YouTube channels have mentioned in their videos then we'll get into the liligo tcho this is the only device in the list that is ready to go out of the box other than flashing the mesh tastic firmware to it all of the other devices need some type of enclosure that you buy yourself or print with a 3D printer then there's the liligo tck which is the only Standalone device on this list I have one of these and have done a few videos on it and I'll include those in the video description then we have one of my favorites due to its modularity and that's going to be the rack Wireless whiz block and then finally we have the htech lore 32 series of devices now in deciding what devic is best for your needs one of the things you want to consider is the microcontroller it uses there's generally two supported types that you'll run into that's going to be the ES p32 and the NRF 52 and each have their own pros and cons the ESP 32 microcontroller is found on the liligo T beam the T deck and the htech lore 32 series of devices the nrf52 microcontroller is found on the liligo te Echo and the rack Wireless whiz block so here are some of the differences between the two that you want to take into consideration the esp32 you'll get built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth you'll get more memory which allows for storage during a range test and the web client is also available by connecting to these devices one of the downsides of the esp32 is that it is the more power hungry of the two options because of this it's not the best choice for a remote solar powered setup now on to the nrf52 this one is Bluetooth only and does not include Wi-Fi like the ES P 32 for me this has never been a concern and the Wi-Fi on the esp32 wasn't the most stable when I've tested it it's also much more power efficient than the esp32 and this makes it the best choice for a remote solar powered setup the next thing you'll likely run into when you go to purchase are the different frequency choices each country has their own rules and regulations as to what band these can operate on so you'll need to pick the correct one for your location one of those choices is going to be 9915 MHz you may see two choices for 95 MHz one for the us and one for Australia that's because there's some differences between the two countries and their regulations on the band that these devices operate on the ism band in the US is from 92 to 928 MHz while this ban in Australia is just from 9915 to 928 MHz the next band you'll see an option for is 433 MHz which is one of the Bands used in Europe and for you ham radio operators in the US you may notice that this frequency just happens to be in the 70 CM Ham Radio band which is 420 MHz to 450 MHz so if you're a ham radio operator in a US you could also get one of these devices for ham radio use 902 to 928 MHz is also the 33 cm Ham Radio band so you could use those devices for ham radio use as well mesh tastic has an amateur radio mode that you can turn on that disables the encryption since encryption is not allowed for use with ham Ria the next one is 868 MHz which is the second band that's used in your Europe there's also 865 MHz for India 864 MHz for Russia and finally 920 MHz for Korea some countries use other countries bands and there's a nice list from the things Network that I'll include a link to in the video description below now on to the devices themselves and the first one we'll discuss is the lilyo T beam that many have talked about this is a ESP 32 device so it does have built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and like many devices on this list it's just a board and no cases included so you'll have to purchase or 3D print your own case for it luckily with the popularity of this device there are many options available for it these devices do have a screen you'll sometimes run into an unsoldered option where the screen hasn't been soldered to the device yet and you'll see some that have it already done as well these devices do have a GPS if you need location for your use case the newest version the T beam Supreme has a BME 280 sensor that can provide humidity barometric pressure and temperature information the T beams generally have a battery holder already soldered onto the device if you're in the US and using the 9915 MHz band the antenna that's included with the T beam is usually not a good fit for 915 MHz at all and you'll want to upgrade to a different antenna but more on that on the next video where we'll go over antennas in depth there's a number of different models in the t-beam series from Lilo and there are some you should avoid like the T beam version 0.7 which is no longer supported or in production then there's the T beam version 1.1 this one's fine for the most part but it doesn't have have the better SX 1262 radio in it and there's also the t- beam with the m8n GPS which also does not have this now as far as the t- beams you should get those are pretty much going to be any that do have the sx1262 radio in it the reason these are recommended is because they have the ability to boost the gain and get increased Communications distance and devices with this are going to be the T Beam with the m8n GPS and sx1262 and the T beam Supreme luckily it's easy to spot which T beam has the SX 1262 radio in it as it should be marked on the radius label if you're looking at getting a t beam Supreme you'll likely come across two versions the L 76k version and a more expensive U blocks version the U blocks version will will get you faster GPS fixes meaning it'll acquire your location faster it also provides higher Precision down to