👋🏻 Brand new to this. I just ordered 2x T1000-E. I can’t wait to try it.
I’ve been curious about getting into meshtastic. What are you using these for?
We have a farm. I want to see if we can replace walkie talkies as we just always forget to bring them. These little guys enable your phones even without cell reception. At least that’s what I want to try.
Well you won’t be talkin’ that’s for sure! 😄
They should work as long as there’s no trees or buildings in the way. If there are, installing one up high, say the roof of a barn or on top of a silo should allow the rest to bounce off of it.
Haha true. Messaging of course. It’s more about “dinner is ready” and “I am stuck, bring the tractor” 🤣 so a message is plenty. Also of course thinking about an emergency network eventually between neighbours.
Some trees and lots of dips but we have our house at the highest point (even considering neighbours and even extended neighbourhood). If I am going ahead with this (after some play time) I am thinking a solar node on the roof …
It’ll probably work. I’d definitely setup a mesh if I lived on a farm. I put up a node on my balcony, 9th floor suburban environment, and people seem to be using it. I got some direct connections from 15km away. There’s also a guy 60km away across lake Ontario that’s connecting to my balcony node, but I’m sure he’s got a special antenna, likely directional.
There’s also a guy 60km away across lake Ontario that’s connecting to my balcony nod
That is really cool. Does it just tell you how far away a connection is from?
Only if the node published their location and if it’s correct. Many people publish approximate locations.
I was wondering about this. Is there a way to set location as general area vs precise? I saw somewhere it can be disabled too I believe.
Super cool. I can’t wait to try it. The devices are back ordered but I hope I get them end of this month.
I have one sitting next to me right now! Good battery life and surprisingly good range for such a tiny node. Just don’t lose those fancy charging cables!
I read a bunch and people seem to really like them. I thought that’s a good place to start.
You chose a good node for your first one. I got mine back in January and just sold it recently to a guy who did not have one and bought a Helltec MeshPocket for the extra battery life.
The T1000E lasted me about three days if I had location turned off or manually set and had Sx126x RX boosted gain turned off.
I haven’t gotten the chance to really put the mesh pocket through its paces, but so far I’ve seen a minimum of 10 days worth of battery life, which I appreciate since I live in tropical storm areas
I looked at those too. A bit more expensive but then the shipping really added to the price. I get the T1000-E shipped free.
I figured I go with these first and play around with them. I plan on talking some neighbours into joining for emergencies and they’ll need nodes. A good way to pass on the T1000-E maybe if I want to get a different device later. The Heltec mesh pocket is definitely on my list.
I will say the reviews of the mesh pocket that I have seen say that it is not a good node if you are an outdoors construction worker type person. If you’re going to be rough on your equipment, that is not the device for you because of that big glass screen and everything.
The review I saw was like if you’re an office worker that’s going to put this in your bag and use it to charge your phone or set it on your desk or whatever during the day, that’s fine. But if you’re going to be out and about and you’re rough on your equipment, then you should not buy it.
Passing your T1000E onto a neighbor once you are done with it is an absolutely fantastic idea. They get a cheap node to play with and you get an upgrade.
As I said, my reason for going with the mesh pocket is that I live in an area where we do get tropical storms, which could knock out power for quite an extended amount of time.
I also have one of those 25W fold out solar panels that recharge USB devices so that even if it did die, I could just set that solar panel out and let it charge back up.
And that’s not even to mention that if my phone is communicating with my meshtastic node that’s 30 feet away, it’s gonna have to use much less power to communicate with that than to communicate with the cell phone tower five miles away that happens to still be running while the other ones aren’t, etc.
Your phone uses more power when the signal is weak because it has to boost the incoming signal to be able to hear it and it has to transmit with more power to be able to get to the further away tower.
I am by far the most tech interested person in this neighbourhood so gifting the node will go a long way I think. Smaller entry barrier when it’s free. And for on the farm rugged is better for sure.
As for battery life I was thinking that I have several battery packs for emergencies and I should be able to charge it from them. I was also thinking solar on our roof as a node.
The portability/ruggedness for a day beats the long battery life on the farm I think.
I would agree, I think you’ve made a very good choice, because those things are pretty rugged.
Welcome! And have fun with your toys. :-)
Thank you
Congratulations, and welcome to the community!
Thanks!
Let us know how those go, I’ve been looking at them for awhile :)
Will do but I won’t have any comparison or real knowledge haha
