meshtastic

Meshtastic—a simple off-grid mesh network used to transfer short messages—is a neat bit of tech, but until recently, most development has focused on little nodes with or without tiny OLED displays, and a separate phone app or web UI to actually interact with the mesh.

The major use case I have for Meshtastic is backup comms—when cell networks and physical infrastructure may be unavailable. In those conditions, I don't want to run my full computer, or even a full smartphone, just to communicate long range via text.

Enter the T-Deck:

After seeing the Meshtastic booth at Open Sauce, my Dad and I thought it would be fun to learn more about the low power radio tech by getting our own radios and experimenting.

Then, we were contacted by Simon from Muzi Works, and he offered to send a few units of R1 and H1, his company's pre-built Meshtastic nodes.

What's a node, and what is Meshtastic? Excellent question.

What is Meshtastic?

Simply put—and copied shamelessly from the official website:

An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network built to run on affordable, low-power devices

Meshtastic nodes are often tiny gumstick-size PCBs with a LoRa radio module, a couple buttons, a tiny OLED display, and a USB port.