Itโs Been a Good Run, Phone Providers.
Summary
TLDRThe video introduces Mesh Tastic, an innovative off-grid, decentralized communication network that operates on low-powered radios with ESP32 microcontrollers. It enables encrypted messaging over long distances, bypassing traditional telecom networks for enhanced privacy. The devices are versatile, suitable for various scenarios where cellular networks may fail, and can be paired with clients via Bluetooth, USB, or Wi-Fi. The video also explores the device's capabilities, including range tests, private encrypted channels, and different network presets, highlighting its potential to revolutionize communication by combining the simplicity of walkie-talkies with modern encryption technology.
Takeaways
- ๐ Introducing Mesh Tastic, a new tech innovation for off-grid, decentralized communication networks.
- ๐ ๏ธ Built on open-source principles, Mesh Tastic operates independently of centralized control, enhancing user privacy and autonomy.
- ๐ Offers encrypted messaging over long-range radio frequencies, safeguarding against potential wiretapping by large telecommunication companies.
- ๐ฑ Utilizes ESP32 microcontrollers in low-powered radios, combining affordability with advanced communication capabilities.
- ๐ Designed for various scenarios where traditional cellular networks may fail, such as urban festivals, remote adventures, and NGO work in areas without cell infrastructure.
- ๐ Features a battery life that can last up to 12 hours with active use, extendable through power-saving settings and solar charging options.
- ๐ก Highlights the importance of proper antenna usage to prevent potential damage to the device due to energy reflection.
- ๐ง Demonstrates the ease of firmware updating through a Chromium-based browser, simplifying the process and reducing dependency on traditional IDEs.
- ๐ฑ Discusses the variety of client options available for Mesh Tastic devices, including Android and iOS apps, web browsers, and command-line interfaces.
- ๐ Showcases the potential of Mesh Tastic devices by outfitting a drone for an epic range test, exploring the limits of the technology.
- ๐ Emphasizes the privacy and freedom offered by Mesh Tastic, positioning it as a powerful alternative to conventional communication methods.
Q & A
What is the main feature of Mesh Tastic technology?
-Mesh Tastic is an off-grid, decentralized communication network that is open source and operates on low-powered radios with ESP32 microcontrollers. It enables encrypted messaging over long-range radio, providing a private and confidential communication channel.
How does Mesh Tastic differ from traditional communication networks?
-Mesh Tastic differs from traditional networks as it operates independently of Big Telecom companies, offering a secure and private communication channel. It is particularly useful in scenarios where traditional cellular networks may fail, such as during large gatherings, remote adventures, or in areas without cell infrastructure.
What type of hardware is required to use Mesh Tastic?
-To use Mesh Tastic, you need a device with an ESP32 microcontroller, such as the tiny and low-power Laura 32 board from Htech. This device is capable of sending encrypted messages over long-range radio frequencies.
How can the range of Mesh Tastic devices be improved?
-The range of Mesh Tastic devices can be improved by using better antennas, like the whip antenna, and by elevating the device to higher positions for better line-of-sight transmission. Additionally, adjusting the frequency settings can also help in optimizing the range for different environments.
What are the common pitfalls enthusiasts make when using Mesh Tastic?
-Some common pitfalls include not using appropriate antennas, which can lead to signal reflection and potential damage to the device. Also, not properly configuring the device settings according to the environment and usage can lead to suboptimal performance.
How can the battery life of Mesh Tastic devices be extended?
-Battery life can be extended by turning off hungrier features, reducing send intervals, and utilizing the Deep Sleep settings of the device. For outdoor or permanent setups, using solar power to recharge the battery is also a viable option.
How does Mesh Tastic ensure the confidentiality of messages?
-Mesh Tastic ensures the confidentiality of messages by enabling end-to-end encryption. This shields the transmissions from potential wiretapping by third parties, including big telecommunication companies.
What are the different client options available for Mesh Tastic devices?
-Mesh Tastic devices can be paired with various clients, including Android and iOS apps, Chromium-based web browsers, Python CLI, and even Linux support for advanced users.
How can users share their location with Mesh Tastic devices?
