_Kinda_ good to know that in certain areas of the UK Meshtastic *so popular* people are actually having this issue. It's slowly growing in the Bucks/Aylesbury area. As usual we there's always a need for node on high ground that can bridge poor line-of-sight.
This is exactly the same problem that we had with AX25 and Tcip/IP over radio in the 1980's on the amatuer bands. More an more people started to use the frequency and increased the power output and reception range on AX25.(I have already seen colineers for 868 mHz being sold online for meshtastic units). We changed to TCP/iP in 1984. This was to utilise netmasking organise the link into the network into counties and formalise super routes via point to point systems on the gHz bands. Hands up who remembers the "Tiny 2" or the Kenwood 9600 bd TNC's?
We're starting to see the same issues here in southern California and it's being discussed on the local Discord channel. Sharing this video there today since it is definitely something densely populated areas are going to have to deal with more as more people get involved. Thanks for putting this one together Lewis.
What are you calling SoCal? There's only a few around LAX showing on meshmap, one on Crenshaw & 67th, one on Venice & May in Mar Vista, & only 14 in the local area, and only 51 in the entire LA area, not many and none, nothing but a big fat hole between downtown & Ontario. Amazon is dropping my two Heltecs Thursday 😃
Really Great video! Something to explore would be to change your radio configuration from LongFast to one of the higher bandwidth configurations. I'd bet with the kind of density in your area, Medium Fast won't have much difference in terms of range but has nearly 2.5x the capacity. Other configurations are available with even more capacity. All very worth while to try out in your area.
The consensus is don't use the default MQTT server, ever... I did hear the devs are looking at removing it to solve the problems. The only problem is it's total removal harms the devs future commercial aspirations...
@@dougle03 There were no commercial aspirations when the project started, I hope it is not creeping in, that would end it. Not what Kevin had in mind at all.
I still think it's very neat, and I don't regret buying one, but I'm in Georgia in the US, and I haven't come across another one yet. Even driving through Atlanta and spot checking some areas that I thought for sure I would find something, no luck. I realized it might be a problem when my local ham radio guys were only vaguely aware of them. I figure if they're not using them locally, no one is around here.
I just learned about this tech, and it seemed interesting. I was disappointed that there were not many nodes around my city, but even more distressed after seeing this video and realizing how few people the network can support once it becomes popular.
Thanks for another informative video Lewis. What’s the Heltec V3 case repeatedly featured in the video please (the one on the cover image for the video)?
I am new this week to this and am in the north west, It's more messtastic at the moment. I started 3 days ago now and got a 35 mile contact for my first. Was great. It's been a mess as it only take a couple to have MQTT on and I have been told it kills it. It's still been fun and as I am up at weird times of the night I was able to make another 35 mile contact last night. I am still indoors on a 7 inch (ish) antenna but showing nodes 45 miles away. It's pretty remarkable. I have noticed a lot of people calling for a radio check and I think too many people may be replying and from too far away (I am guilty of this). Maybe don't answer any radio checks unless it's within a few miles of you, maybe 5 miles if it's a quieter area or time.
This is an almost ineviable upshot of a popular network especially so with little flow control meshing and a common medium like a 10base2 network in the 90's ..Good one for putting this video out to mitigate the geometric rate that data increases on the network as it gets more popular!!
This system is suffering the same fate as CB radio did here in the US it got so popular no one could talk to any one . It will,slow down and be better give it time for the newness to wear off .
Agreed on the points mentioned, Lewis. I'm on 21600 seconds (6h) for node and position updates. I don't see huge advantages using the neighbour info either so I'd disable that completely, saving more bandwidth. Cheers, RupB Fast as Funk Base M7CUF in Longridge.
I've heard if you have multiple nodes or you're in an area with a lot of other nearby nodes, setting them to use the "client_mute" role can help reduce congestion as they won't function as repeaters in that role, only as endpoints.
Mine should arrove this week. Hopefully i can get them going. Things are harder than they used to be for me seems like. I actualy have a need to use them soon and want to support the project and might put a few in the attic. Thanks for all your info on this.
Thank you Lewis this has made a few things much clearer to this noob. I’ve been playing around with ping rate as vs gps position update. I do love our NW area it’s so active and helpful. What do you think could we do with regard to broadening the band width in the future? I feel like there should be some etiquettes like ham has. Once a chat has sparked up, move it to a closed/shared channel? Everyone appears to be flooding LongFast so maybe another public base channel could be set up ie like pmr ch6 or ch8(Sunday net) has with the native cq/call out channels!?
Got mine setup on Friday and got a hit from another node 9 miles away. I'm just using the antenna that come in the kit. Apart from that one there hasn't been anything else. New pigtail coming tomorrow to see if a different antenna gets better results
A great reminder to check your node settings as this picks up the pace. What I got from this tutorial, is that once there are enough nodes around, things such as range testing becomes somewhat difficult, if not downright impossible. So far, it's good that I'm living in a country where Meshtastic hasn't really picked up the pace yet, which is probably most notable, that I'm the lucky first 433MHz node out here, at least if Meshmap is to believe (and the fact I'm currently not seeing any other nodes present in any of the frequencies). In 868MHz, things are a bit different, but these nodes are so far really far an few and I'm yet to receive my own 868MHz Heltec V3. Once that arrives, I can finally test how it performs.
250 in your area?! Finally, after a week (which is how long I’ve been running my two nodes) another one showed up as of yesterday, with the repeater and a client. So now I see two other than the ones that I have.
