Ok.......what's meshtastic? I still haven't clicked the article, and know nothing of which you speak.

I'd say this title is for people like me. I think it sounds cool.

Theoretically you can get 50 ish miles or more with line of sight. In practice, you can get around 10 ish with repeaters. With around 30 devices, our city has effective coverage.

You also have options to use MQTT if you want to make sure a message gets through. But that requires an internet connection.

You can, there are websites that show some of the devices. But from what I've found, it's only showing around 1/4 of the real devices in the area. Or at least where I am at.

I'm on the phone so I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I think someone already linked a couple above.

It allows us to make a mesh network (interconnected nodes where you can contact a node even if it's not in range for you, by using other nodes) with Lora radio devices. Lora is slow but has long range. I think it works better when you have line of sight, like if someone can put a node on a mountain, it would help everyone.

I think people might have sent audio with it but it's mostly useful for text messages. It could be useful if the Internet is down, maybe, but it's more like a toy.

Definitely clickbait. The phrase "send texts" as it's been used for the past quarter century means "sms texts" or maybe "text messages to other people on mobile phone networks", which is not at all what this is.

If I wanted to transmit, for example, temperature and humidity from a sensor once every 5 minutes, would the network be willing to carry my signals?

Definitely clickbait. The phrase "send texts" as it's been used for the past quarter century means "sms texts" or maybe "text messages to other people on mobile phone networks", which is not at all what this is.

WiFi goes down and people sometimes NEED to communicate instead of streaming Netflix.

This is just an alternate channel, if Eheran doesn't have the imagination to understand how low bandwidth can still be extremely valuable, as compared to, say, screaming at the top of your lungs to attempt to be heard 5 miles away, then... I'm not really interested in what they think.

People are just discussing the pros and cons of technology in the Technology comm. Chill out.

Yeah this is not SMS! Its probably text that looks like:
¥¢¥^=¶√•€¢√°=¶}{°÷π^¥π¥¥°
°{}}∆∆×÷°%^¢¢°{]]×=%π¥√^%÷

Thanks. I eventually saw that comment and I am just a bit out of range of one listed.

What is the typical power requirement on these devices? Can it be used to set up IoT sensor nodes in the wild where they work off solar, or do they need periodic tuning/care?

It is cool! The barrier to entry is relatively low. The only thing to really worry about is:

1. What band/frequency is appropriate for you country.
2. Are there others around to which you can connect?

If there's not a lot of people around it's not the end of the world. Nodes can connect over the Internet via MQTT servers. Yes, this defeats the purpose of having an offline/decentralized communication platform, but it is a good stop gap until more nodes are put up.

Here's a sample of what I can see in a somewhat large-ish Midwest City in the US (there's about 63 nodes I can reach by hopping through relays).

The maps do not show any devices in the country where I live, but due to the low cost and practical use, I’d love to set some up.

If i am usually within 6km of my home, in a city. I wonder if 1 node will be enough coverage.

Also, how can you tell that there are more nodes than reported on those sites?

Very low and yes. They work great for IoT, as long as it’s not mission critical stuff as messages can get dropped or arrive out of order sometimes. But for something like monitoring a remote sensor station that’s within the Lora range, without needing a cellular plan, yes.

Device Configuration | Meshtastic

Learn about and compare device roles such as Client, Repeater, and Router as well as other Device settings.

(meshtastic.org)

SENSOR is one of the defined device roles. And whether for personal automation or public information, it is a reasonable use case for the network.

It is channel-based, using Pre-Shared Keys (PSK).

There is a public line where you can message pretty much everyone with the blank PSK.

The phone app gives the location of nodes want you to know. And most don't care. For example, in my city there is currently 24 online nodes my window node has interacted with. And 174 in total nodes it's contacted today.

It can be spotty during certain times of the day.

Oh, now that sounds fun

I'm running about 1w per device ATM.

So yeah it sips energy. There's a lot of nodes in the mountains that are solar powered. They work.