-Users can share their location by using their phone's GPS and selecting the 'share location' option within the app settings. This allows the device to use the phone's GPS data to provide location information to the node.
What are the different types of range tests conducted in the script?
-Four distinct types of range tests were conducted: 1) A test from a high-rise balcony with direct line of sight, 2) A beach test at ground level, 3) A direct line of sight test with a drone at an elevation, and 4) A test from an elevated position using a whip antenna and a different frequency preset.
What was the most effective configuration for long-range communication in the tests?
-The most effective configuration for long-range communication was using the whip antenna on an elevated device set to the 'very long slow' frequency preset, which resulted in messages being received up to 3 and 1/2 miles away.
Outlines
๐ Introducing Mesh Tastic: The Future of Decentralized Communication
The paragraph introduces Mesh Tastic, a novel technology that promises an off-grid, decentralized communication network. It is an open-source platform that operates on low-powered radios with ESP32 microcontrollers, offering free communication. The devices are compact, affordable, and can be used for text-based walkie-talkies, enabling encrypted messaging over long-range radio. This shields transmissions from potential wiretapping by large telecommunication corporations, ensuring confidentiality and ownership of messages. The paragraph also discusses scenarios where traditional networks fail, such as urban festivals, remote adventures, and NGO work in areas without cell infrastructure. The speaker plans to test the devices by outfitting a drone and conducting a range test to evaluate their performance and worth.
๐ ๏ธ Hardware and Setup: Unboxing and Understanding the Components
This paragraph delves into the hardware aspects of the Mesh Tastic devices, emphasizing the ESP32 microcontroller and its capabilities. The speaker describes the components included in the package, such as the ESP32 LoRa OLED board, antenna, and cables. It also addresses the importance of using a good antenna for signal improvement and suggests upgrading from the stock antenna. The paragraph further explains the power requirements and battery life, highlighting the device's portability and options for outdoor use, such as solar power. Additionally, it discusses the availability of 3D printed cases and custom options from different sources, emphasizing the device's sleek design and practicality.
๐ง Firmware and Software: Installation and Configuration
The speaker discusses the process of flashing the Mesh Tastic firmware onto the devices, noting that the open-source software is compatible with various development environments. It highlights the ease of using the PlatformIO plugin for code editors and the innovative method of flashing firmware through a Chromium-based browser using Flasher MT.org. The paragraph explains the steps for selecting the device and firmware version, and the process of updating the device. It also covers the necessity of running a client with the device for configuration and communication, mentioning the various platforms and apps available for different operating systems.
๐ฑ Interfacing and Features: Pairing, Messaging, and Location Sharing
This section explores the user interface and features of the Mesh Tastic devices, focusing on the mobile app experience. It covers the process of pairing devices, the ability to send direct messages, and the use of a mesh map for visualizing the network. The speaker discusses the importance of location sharing for understanding the proximity of nodes and the utility of the compass feature. The paragraph also touches on the web client option, which allows for computer-based communication with the devices, and the flexibility of using different network presets for various data rates and distances.
๐โโ๏ธ Testing and Range: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mesh Tastic
The speaker shares his experience conducting range tests with the Mesh Tastic devices, detailing different tests under various conditions. The first test involved a high-rise building setup with impressive results, while the second test at the beach showed limitations with the stub antennas. The third test, a direct line of sight at one mile, did not yield expected results due to antenna issues. The final test combined an elevated position with a whip antenna and a different frequency preset, achieving messages up to 3.5 miles away. The speaker concludes that while these devices may not replace traditional telecom networks, they offer a promising alternative for specific scenarios, emphasizing the potential for growth and development in this technology.
