Meshtastic is a GPS mesh communicator created by Hackster.io member Kevin Hester. Created for hiking, skiing and other outdoor pursuits the project uses an inexpensive GPS radio, available to purchase price around $30 as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator.
Features of the Meshtastic GPS mesh communicator include :
– Very long battery life (should be about eight days with the beta software)
– Built in GPS and LoRa radio, but we manage the radio automatically for you
– Long range – a few miles per node but each node will forward packets as needed
– Shows direction and distance to all members of your channel
– Directed or broadcast text messages for channel members
– Open and extensible codebase supporting multiple hardware vendors – no lock in to one vendor
– Communication API for bluetooth devices (such as our Android app) to use the mesh. So if you have some application that needs long range low power networking, this might work for you.
– Eventually (within a couple of months) we should have a modified version of Signal that works with this project.
– Very easy sharing of private secured channels. Just share a special link or QR code with friends and they can join your encrypted mesh
“Meshtastic is a project that lets you use inexpensive ($30 ish) GPS radios as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding – essentially any hobby where you don’t have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other members and any text messages sent to your group chat.
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios will optionally work with your phone, but no phone is required.Our device code is here, our optional Android app is here.
Prebuilt binaries are included on the github sites, but it is quite easy to build from source. Instructions are included in the README. No soldering is required, essentially – buy a $30 radio and go. We’d love to have your help extending the project – it has been super fun to work on. :-)”
Source : Hackster.io
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