I have two t-beams and one isn’t charging the battery. Anyone know why that might be? Both worked before V20.2.x was installed. Good to see that you’ve championed Meshtastic to the point that it’s busy. Main learning point is to ideally leave everything set to the defaults unless you know what you’re doing. If you can’t hear much from your location, try and raise your antenna before you start messing with the max hops.
Do you have a link to the 3D printed case to buy/print? Thanks for the video useful information, hoping this won’t interfere with the crossfire I use on some of my FPV drones! 😬
Thanks for the video and information. However, I still haven’t got any messages, maybe because the equipment is still being shipped?😂! Have a great day!
Medium-access control and scalable routing are always challenges for Wireless ad hoc networks. Maybe Meshtastic needs to add Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) as used by Zigbee
Just a question but should you always see the compass in the right-hand side of the LCD screen or does it only display when it detects a node? Thank you
I figured it'd eventually be an issue when I followed your guide, but didn't want to stir. Because it's quite clear after I Googled it repeatedly that nobody or the manual had an answer, so that's on them. There was a comment on LF about traces not getting through, so I turned it down already. I guessed 1800, but tried hops at 4 because I'm at 6 o'clock on your map (21/106 online). Couldn't DM you at the Vulcan. I think I'm only connected by SKK2 or ZDB to the north at 7km, due to bricks and stock antenna in the loft. I've traced about 4 others indirectly. I reckon keeping phone WiFi on and enabling 'Store & Forward' catches more messages.
Given a house that's 20ft AMSL I could put an antenna at the apex at about 40ft AMSL. What's the best antenna form? J-pole, ground plane and dipole come to mind, but any roof mount will take the receiver away from me, what is the usual range of the bluetooth supplied as part of the typical RAK or other meshtastic module?
I can’t see anything on my map in the app. I’ve tried multiple antenna and I know there are other modes in the area. I’ve tried several different boards, various firmware versions etc.
NO Lewis. The most important thing is disconnecting from the internet. When 1 node is connected to the internet, it sends ALL!! data to air to keep the other nodes updated. All stations and all messages... everything. THAT generates the most traffic. You can monitor it yourself.
Has it really become that congested that you have problems getting through? Too bad if this becomes the limiting factor for Meshtastic. Hopefully with updates they can up the node count. Remember someone saying the theoretical max node count is around 300.
I am interested in what might be the best settings for my location. I want to cause minimum interference. Highest point in North Warwickshire near to Many cities. Send me a QR code please and with remote control from yourself. Thanks.
I ordered a *pair* about a month ago from Ali Express and they arrived in a week! £37.86 (after tax at checkout) from RCmall. I put it off for ages as unsure what to buy. Heltec themselves wanted like £55 postage or something weird. There's a couple of stock antennas and luckily Andy's test video prefers the one I got. It's the straight heatshrinked thin coil, rather than having two big lumps. I suggest avoiding V2 and ones without Lora, duh. Also get 868 mhz. I regret not picking up some tiny ipex adaptors because I can't easily DIY or fit another antenna.
I found the following issue with the RAK4631 and I have been able to replicate on the two I was able to acquire before @andykirby bought all remaining inventory 😡After 5 to 6 hours, if the unit is using LoRa /BLE and connected to the MQTT, and the Channel Utilisation is high (50% and up) the RAK4631 resets to factory default, as in commits suicide reset, all settings back to choose LoRa setting. Anyone seeing this?
I’m just not getting the success that I’ve seen others are getting on various RU-vid channels. I’ve set up three nodes (one mobile, one on a yagi and one on an Omni ) and I’m seeing other nodes but making no contact. The iOS app is buggy (gps isn’t being sent to the heltec is the main issue). Two of my nodes don’t appear on the node map and I can’t figure out why (the third does show up on the map and all have identical setups)
It isn't a problem for most people. It's usually the opposite for them. When they do connect to another node it's a brief encounter with some gobshite who you really wouldn't want to know your location.
Haa haa! Had someone try to hack my network through my non privatized repeater and gather all my node information 😂. I guess he didn't know that he left his node# and name AND password 😂 This is going to be fun when he realizes that he is the one being hacked 😂
Can't even programme mine,data cable ok,but connection fail.is all I get and the Meshtastic site doesn't work for me either,perhaps it's my cheap Lenovo,spent hours trying,haven't given up yet!!
Am all for improving technology, but MESH just appears to be another fad that's been around for too long simply because of lack of imagination to try anything different in HAM radio. For all the hype about MESH and related or 'MESH'-copycat systems have heard for over a decade by various enthusiasts in the HAM hobby: the whole thing appears to be very non-adaptable and of very little real-world use - with the biggest issues being data rates (which is ironic given the higher frequencies used) and amount of bandwidth for channels available (i.e. 1 channel shared by all users). Some groups have poured thousands (if not millions) of pounds sterling into these MESH projects, claiming use for 'off-grid' or 'emergency', but with little (if anything) to show for it. Have not seen any 'improvements' in the general design of such systems, except perhaps minaturisation of the basic hardware used on it, but that's on par with most other HAM equipment that has been minaturised in the same way but with higher ERP potentials. Think MESH has limited itself far too much on old standards that are no longer practical.
0:23 Yay, I'm on here! I only got my node's proper mast up yesterday afternoon and only left it up for a few hours that night, so that must be when you took the screenshot :P Got to do a bit more work on it before it can go up permanently....
