Now the show will not address this (and rightfully so)

…yeah. And there’s a hive-mind / transitive property question Carol could have asked Laxmi’s son which would have been a huge wham moment that would have really shaken Laxmi but I’m glad the show didn’t go there.

Also: !pluribus@lemmy.zip

i should clarify a generic radio repeater that inst meshtastic but is able to repeat LORA signal

Well, the numbers I gave would be the same since those Meshtastic “modes” are just profiles for different LoRa settings, and the same LoRa Settings + frequency slot still applies (Meshtastic just runs on top of that).

I think what you’re looking for is a dumb signal repeater, but I’m not super knowledgeable of the pros/cons/legality of those for the entire 915 MHz band. You’d be repeating anything in that frequency range, not just LoRa. And those also repeat noise the same as signal. Basically, it could end up making things worse in the long run by introducing noise.

Probably best to just coordinate with or start a community mesh group and settle on a specific frequency and LoRa settings.

AFAIK, the only way to truly turn them off is to remove the battery or cut the positive lead and splice in a switch. Only drawback is the switch has to be on for it to be able to charge, so that’s a bit awkward. The “soft off” when you hold the power button is just deep sleep.

Mine frequently wake up from deep sleep but not after 5 minutes. More like 3-4 days. Which makes keeping a few always charged difficult.

Edit: I just checked the Power settings in the app (they’ve changed it a bit since I set mine up). The longest it can deep sleep is 72 hours it seems. Maybe yours is set to 5 minutes?

I don’t think what you’re trying to do is very practical.

For US 915, there are between 52 (SHORT_TURBO) and 208 (LONG_SLOW) frequency slots. Each node has to use the same LoRA parameters (called mode presets in Meshtastic) as well as the same frequency slot in order to communicate (or relay).

LoRa signals are low bandwidth (125, 250, or 500 kHz) so there are a lot of frequency slots. In addition to having one radio for each frequency slot, you would also have to have one for each LoRA parameter preset in that frequency slot. Nodes can only operate in one mode and frequency at a time.

So to cover all cases, you’d need:

• 52 nodes operating in SHORT_TURBO mode
• 104 nodes operating in SHORT_FAST
• 104 nodes operating in SHORT_SLOW
• 104 nodes in MEDIUM_FAST
• 104 in MEDIUM_SLOW
• 104 in LONG_FAST mode
• 208 in LONG_MODERATE mode
• Plus another 208 in LONG_SLOW mode

Source for those counts

That’s a total of 988 nodes to cover all, and that’s not even getting into the fact that they’d be talking over each other.

Basically, if you want to be a generic repeater (note the docs clearly state to not run repeater mode willy-nilly), it’s best to stick with LONG_FAST, set your custom channels as primary (if you even want to have custom channels, that is), and create a LongFast secondary channel with the default dummy encryption key. Then manually set your radio frequency to the one used by the default LONG_FAST setting (908.875 MHz).

That’s basically what I do and lets me have my own private channels while also relaying for and being able to make contact with anyone else using the default config.

Edit: Coordination of local frequencies, etc is usually done by forming a Meshtastic community group. Then you could just join (or start) that group and use a standardized frequency and LoRa parameters.

Oh, boy, that brings back memories of being a teenager in the early 90s. Grandpa gifted me his old CB, got it setup and tuned in, and immediately turned it off.

It’s just that back then, those people weren’t glamorized with fancy titles like “podcaster” or “influencer”. They were just garden variety cranks everyone knew to just ignore.

Truth.

And given all that’s happened between the original run of KoTH and the present, I found Dale a lot less charming in the reboot.

I’m not saying the concept didn’t exist then. There was just a higher barrier to entry than buying a microphone.

I am not a gamer these days and am unfamiliar with Arc Raiders, but if there’s any way to incorporate the Klingon death ritual when one of your squad goes down, that would probably be pretty epic

I can’t even do “vacation” Klingon lol. All I know is Qapla’ means “success!” and you call someone a petaQ when you want to insult them.

Modern Classic problems require modern solutions.

Yeah, I don’t know about pre-installed with Android that aren’t ad platforms masquerading as consumer hardware. I’d never use one unless it was supported by LineageOS or something. My comment was more “roll your own” in nature.

Maybe one of those HDMI “stick” PCs you can get? There’s x86 Android builds you can run or you can do like I did with my media PCs and boot into Openbox and just launch a fullscreen browser right to Jellyfin and control it from your phone. (My main setup uses Emby but should be able to do the same with JF).

I’ve actually got a portable Jellyfin server I take with me. Built on the OrangePi Zero 2W with a USB->NVMe acting as media storage (as well as the Jellyfin DB). It’s got several other services running as well as a second Wifi adapter so it can also act as a travel router.

For playback, I pretty much just use my laptop or phone but have thought about adding one of the “stick” PCs as a client for it.

Laptop-style speakers may be just enough. It would be tight and maybe the badge would have to be enlarged slightly to accommodate it, though.

I did a deep clean of my laptop not long ago and was surprised at how tiny and flat the speakers actually were. They won’t fill a room, but they’re enough for light music or a Teams call at arm’s length. Granted, it might not be good in a noisy area, but that would be a problem for the mic as well (not to mention public speakerphone use is kind of frowned on lol).

What BIOS setting are you changing? Secure Boot?

Would love to have one of those. Guess I’ll have to settle for 3D printing one and hacking up a Bluetooth headset/speaker to make it work.

I saw that, but it’s November 19 already. So they’ve either not restocked or have sold out already.

I clicked a few of the “Where to buy” links from the bottom, but only the non-Bluetooth ones were available.

I have an old rotary phone / bluetooth “headset”! Though it’s only technically portable.

It’s a 50’s wall-mount model that the phone company would have hardwired (no RJ-11). I’ve got it hooked to a Bluetooth -> POTS adapter that will decode the pulse coding. It rings when my cell rings, you can answer/place calls from it, and you can dial 0 to engage the voice assistant. Technically speaking, I can absolutely text people from a rotary phone.

Is it practical? No. Do I use it? Rarely. It’s mostly decorative, but if I’m going to have retro tech as decorations, I like to make it work. Next “wish list” is an old payphone.

not amazing as a Bluetooth device. Microphone didn’t pick up super-well

That’s disappointing. Seemed to work well in that video, though it was quiet; I did wonder how it would fare in the real world, though.

A Bluetooth version of the TMP communicators might have better success albeit at the cost of having to hold your arm up for the whole conversation.

I’ve used smart watches for phone calls like that, and it was pretty annoying after not very long at all.

I could probably easily make a Bluetooth TOS communicator, but that would be two roughly phone-sized things to carry around, so not really practical.

OTOH:

Is that the plugin that blocks the increasingly unfunny clock memes in c/ProgrammerHumor?