I’m building my own outdoor iot sensor mesh network and am exploring using painlessMesh or Meshtastic. Wanting to network anywhere between 1 to 100 Esp32’s with GPS, IMU, pressure, temp and power sensors on each (every 10 secs) with distance being 50-1000 feet between devices. Also wanting to send txt messages between devices (connected to Android tablet) and have ability to control lighting.
Am wanting to build towards world traveling device. Is there way to switch between world regions without buying different hardware? Was thinking of either software toggle, on board switch or swappable flex antenna.
I have combined a LoRA/GPS HAT meant originally for RaspberryPi and ESP32. It uses also SPI like common boards TBeam etc. I wrote my own variant where I defined the corresponding pin-settings. I also attached a common I2C OLED-display. See
I think a painless mesh via wifi is probably a better choice with those specs, we have a 64-80 node limit in our newest firmware and 30 seconds is a pretty aggressive update interval for a low bandwidth lora mesh, especially with the number of devices maxed out.
If you do not have to have ESP32, then Zigbee is also a possibility as it has lower powerconsumption than Wifi-base systems, however that means totally different approach
Had success using PainlessMesh but now checking back on Meshtastic. Has latest 2.0 version allowed for better device compatibility or number of devices? Main reason re-exploring Meshtastic is wanting to use more mainstream Lora mesh format. Plus communication with esp32 via bluetooth would be preferable than current setup using usb serial port. Am prototyping using Fire Tablet with USB-C port. A simple solution to sharing serial data streaming and power charring has been issue.
Am still wanting to build using Adafruit RFM95W or RFM69HCW with Adafruit esp32. Would building this out with arduino be pretty straightforward? Don’t intend to include screen with prototype. Plan on using standard Adafruit GPS for location. Could setup with device be modified to be by button press? Or simply plug esp32 into tablet via usb serial port?
Has anyone been able to setup nicerf s1280 2.4ghz with esp32 huzzah adafruit feather? Am trying to setup with custom spi pin locations with no gps, and screen at moment (for testing). Lora V2.1-1.8 is Meshtastic compatible and showing that it is built using sx1280 @ 2.4ghz for universal worldwide coverage. If can’t get sx1280 to work am open to using RFM95W from adafruit (3072 or 3231)?
Final device I’m envisioning to not use screen for setup. Potentially setup based on either single sync button or proximity of device from Android tablet (setting up via bluetooth). Right now I just want to be able to see device within Meshtastic app to confirm it’s working.
Having trouble setting up firmware. Am using instructions Flashing with the CLI | Meshtastic to upload firmware-tlora-v2-1-1_8-2.1.15.cd78723.bin using python. Is not showing “Done! Flashing is complete” after installing so unsure if completed or not. Have also tried setting up with web flash installer but unsure if firmware is installed correctly.
Trying to setup using arduino ide but am getting nanopb errors. Unclear if doing any of this right. Surely if I’m setting up to be using custom spi pins and not using screen; wouldn’t I need to be editing firmware-tlora-v2-1-1_8-2.1.15.cd78723.bin file or be creating a new (or modified) firmware? Nicerf also has example code on their site so unsure if this would be of any use (password: nicerf)