๐ Privacy and Innovation: The Role of Mesh Tastic in Secure Communication
The paragraph concludes the discussion on Mesh Tastic by emphasizing its role in secure and private communication. It highlights the ability to create encrypted channels, ensuring that messages remain confidential and protected from eavesdropping. The speaker shares his experience with setting up private channels and the importance of using the correct antennas for optimal performance. The summary underscores the potential of Mesh Tastic to transform communication by combining the simplicity of walkie-talkies with modern encryption and long-range capabilities, offering a powerful alternative for personal and team communication in various scenarios.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กMesh Tastic
๐กDecentralized Communications Network
๐กOpen Source
๐กESP32 Microcontrollers
๐กEncrypted Messages
๐กWalkie-Talkies
๐กWiretapping
๐กUrban Festivals and Gatherings
๐กRemote Adventure Activities
๐กNGO Work
Highlights
Mesh Tastic is a new tech innovation promising an off-grid, decentralized communication network.
The network is entirely open source and operates outside the control of large telecommunication companies.
It runs for free on tiny, affordable, and low-powered radios with ESP32 microcontrollers.
The devices function like text-based walkie-talkies, enabling encrypted messaging over long-range radio.
The novel application shields your transmissions from potential wiretapping, ensuring message confidentiality.
Mesh Tastic is particularly useful in scenarios where traditional cellular networks fail, such as during urban festivals or in remote areas.
The hardware is compact and can be powered by a 3.7-volt battery for portability.
Battery life can be extended by utilizing deep sleep settings and reducing send intervals.
The device can be paired with a custom whip antenna for improved signal.
The Mesh Tastic firmware can be easily flashed onto the device using a Chromium-based browser through Flasher MT.org.
The device can be configured and controlled using various clients, including Android and iOS apps, or a web browser.
The device supports the creation of encrypted channels for private communication.
The device can utilize your phone's GPS to provide location information for the node.
The device can perform range tests to determine the effective distance of communication.
In tests, the device was able to maintain communication up to 3.5 miles with the right setup and conditions.
The device's design combines the simplicity of walkie-talkies with modern technology for a new communication paradigm.
Mesh Tastic devices are not just communication tools but are a step towards privacy and freedom in conversations.
Transcripts
move over flipper zero because there's a
new tech darling in town it's called
mesh tastic and it promises to bring us
an off-grid decentralized comms Network
that's entirely open source and outside
the control of Big Brother best of all
it runs for free on Tiny affordable and
low-powered radios sporting esp32
microcontrollers but besides looking
really cool and getting me to empty my
wallet what can these things actually do
well think text-based walkie-talkies
enabling you to send encrypted messages
over long range radio AKA Laura this
novel application Shields your
Transmissions from potential wiretapping
by big telecommunication companies
ensuring your messages remain
confidential and most importantly yours
but it goes even deeper there are a
number of scenarios today where
traditional cellular networks fail for
instance Urban festivals and Gatherings
where the cell network is saturated like
New Year's Eve in Time Square
overlanding or other remote adventure
activities in isolated areas like
deserts also overseas traveling if you
don't have roaming or a local Sim and
NGO work in places without cell
infrastructure we'll also cover the most
common pitfalls enthusiasts make and how
to correct those finally I'm taking this
Innovation to new heights literally by
outfitting my drone with one of these
groundbreaking devices to conduct an
epic range test to see how far these
things can actually go by the end of
this video you'll thoroughly appreciate
the unique Freedom that these powerful
mini Mish tastic devices provide and
we'll find out ultimately if they're
worth it welcome to the future of
communication this is the tiny and low
power Laura 32 board from htech and it's
a system on a chip designed to do only
two things look cool and send encrypted
messages over long range radio so I
ordered two of these from Amazon and
grabbed two of the coolest cases I could
find in one Laura 32 box you'll get the
following one esp32 Laura OLED board V3
a Laura antenna and a 1.25 mm two Pin
cable they sell them in pairs presumably
so you have someone to talk to and best
bet is to grab these from Amazon or Ebay
and I'll put links in the description
below however the stock antenna on these
things is not very good I'd suggest
