Long range (LoRa) mesh networks are interesting alternatives to communication, especially when state actors are blocking internet access for various reasons.
More details about meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/
About its current state of encryption: https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/encryption
What up with everyone using the acronym LoRa. It is becoming confusing.
When talking about LoRa, I always think about the wireless protocol/chip… Its been around for a long time (specially when capitalized like that) … What other Lora are you talking about?
In generative AIs LoRAs are “Low-Rank Adaptions”. Basically an overlay for existing networks to teach them new things.
We ran out of acronyms a long time ago.
perhaps LoRa is the name of the singularity and it is all coming together
It stands for Long Range, so would otherwise have been LR.
tell us then, beside your waifu name “lora”, what/which else is named after your waifu, that confuses you?
/s
Not sure why you decided to ask that person the question like that, but when it comes to AI, LoRA stands for Low-Rank Adaptation. They are used to fine-tune models. Next time be a bit more polite.
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The documentation is a little lacking. What exactly is the range of each decide? I see the record of 100+ miles but can I easily connect people within a few miles?
What exactly does this do? Is it just a messaging app?
Meshtastic allows to send text messages, sensor metrics and GPS coordinates to nodes in mesh. It’s like a walkie talkie but on steroids. Meshtastic have 2 components: 1 firmware, 2 software. You flash firmware onto device that’s compatible. You can then download software on your mobile phone (Android or iOS) there is also web UI that can be used on PC. You connect to the radio device using Bluetooth Wi-Fi or USB cable (depending on device some don’t have Wi-Fi but then they drain less power). Range varies vastly depending on many factors. Just like any radio device the antenna quality and position is everything. In practice if you have only 2 devices that are both mobile handheld by person the range will be depending on terrain about few miles. If you add another device the range and dependability improves. Meshtastic tries to send each message 3 times and if it doesn’t get ACK reply it will show message failed. You can setup radio to be a relay as well as store messages so that connecting nodes can still retrieve messages even when they originally missed the transmission. You can setup Jedi to be administered remotely (sending configuration through other radio).
Meshatastic supports encryption AES 128 and 256. The weakness is that if any of the radios where ever compromised adversary could get the key from the device and able to decrypt future communications. 100+ mile range can be achieved with terrain like elevated hill or mountain where there is line of sight. See docs https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/range-tests I’ve read some use balloons to improve range during events. Both methods require dedicated relay node. Currently there is a limit to how many nodes you can have in the mesh.
Dude this is a great response. I’ve spent the last hour trying to piece together how it works and you nailed everything perfectly.
I’m a ham so familiar with radios and have been trying to setup some Wi-Fi links between friends but this seems a little more practical.
Is a few mile range possible with houses etc in the way? We’re all about a mile away from each other, although I may throw an antenna on top of my house (maybe 10m up)
If terrain is mostly flat and your antenna is somehow elevated you should be good. If you have more friends in neighborhood it will help as every radio relays messages in mesh by default. Ideal setup would be to have base station at home (terminal) and a handheld device connected to your mobile phone. So 2 devices per person. This way it’s more reliable. If you have HAM license you can use higher power device like this G1 https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/station-g1/ The only thing is that you can’t legally use encryption with higher power transmission. In my experience the reliability of this setup varies. It works when users actively maintain and check Meshtastic app. If you have less technical users or users that just want things to work all the time, it may not be the best solution. I found sometimes radios disconnect from Bluetooth, specially when charging. Radio works but Bluetooth connection isn’t established. If you send message it will be received by radio and ACK’ed but person will not get it until connects to Meshtastic app and reestablish Bluetooth connection. Messages are visible on radio if they have display and are not in relay mode. This means that you don’t know for sure if message was read. For day to day use in normal urban setting I find it little finicky and not reliable enough. You have to carry additional device with you and antenna needs to be in good position. Some radios have built in antennas optimized for on body carry. This is just my experience and it will vary on people and situation. There is Nano explorer radio with dedicated notification bell that could be useful https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/Nano Series/
This solution works best if you don’t have cellphone network reception and all users are actively checking status of their radios (charge, messages, connection to app). This fits perfect with recreational outdoor activities in remote areas. Search and rescue is very niche and unless you engage in such activities on regular basis it’s not something you need. It can also serve as a backup solution for emergencies (neighborhood watch/ prepping).
Funny. I have some Disc Lite 5s that I’ve yet to get going due to difficulty of setup. We did have plans of a little Wi-Fi mesh setup to setup a WAN.
This would just be for fun between a few friends and the price point is pretty attractive. Plus the ham in me is a little excited about messing with antennas.
I’ve done my little stupid tests. I have 2 Heltec LoRa 32 V3s both with the stock antenna. Inside the city I can get 500m on LongFast and 700m on VeryLongSlow. The other node was placed inside a building on the 1st floor.
But that’s obviously a terrible test.
Not sure if they’ve improved it but meshtastic also used to require a module per device/phone so sadly you can’t dot them around and allow multiple people to share them like with group events.
Here’s a video with a lot of guidance and examples of use: https://youtu.be/EAQI2ZSmxPU?si=lF5xr8fKyCRHEk7F
That’s the video in this post
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