Hey everyone, I hope this is ok to post here! I’ve been putting off getting into meshtastic for a while now but the time has come to play around with it. I have done some research but I always like to talk to real people if possible for real world advice and experience, not just youtube salesman and AI top ten lists. I have minimal experience with radio, but some.
As to meshtastic the research I’ve done has pointed me to a few LoRa boards, the heltec t114 v2, and the Lilygo t-beam, and also the Lilygo T-deck plus.
I really would love to have a phoneless standalone set up, but have seen some stuff about the T-deck lacking good firmware and so it isn’t “ready,” but then I’ve seen some people say to the contrary that some good firmware exists now. Are there other better phoneless devices for meshtastic? Is the t-deck good enough now that I could pick that up now and add some t114s later to expand the network? Or should I go with a couple t114s, and wait til phoneless matures a little?
As for the phone using set ups, are there other boards I should look at instead of the t114 and the t-beam? I do require either it to come with a case or have available .stl files to print one, I suck at CAD.
My final questions are to the antennas, is there an antenna manufacturer that is commonly recommended for meshtastics (915 khz), and am I looking for SMA female or SMA male connectors on the antenna, or does that depend on the board in question? I tried searching the product page for the heltec board and SMA isn’t mentioned anywhere according to ctrl+f. I see some kits with an antenna on amazon, but they don’t mention either and I’m sure I’ll want to upgrade the dinky rubber ducky it comes with.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, double thanks if you responded, triple thanks if you have answers or any helpful links! I’m excited to be getting into the hobby here soon, and glad there’s already a lemmy comm for it!
Okay, in that case you should be fine. I’ve just noticed that with the 5V 1A chargers that it takes about 3 hours to fully charge from completely dead to completely full. Which is why I said that it would depend on how far you drive per day.
Hey I hate to come back and sorta necro this thread lol but I’d feel worse starting a new thread two days in a row haha. I had a quick question for you though if that’s ok!
So I was looking at this t1000e, and I want one as they look like a slick little package to get started with. However it has come to my attention that they are unable to rx from SX1276 radios (like the lilygo t-beam) due to a bug when syncword 0x2b is used. The bug seems to be being worked on but it seems “Word on discord is we got a new contact with Semtech and are discussing this.” (Dec 14 2024).
With that in mind, would you say wait until the bug is fixed or go for it today? What are the more popular chips, would I be locking myself out of a significant portion of the existing community (assuming there is one nearby) or are most people still using the SX1262 which works fine with the L1110 both ways? I’m assuming the bug will be fixed soon enough, but who knows when that is. I suppose a temporary workaround could be to get one of these and then one of the t114v2s with an SX1262, and then as long as I have both nearby the messages will get forwarded from the 1276 to the 1262 to the L1110, right?
Thanks again for all your help!
To be completely honest, I had no idea that bug even existed until you just mentioned it. So I guess I’ve been missing out on a few devices and didn’t even know about it.
I’d say go ahead and get it and then when the bug is fixed you’ll just get more devices than you otherwise would have.
Cool thanks, I think I’ll try the combo of that and the t114, I think that’ll get me everything, but if not then hopefully it’ll be fixed soon. Plus there may not even be any near me, and if I can get people who aren’t nerds like me into this it’ll be with the t1000e probably, not the t-beam, and that’s more important than strangers.
Alright I’m sold, placing the order now, thanks again!
Glad I can help.
Cool yeah so if I don’t go anywhere for a weekend or so I’ll probably need to give it a little extra juice just to top it off on monday while I’m at work, but with the impressive battery life it’d hold mostly, that I can do! I’ll probably pick up 3 devices, at least one of these and at least one t114 v2 (two of one, one of the other, which is which is undecided lol).
That’s just to start though! I’m keeping my eye on the t-deck and I’m sure more like it will come out too!