upgrading to this whip antenna for
improved signal now let's demystify the
hardware real quick this board is
powered by the esp32 S3 fn8 chip it has
a 1.25 mm battery connector which will
come in handy later as we test its
portability the socket type for the
battery is sh 1.25 X2 it features a USBC
for flashing the firmware and providing
power there are two physical buttons on
this board the reset and user
programming button it also has two LEDs
and a monochromatic OLED screen if you
want to use these on the Move you'll
want to grab a battery be sure to get a
3.7 volt 4.1 W rechargeable battery with
the correct polarities on the cable
while we're on the subject of power you
might be wondering what the battery life
is for one of these devices and it
varies dramatically based on what
functionality you're using if you're
testing the different capabilities and
actively using everything I think you
can expect around 12 hours but if you
turn off the hungrier features and
reduce send intervals and utilize the
Deep Sleep settings you can probably
extend that quite a bit for anyone
looking to Nest one of these Outdoors
permanently you should be able to use
solar to reup the battery for those
scenarios and here is the power draw
well idle and here is the power draw
while fairly active now I noticed these
really cool 3D printed cases on
printable but since I didn't want to
deal with printing them I went to The
muzy Works laab Etsy store and bought
two cases faster than you can say
impulse by Simon was super helpful and
even sent me some of my favorite kinds
of batteries the free kind he also added
a custom whip antenna upgrade these
cases are pretty much the Tesla of
Gadget housing Sleek smart and probably
too cool for me I'll put the link for
his store in the description below but I
also wanted to see if my PCB
manufacturing buddies over at jlc could
do anything with these schematics since
they have Commercial Printing Machinery
so I sent them the STL files from
printable and they delivered in Spades
they sent back this Phantom black case
featuring a nylon back stop and a super
durable resin front face not bad right
and these things have a Nifty custom
Loop ring for tethers okay so let's get
our Hardware situated in our new cases a
few things to note connecting a Laura
radio without an antenna can cause the
transmitted energy to reflect back into
the device potentially damaging the
radio's transmitter components due to
overheating so make sure the antenna is
attached these antennas snap into place
like so the lower 32 has two
front-facing buttons the left button
Cycles through the information displayed
on the screen and a long press of the
left button will shut down the device
and the right button will reset the
device there are also two LEDs on the
device the blinking white LED will
indicate that the device is on and awake
and the red LED will light up when it's
charging okay so now that the hardware
is set up we want to flash the mesh
tastic firmware to our board this
familiar esp32 based Hardware means we
can tap The Usual Suspects when it comes
to programming Dev environments like
Arduino IDE micropython espressive IDE
should all be compatible but I'd also
note that mesh tastic the open source
software that enables much of this
functionality is built with the tool
platform. and if you want to get your
hands dirty or play around with further
customization you can download the
platform IO plugin for your favorite
code editor I use cursor which is a work
of VSS code that brings gen AI to the
party but if you're just looking to
flash the latest mesh tastic firmware to
your Laura device you actually don't
need any intermediary software okay so
the device doesn't come with the mesh
tastic firmware that's a separate
organization open source project um
historically to get software onto your
microcontrollers you'd have to use
something like Arduino or an IDE or
something like that and what's really
cool is because of the new apis that
Chrome makes available to developers you
can actually connect to USB devices or
USB serial devices as well as Bluetooth
devices and things like that so um what
Mish tastic has done is they've actually
created an application flasher mt.org
where you can get the mesh tastic
firmware onto your device right through
a chromium based browser so this will
work for Chrome Edge Brave Etc so we
just come over to Flasher mesh. org we
select our device and then we select our
firmware version if you want something
more stable you can go here I want the
latest stuff even though it might be a
little buggy so I'm going to do the
latest Alpha and then I'm going to click
flash if you have previous installations
then you might want to do full erase and
install if you want to keep data from
prior installations just keep this
unchecked and that's what I'm going to
do here so I'm just going to go ahead
and click update and it shows all my
devices that are connected um on various
serial ports I am going to use this guy
