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+---- Thread: LoRa Tbeam and Meshtastic (/showthread.php?tid=613)
LoRa Tbeam and Meshtastic - Marvin VE3VCG - 2021-11-01
The video I've shared below is of special interest to me because I see vast potential for this type of LoRa device in Emergency Communications. To avoid confusion I need to make a couple of important points first.
1) LoRa devices are specifically designed to automatically create a mesh network. The Meshtastic software when flashed on a LoRa Tbeam can be directly accessed using a cell phone connected to the device wirelessly using WiFi. This then allows text messages to be sent via one LoRa device to another, and so then to another cell phone running Meshstatic software.
2) The range of a Tbeam device can be dramatically increased with a better antenna. In this test the max range was roughly 2 miles. However a respectable antenna will increase this to up to 10 miles. As with all line of sight radios, increasing elevation also allows an increase in range. Experiments I have seen routinely get 30 miles between devices. Without putting fine point on this, that obviously means that someone with a LoRa device in one location, connected to another LoRa device at another location, 30 miles distant, could send a text message using their phone and Meshtastic software to another party with a second LoRa device, and running Meshtastic software.
3) LoRa Tbeams with Meshtastic software automatically create a self-discovery / self-healing network. Each device running Meshtastic software will be added to the net automatically. The net will then self-heal when devices leave the net. Meshtastic calculates TX and RX pathways automatically and so no additional configuration is needed to create a mesh network.
4) Meshtastic is free open source software. Tbeams are cheap and easily availble. As seen in the video, waterproof enclosures can be pretty basic, however files to make better quality enclosures are available for 3D printers. Solar charge controllers and solar panels can be added making such devices stand alone nodes.
5) The value of having community based text based mesh-networks, available to anyone with a cell phone, is perhaps a relative point. However I feel this kind of network could be very useful in any community during a real emergency situation. This is the neighbors helping neighbors concept made visible with hardware and software. Combined with the long distance capabilities of HAM radio the potential to provide community based emergency communications is very real and I think achievable. This would be a matter of having enough, solar powered Tbeam devices in mesh-nets across a community.
6) Of special interest to me was the idea of connecting a LoRa TBeam device to a repeater controller to allow for remote access. There are other potential uses for such connections which are worth of consideration.