the centimeter level the L 76k is a bit slower to acquire GPS fixes at around 30 seconds or so this one is less accurate as well with an accuracy level of around 1 to 5 m the cheaper l76 model is probably going to be fine for most people but if you need the higher precision and faster GPS fixes you do have that option with the U blocks the t- beam and the rest of the devices on this list don't come with an enclosure and are just boards if you want to protect them you'll need to purchase an enclosure or 3D print one yourself if you don't want to mess with all that and just want something you can purchase and hit the ground running the Teo may be what you're after with one caveat though like the T beam there are reports that the antenna on the T Echo is not good for 9915 MHz I don't have one in my hands to test the antenna yet but I should have one coming from Rockland soon and I'll be doing a video on that device when it arrives unlike the T beam the Teo uses the NRF 52 microcontroller which uses less battery power it also has an eink display which will also use less battery power it is a much smaller device than the t beam so the battery is going to be smaller at 858 milliamp hours compared to the average 18650 battery which is usually around 3,000 milliamp hours even with this difference in battery capacity the battery life on the Teo is comparable to the tbam and this shows how much more power efficient the nrf52 is compared to the esp32 and as mentioned earlier this comes with a case and this also has the sx12 62 radio now this comes in two versions standard which is going to be the nrf52 GPS and sx1 1262 low radio and then there's another version that includes a BME 280 sensor for humidity barometric pressure and temperature next we have the T deck and I've done a few videos on this device that I'll link in the video description but here's a brief overview of it the tck unfortunately uses the ESP 32 microcontroller and has a large LCD display these two things make the device have the worst battery life out of all the devices covered today it is a very unique device however since it's the only one on the list that can be used completely Standalone allowing you to type out your own messages on the devic's keyboard without the need of connecting it to a cell phone this device also uses the sx2 62 this device is fairly new so there aren't many 3D printer files available for it yet so you may have to design your own to fit your needs now on to my favorite platform the whis block from rack Wireless these are all good on battery as they use the nrf52 microcontroller and there's also a mesh tastic starter kit available if you just want what's needed to get started and my favorite thing about the whiz block is their modularity if you need GPS you can simply snap on the GPS module and your set if you don't want the GPS and want to avoid using the extra battery power simply don't add a GPS to the device there's a few weather sensor options available that you can add including the BME 680 which provides temperature barometric pressure humidity and air resistance data the mesh tastic YouTube channel has a great video on using Telemetry that I'll include in the video description you can also add an Ethernet module to connect the device to a network at the time of this video this is the only device that I'm aware of that has ethernet capability and this is useful for a number of things including using mqtt which will be covered in a later video with the wiiz blocks you have some choices in board sizes if you don't need any modules other than the low module and you want to keep the size small there's a small board available with just a single slot and that's where you would put in the lower module there's a ton of modules available for the whiz block way too many to list here so I just listed a few of the commonly supported ones in mesh tastic above while there's no visual indicators all of the whiz blocks do have the sx1262 radio in them another benefit of The Wiz Wiz blocks is they have a solar charger built in this combined with the low power consumption makes them a great choice for deploying these at remote locations for extended periods of time I've done a series on using the whiz block to build your own remote solar power device and I'll link that in the video description as well if you're interested and finally we have the htech lore 32 series of devices these all have the ESP 32 microcontrollers in them and they also all have the SX 1262 except for one and this is the model to avoid which is the low 32 version 2.1 in addition to not having the SX 1262 the support is ending for this device as far as the models to get in the series we have the low 32 version 3 which has a display and no GPS then there's the wireless stick light that has no display and no GPS then we have the wireless tracker which does have a display and GPS and then finally there's Wireless paper which has an e in display and no GPS that'll do it for this video covering mesh tastic devices and I hope you found it useful if you did please be sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already done so and join me for the rest of this series the next video will cover the various antenna options out there so you can pick one for your needs and how you can also do your own antenna testing thank yall and have a good one I just want to give a quick shout out to 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Channel: The Comms Channel

Views: 34,461

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Id: DUz6cVSaSl4

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 05 2023