here it does look like there's two
entries that probably both going to work
but I've had most success with slab USB
to uart if nothing shows up here you
probably have a faulty USB cable you
need a USB cable that can do power and
data uh so we might want to cycle
through a couple cables until um your
device shows up so I'm going to do
connect and then I'm going to just um
well it actually automatically starts
updating and it'll take a couple minutes
if you don't see this going it probably
lost a connection again the connection
is usually the biggest issue the cable
so you might want to try a couple
different adapters a couple different
cables Etc until you get it
working okay and then this stuff's going
to keep logging we can just go ahead and
unplug and we will be all set okay so
you need to run a client with your lower
device so there's always a pair the low
device sends the messages using the
radio it gets on the mesh tastic network
but your client is how you set up the
configuration it's how you type out the
messages how you receive the messages in
many cases um so you can use the Android
app the IOS app chromium based web
browser uh python CLI and they even have
Linux support now uh the iPhone app is
much better than the Android app so
that's what I'm going to use so I'm just
going to go to the App Store and you can
search for mesh tastic you will find the
app here I'm going to go ahead and
download
it let's open that up and then we're
going to start giving it permissions we
do want it to have GPS access we do want
it to have Bluetooth access and no on
the notifications so the device name is
going to be mesh tasticore and then it's
going to be a four character truncated
version of the hash ID just so you know
which device you're working with um and
uh if you've connected and reconnected
then you might have to go into your
Bluetooth settings and forget the device
uh in order to reconnect but I think I'm
going to be good here so you know 84 EC
is my hash it says a right here A4 EC so
I know that's the right device I'm going
to go ahead and select it and now it's
going to ask me to pair it it's going to
flash a unique code
998
389 and we're going to pair it once uh
you only have to do that one time you
will have to keep connecting in the
future but you only have to do that
formal pairing once okay much better so
now we want to configure it and ma'am
there are a lot of settings uh but we
definitely want to give it a region so I
just select um you can go to config and
you can go to Laura and then right here
there's going to be this region section
we definitely want to do United
States um and let's go ahead and save
that now what happens here is when you
make configuration changes uh you have
to save and it will reboot the device in
many cases so like I just set United
States I'm going to go ahead and click
save and it's look watch the device
reboot see and then when it reboots I'm
going to have to reconnect to it so
let's watch that happen
here and it should I think automatically
reconnect yep there it goes and look has
a region now so now uh we are paired
right and so you have your messaging
section here where you can do direct
messages with other devices that are
picked up you have your pairing uh this
is using Bluetooth it could use Wi-Fi
can't use both at the same time that is
um you have other
nodes you have a mesh map but you also
have the configuration settings here so
there's a lot you can do with it um this
guy does not have a GPS but what you
might want to do is uh you can use your
phones GPS so like if you go to app
settings you can select the share
location location use your phone's GPS
to provide location to your node I just
think that's useful because when you
have multiple nodes um you can see how
far away they are I'm going to go ahead
and do share location um you can set the
interval and all that stuff but uh okay
so now it's sharing the
location um let's go down to user uh we
can give it a nice name so let's go in
here so I'm going to call
it um I'm going to call it data Slayer
black okay I'm going to go ahead and
save that again it's probably going to
reboot but then it's going to have a a
more true
name um okay and then so like look if I
go over here yeah data Slayer black um
and other devices will be able to see
that name so I actually have a bunch of
other devices in my vicinity I'm in
Miami here so uh it just automatically
picks up those devices um but let's go
back to settings here let's go to
display um I'm going to turn on this
always Point North on the
compass um display units I'm going to go
to Imperial don't hate me and like now
we can see it's going to use miles and
feet it's talking about distances okay
and I do want to show you the web client
real quick quick so the gist of this is
instead of using the native app on your
phone as the client you can use your
computer's browser your computer's
Chrome based browser so I if I open up
Chrome here and I go to uh client. mesh.
