Just received my first meshtastic device. Unfortunately, as I expected, I couldn’t connect to another node from home. Drove to the top of the skiing hill by my house, and was super excited to see nodes pop up. Tried DMing the closest one, but I didn’t have much time to stick around for the response. Thinking about asking the general manager of the ski resort permission to put a router on top of the mountain (if I’m wrong about the mode, let me know, but seems router would be best fit). Does anyone have recommendations for outdoor solar panel ready-to-go kits?
It isn’t a kit, but I bought one of these from Etsy six months ago and it’s been working perfectly. It’s mounted on the house of a friend who lives at the top of the highest ridge in my area. I went from seeing my three nodes to seeing close to a hundred.
Also, for people asking about use cases, Meshtastic doesn’t do anything you can’t do better with a phone. Aside from fun, it’s great for at least two scenarios. If your local cell towers stop working (natural disasters, power outages, etc.) the mesh provides emergency communication. If you’re going to a protest or other event where you would prefer not to be tracked or monitored, Meshtastic is far less likely to attract official attention than a phone.
Glad to hear it. I bought the smaller variant (1 panel, 18650) a couple days ago. I’m traveling so it’ll take another couple weeks to catch up with me through my mail forwarder.
A related scenario: if there wasn’t cell coverage at a location at all. Boondockers sometimes camp in areas with no cell coverage, or coverage that only works with cell boosters or LTE/5G routers with external antennas on the roof of their rigs.
Given the state of play in the U.S. I wouldn’t blame them…