Links from the show: HRCC Amazon Store: amzn.to/3UEAn9b (I earn from qualifying purchases) Tony G 3d orinted case: www.printables.com/model/561389-heltec-v3-case-for-meshtastic Smol case: www.printables.com/model/741974-h1-case-for-heltec-v3-running-meshtastic

@KillRoy0351

Ай бұрын

Where did you get your SMA pigtail for the antenna? I keep buying the wrong one

@zerofox3d

Ай бұрын

Pop me a message bud and I’ll send you a few of my cases, they are widely regarded as the best available and I ship worldwide (I’ve had a very humbling few months since I went a little viral) I wish I was as comfortable as you talking on camera 😆

Simon's "H1" pre-built Heltec v3 cases are fabulous! I give them to friends to help propagate the mesh.

For 3D printed fasteners etc, I really recommend getting a Harbor Freight tap and die set.. it will literally last you a lifetime and make those fasteners go in much easier. Go ahead and pick up a combination tap drill set as well. Pop right in your drill and ream'er out. Nice vid Josh

Great video, fun to watch :) Thanks for showcasing Simon's and my cases!

Thank you so much Josh! Great video, looks like lots of fun!☺️

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

It is!

I have a bunch of Meshtastic nodes components to put together. Can’t wait to get into it!!! Great video Josh!!!

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

I have another video coming up shortly on flashing the Heltec V3, it’s easy.

Yea! This journey has been soooo fun!😅 Bleeding edge! I have 9 nodes now.

Woot, good stuff! Thx Josh!

I have this exact project on my workbench this week and was looking for a video of someone doing exactly this with the exact same printed case and device. Thank you

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Glad I could help!

Dude love the mesh stuff ! Soon sac valley will be connected all the way down to you lol wild !

Little tip: drop of hot glue on each antenna end to prevent kinking and popping off. I also use chargers in line with the batteries.

Damn dude, I built like 25 of them now and they’re all over San Diego county. A couple of them are connecting up to you guys.

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

I hit a few of the mountain top units from here.

@chriss7393

Ай бұрын

Im in north county...any here?

@d.b.cooper

Ай бұрын

@@chriss7393 oh yeah, we have a ton of them in North County. There’s two on Palomar Mountain right now.

A small thing, but it's a good idea to shut down the device before disconnecting the antenna. 95% of the time it's fine, the other 5% it's toast.

Check the resonance of those long antennas with your Nano VNA. Mine were resonant at around 830 and 850 MHz. Nowhere near 906 MHz. They need a little work. If you crack the antenna open to trim it, do your VNA check with the antenna cover slipped back on because the cover does affect the resonant point of the antenna.

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Did you consider that you weren't giving it a good enough ground plane to test it effectively? HT antennas are a nightmare to SWR test since you're generally not creating a good enough ground plane in most cases.

@voiknallen1447

11 күн бұрын

​@@HamRadioCrashCourse The antennas I received from the Amazon link above read an SWR about 1.3:1 across the 33cm(900MHz) band. I think they are great! For what it's worth, they seem to be dipoles, which are inherently balanced. Adding a ground plane may be unnecessary. True to our nature, I popped one open to have look inside. It looks like a coaxial dipole, which I've heard referred to as a "Bazooka" or "Sleeve Dipole." The feed line enters a small brass pipe from the bottom. The braid is connected somewhere inside the pipe, making the pipe one leg of the dipole. The center conductor extends out the top of the pipe to serve as the other leg. I believe the dimensions of the pipe are designed to compensate for the reactance created by running the coax inside a driven element. Maybe also add a little gain (embiggen the bottom of the doughnut). Both antennas I received seemed to be tuned for 1.2GHz, but have a wide SWR bandwidth. 1.3:1 is plenty good enough. I don't feel compelled to fiddle with it. Thanks for all the great recommendations. I'm having a blast with Meshtastic!

Cool video

Just got a few of these on order. I wonder if I could put one on my HS720G drone if there is any issues legality wise with this. Might see a few other nodes that way.

I was JUST looking at doing some upgrades to my two basic heltec units

You can also have the GPS pull from the phone so you don’t need to have GPS installed and that’ll save battery too!

@12:37 I just flipped my hat around backwards!!!

Josh, a roll of 3M double sided tape would do wonders for your build.

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

You’re right. Good call.

I still have no application for Meshtastic. Good thing, considering how many other projects are lined up.

Isnt it sketchy to change antennas with the unit on? 21:40

On the big case what rear cover file do you use to fit that battery?

Is there a video on the "custom job" yet?

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Nope, but it will be used in the next video that is dropping tomorrow while I fly out to Hamvention.

Does the battery recharge when the transceiver is plugged in to USB? I assume it does, but would like confirmation if possible. Thank you and great video!

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Yes it does

@89yjrj

Ай бұрын

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Nice! Thank you.

Isn't that coax bend sharper than it's rated for?

Link for the wire you used?

Where @ hamvention are you?

Man, you gotta build them with the Wisblock modules so much better

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

I have those too. 🤙

Can you buy Meshtastic devices already assembled and built ? What are the brands or sources ?

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Links should be in the description.

that 480mAh battery looks a bit tight fit, laterally, when it gets hot(ter), will this be an issue? I don't want anything bursting in your pocket.

@nathanz7205

Ай бұрын

Power draw is very minimal. Not going to heat up any battery.

Nitecore usb cable, my man

The stubby antennas included with three heltec's I've got were turned to 868Mhz on a calibrated nanoVNA. They're sketchy.