org um this is a remote hosted
application but what it does is it
connects to local devices the
presumption here is that your computer
has either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and your
mesh tastic device is either emitting
from W Wi-Fi or Bluetooth I'm going to
use Bluetooth here you can see it's
enabled right over here and so what you
have to do is you have to connect and we
can go over to Bluetooth here and again
it can give you Wi-Fi Bluetooth USB
serial if you want to plug it in just do
new device it's going to search for
devices here okay so I found one of my
mesh tastic devices I'm going to go
ahead and click pair let's
see oh and then I just click on it here
okay and there it goes and so you know
it's basically the same as the native
app um you can you can modify the
configurations you can send your
messages so like for instance if I go
over to config these are the basic
device configurations and then they call
uh these extra modules like mqtt and the
range test uh they call this uh module
configurations okay so this is how these
things work each of the Mish tastic
devices should be connected to a client
and it can be connected to a client over
Bluetooth USB seral or Wi-Fi I usually
use Bluetooth so you know if if these
two individuals were say hiking together
and they diverged it's okay if they
don't have cellular service anymore or
satellite or Internet or GPS or anything
like that as long as they have a close
proximity uh Wi-Fi capability or a Clos
proximity Bluetooth capability and can
connect to this this will these will do
the heavy lifting of sending the
messages several miles in some cases uh
using Laura and so let's send some
messages is real quick within close
proximity so if I open up my phone here
and I go over to mes tastic um let's see
here okay so I'm going so let me turn
this on
first and then the radio should connect
and then okay there it goes and I'm
going to do the same thing over
here
okay so um both of them are connected
you see this node here this is what this
looks like when this is connected so I'm
going to send a message from here to
here and show you what happens so again
you can't type on this thing right um so
you come over here and you can create a
channel that you can talk on or you can
send direct messages to uh different
nodes so like if I wanted to send a
message to data Slayer green go to
direct messages kill that all right data
Slayer layer
green and I can
say Yeah so basically instantly that
message came up here so okay so that's
you know I just sent a message from here
to here and then I could do the same
thing over here the app's not quite as
good
but I can do
aoy see so it shows up on the app and it
also shows up on the um
shows up on the device here okay so
that's that's sending messages um and
because we enabled uh
GPS these things should be able to
determine uh where they are in relation
to each other so if I toggle through the
available nodes here let's
see
uh See data Slayer green 159 fet away
obviously like the GPS isn't perfect but
as you move more significant distances
it will be able to get a good read there
and you'll see I mean some cases I was
able to see it was 3 miles apart um and
then this this Compass thing here uh
people have had issues with it it uses
something called dead reckoning so
basically if you're on the move and you
have GPS enabled then it will try to uh
determine where you are in relation to
True North and it also will give you a
heading and It'll point to other nodes
in some cases um and again though people
have gotten varying degrees of utility
out out of that so if it's more
confusing than it is helpful you can
just turn that off okay something you're
probably going to want to do is a range
test technically you could continually
just send messages and then see when the
messages stop sending and then that's
your range but the problem is um when
you're conducting the range test uh a
lot of the messages won't get through
and so what the range test does is it
will keep sending uh new messages every
specified interval like 30 seconds or so
and it will um increment a counter so
you can kind of figure out from there
you know what messages you're getting
and which ones you're not getting and
you don't have to worry about keep
sending messages which gets annoying so
in order to do that you need to enable
range test on both devices and then you
would go your separate ways and you
would see how far you can go um while
still getting messages so the way you do
that is you go to config you go to uh
modules or settings it's different based
on what app you're using you go to range
test right here and you enable it and
then you can go to the interval you I'll
do every
15 seconds and then you just go ahead
and save that it's going to reboot and
then you do the same thing on your other
device so if you go to Radio
configuration range
test enabled 15
seconds and then that should reboot and
then it'll start sending
messages with the prefix seq for
sequence and then the counter the
increment okay so I got my first message
already
seq1 and we should just see seq2 right
and so what you can do is as you get
these messages you can flip over to
nodes like say I get a sequence 3 and
I'm walking away right I can then go
over to nodes and then I can go to the
other um node that I'm that I'm working
with here and I can
actually uh let's see okay it doesn't
show the distance right there but it
does right here see 200 feet away and I
actually did a test like this where I
put the um I put one of them in the
window in my building and my building's
you know fairly high and I went out to
like an island that was like 3 and2
miles away and I actually got a message
through at 3 and 1/2 miles which was
