I am new to Meshtastic, but am a long time software engineer and decentralized tech enthusiast. I am looking to establish a mesh down here in SE North Carolina for fun and for emergency comms during hurricanes.
I am curious if any others in this forum are in the Wilmington to Jacksonville NC area who have active nodes I can try to connect to.
I am still building my node for the house and am looking for advice on any well done turn key solar nodes that Meshtastic experts sell.
How should I configure a node that is mainly “infrastructure”, as a relay? Complete noob here.
I’ve got a rooftop node that’s configured as a router_client, and it’s been working quite well in that capacity. I don’t sell them, but building it pretty simple with some basic hand-tools. No soldering or advanced electronic know-how required.
Got a rough bill of materials and some pics here:
I went into it knowing I’d have no other public nodes to talk to (yet!) so I built both the rooftop node and a pair of “walking around” client-nodes.
But I think you’ll find it a far more enjoyable hobby, that’s far easier to “sell” your friends and neighbors on if you start out with a fully functional system. A central, stationary node, and then a client you can walk around with is perfect to demo the system as well as do some range-tests and GPS mapping!
Best luck, let us know if you run into questions, I’m certainly no expert, but our little mesh in the mountains has been treating us well here!