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Stardate: 20250419.0117
Location: The Lab
Input Device: tetsujin28
Audio: computer fans
Visual: cleaned up workstation
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The lab has been a mess for quite some time now, with parts and
equipment not in the right places where they should be. This
happens to me sometimes and I don't feel like cleaning up for
extended periods of time until I get to the point were it is
miserable and demotivating with all of the mess and the clutter. I
don't even want to be in the space since it just psychically drains
any inspiration I might have at working on something. Well, it's
become awful enough where I've started clearing things up and
putting things back where they should be. I hate it when I get to
this point, but it is just part of what I do. Hopefully, I can
practice maintaining order so it's not such an uphill climb to work
on fun projects.
Lately, I have been tinkering with Meshtastic.[1] I've been
researching online about it for some time now, and finally got
around to ordering a couple boards.
Meshtastic is a firmware that you flash on to ESP32 boards for
decentralized off-grid mesh communications and projects. It uses
LoRa (Long Range) radios on the unlicensed part of the radio
spectrum, so you don't need a ham radio license or anything.
I picked up 2 Heltec ESP32 LoRa v3 boards that were on sale with a
case and antenna. The board has Bluetooth, Wifi, USB-C, lithium
battery interface, and a 0.96" OLED screen built in. These are
probably one of the cheapest boards to get started. Mine were
about $10US each.
The boards seem very easy to get going with Meshtastic, if you're
familiar with flashing images to Raspberry Pis or doing BIOS
updates on your computer. You can even flash the image directly
from a web browser, which is what I did.
It didn't take long to get everything assembled and flashed for
both units. Since these are very basic models, you need a computer
or a device to communicate with the boards.
For one unit, I decided to use an old android phone without a SIM
card to load the Meshtastic app. For the other unit, I plugged it
in directly to my laptop via USB.
I was surprised to see so many nodes show up, especially with the
stock antenna. Right now I see 115 nodes in the Los Angeles area,
2 nodes in San Jose, and 3 over by San Diego. I still don't know
too much of the technology or how the magic works, but I find the
idea of the mesh fascinating! I actually recognize some handles
attached to some of these devices from some of the local tech
communities I frequented long ago.
There is a default channel, which I am using and see the nodes in
my area, or you can set up private channels to keep communications
limited to your group or projects. It's been interesting seeing
the communications and the different types of data on some of the
nodes on the mesh. Some are basic like mine with not much data
except for general location, hardware type, uptime, etc. Others
have more information like weather station/environmental data.
People are sending messages on the default channel, but it is
mostly one-off messages or test messages. There were some messages
about the earthquake in San Diego from this past week. I wonder
how the messages looked like during the fires earlier this year.
So far, I have not found a specific use case, but I find the
technology interesting to explore and tinker with. Maybe I'll set
up a solar weather station or something. For now, I'm just
enjoying the exploration and seeing what other people are doing
with it.
[1] https://meshtastic.org/
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