pretty cool you know line of sight is
important but I will say even in the
urban area that I'm in if I stayed
within a mile it would get messages even
if there were like you know buildings in
the way and things like that so I'm not
convinced that's the only thing that
matters uh but then beyond that there's
different uh Network pre presets right
like um you could do different megahertz
and some have higher data rates some
have lower data rates higher distance
things like that when it comes to the um
the Laura settings the gist of uh how it
works is the trade-off is between uh
throughput so like high data and then
distance so something like WiFi is uh
low distance right it's within the order
of like 100 ft but it's high data high
throughput you can send a lot of
information what Laura is is it's low
data so you can't send you know Rich um
you know heavy packets of data but you
can send them long
distances um so that's like the basic
just but they're both radio waves they
use you know the same technology
essentially but then from here they give
you other presets and they try to
describe what the presets have but at
the end of the day most people say to
just use a default settings long fast
and the reason is because if you want to
pick up on other nodes they need to be
on those same uh frequencies SE the same
wavelengths okay so one thing you might
want to do is create your own encrypted
channel so let's go ahead and do that so
if you go to settings and then you go to
channels and then you go to add
Channel let's see
private private chat
default
all right there it
goes and so and then to get it onto my
other device to get the private key over
there you go to
settings you go to share QR I'm going to
kill all
these and then what I'm going to do is
open up the camera over here right and
then it's going to open up that local
link it's going to ask you to
accept and now private chat is here so
what I can do is I can say
testing send that
through let's
see okay so it finally worked so
creating those private channels is um a
little
tricky but um if you just test it out I
think you should be good let's see yeah
okay and so what this channel is
encrypted right so anyone who inter
intercepts like the radio signal um is
only going to get encrypted messages um
encrypted um data so your Communications
are going to be private in those cases
okay so now for the range test I
conducted four distinct types of tests
using a number of different settings and
parameters and uh locations and I want
to talk about what worked best for me so
for the first test I did I live on the
32th floor of a high-rise building and
so what I did was for one of the nodes I
I uh set it on my balcony and um I went
out about 1,000 ft uh with a direct line
of sight and for this test I was using
the default long fast uh frequency and I
used one stub antenna and one whip
antenna and that worked pretty well
those messages came through just fine
okay so for the second test I conducted
both of the nodes were at the beach so
they were both at ground level there was
really no promise Min or elevation of
either nodes all right so we have a
connection right now the connection is
it says 80% we're going to keep just
sending messages
until we no longer
have uh a connection a signal so let's
go again I was using the long fast
frequency and I was using two stub
antennas and I was actually pretty
surprised that I wasn't able to get any
more than about 500 ft of distance
before the messages stopped going
through so these stub antennas just
aren't that great or they can be hit or
miss okay so for the third test I did um
I did a direct line of sight test we did
about one mile so we're going to run a
um a range test we got node operator one
right here and I'm going to be
out there running the second node and
we're going to see what we get terms of
uh con activity so we'll see we were
using long fast both devices were using
the stub antenna but one of the devices
I put on my drone and I elevated it to
probably about 100 ft again though uh no
signal was able to get through so I was
pretty surprised by that cuz I had a
direct line of sight and uh these things
are rated at those types of distances so
I thought that would get through I
attribute it to the uh stub antenna okay
so for the final test I put the first
node in the window on the 32nd Floor in
my apartment so it was quite elevated
had a good bit of prominence and I also
put the whip antenna on that node uh for
better power but I also changed the
preset I changed the frequency from long
fast to very long slow so the trade-off
there is the data transmission is lower
the throughput is lower but in theory
the distance might be greater so I was
on that um different frequency and then
for the other node uh I again I used the
stub antenna and I went out around uh on
a sort of peninsula near where I live
and I just let the range test keep going
and I got messages at a couple miles but
then I continued to get messages all the
way up to about 3 and 1/2 miles so what
I would just call out there is the first
node had the whip antenna it was
elevated quite a bit on the 32nd Floor
and it had basically a direct line of
sight with no obstruction all the way
out to where I was uh 3 and 1 half miles
away now not every single message got
through so it wasn't like a perfect
connectivity but um when the messages
did get through it caught up and sent
all the messages that uh didn't make it
through so uh it was a true range test
and it worked pretty well um so you know
I was pretty happy with that what I
think might help even more though is if
on that second node I also had a better
antenna than just the stub antenna I
could probably get even more distance so
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