@TheRealEtaoinShrdlu

Ай бұрын

868 is the EU frequency. You probably just bought the wrong thing or bought it from an idiot seller.

@l0wpass

Ай бұрын

@@TheRealEtaoinShrdlu I bought the right thing (4 times) directly from Heltec.

Josh are you coming to Hamvention?

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Yes.

@major__kong

Ай бұрын

I live in Dayton but will be in St Louis :-)

After flashing to 2.3.10 my V3 (HelTXT) wont let me connect from my cell phone. I've tried to reset a number of times and still no luck. I've changed back to different Versions and it still wont let me connect. Is this an apple issue that wont let me check it until its location is set?

@JbowlizzleKC

26 күн бұрын

An update, removing from bluetooth is important to get it to connect again from the app. All fixed

@Rustconsleclips

15 күн бұрын

Good to know🎉🎉🎉

I could smell that solder burn from NY :/

I should make a case that can take a 16340 battery.

I'm a stupid HAM, but can you tell me why one would build these devices and for what purpose. However; it does look like a fun and educational build.

@scotterdog1036

Ай бұрын

It's a gateway drug to ham radio. 😊

@scotterdog1036

Ай бұрын

And it might actually be handy post apocalypse.

@LeeMcc_KI5YPR

Ай бұрын

If the internet and phone networks are down, it is a way to have comms in a community. Maybe a hunting camp, as @Ham Radio 2.0 suggested.

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

The reason to build these is to communicate off grid with other people or share local sensor data.

@major__kong

Ай бұрын

These kinds of devices trace back to things like goTenna, which isn't making consumer devices anymore. Their use case was allowing a group to stay in contact without cell towers and not need a ham license. So things like camping and hiking. However, I suspect goTenna got out of the business because that use case for the average person just isn't important, and they probably didn't have great sales. If you do emcomm or support something like CERT, you could imagine these being used at the tactical edge and gatewayed to ham radio or part 90/95 radios for back haul. You could probably do ICS form data with these things.

Hey, does anyone know if I can hook up the meshtastic to a ring solar panel and charge off that? asking for a friend : )

@huseinabdul1

Ай бұрын

What is the plug type for that? I just looked it up it looks like it’s putting out 5.5 V which I think might be good, but don’t quote me on that.

@huseinabdul1

Ай бұрын

Sorry I meant is it a USB plug? I’m not familiar with ring stuff. I bought a few solar panels from Amazon that worked plus bought a few more from AliExpress that also worked as long as they’re around 5 V.

@patrick70335

Ай бұрын

@huseinabdul1 it's a USB C. Ideally I would hope this is running Ning off the battery and there is a charge controller built into the meshtastic. So it shouldn't pull in all 5 volts.

@huseinabdul1

Ай бұрын

@@patrick70335 i’m pretty sure it actually does charge, but I’d be careful to push it. I used a different model where it actually had a spot to plug a solar panel into it to me was a little safer. I’m pretty sure this one should be fine.

Super nice but more stuff to buy and build. Lol

maybe a dab of hot glue would help with cable management. great video

@HamRadioCrashCourse

2 күн бұрын

Great idea.

I can't believe Icom is selling that IC-905 for almost $3K. I've noticed the price cuts and specials. Are there a lot of people interested in freqs that high??

can I talk/test with a mesh say 150 miles in a rule area?

@LeeMcc_KI5YPR

Ай бұрын

Not without substantial antennas on both end.

@TrevHolland

Ай бұрын

Even with substantial antennas, the answer is very likely "no". Unless you have zero obstructions, most tests are showing about a 3 mile range between nodes in typical environments. 7 hops, maximum, means you'll get about 21 miles, and that's IF you have enough nodes to propagate the message. Even if we give it the benefit of doubt, call it 25 miles, and double that distance, you're still only at 50 miles. Triple it? 75 miles. Still no where near the 150 you're after.

@LeeMcc_KI5YPR

Ай бұрын

Sorry...I understated when I said "substantial". I was thinking highly directional (big dish), and cell-tower tall. Substantial. With rare exceptions during very rare atmospheric phenomena, the frequencies are line of sight, which means you pretty much have to see the other antenna.

Can we get links to the parts you used for this?

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

Updated!!

@WamocIsolda

Ай бұрын

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Thanks!

Tried getting in to this but they are way too hit-or-miss with transmissions. My messages come back as "ERROR" and look like they didn't get received even though they were. The Meshtastic team offers no support. People on the Discord say the same canned response, "get a better antenna" or "get it higher." Meanwhile, I'm at 1000 feet with an upgraded antenna. And 7 max hops means you're only talking to folks within a close area. It's a neat technology but, for off grid comms, it's a novelty. Better off getting a HAM license if you want to communicate off grid.

@DawnPatrol-ce5rk

Ай бұрын

Sounds like u, much like many many others found out way too late in the game had a burnt device. Usually occurring when antenna not plugged in and pwr on, the rub of it is- it still works just at very marginal minimal distances, so it appears to be in fine order though it may not be. This is popping up all over the place. That said it’s sure far from perfect, but that’s the hobby of it, if it weren’t that way, there would be 7B of them out there in everyone’s back pocket. But it improves everyday and is a lot of fun and 1 of very few options in the sector for the non licensed

@TrevHolland

Ай бұрын

@@DawnPatrol-ce5rk I certainly hope I'm wrong on this, because a burned radio would make me at least feel better about this whole thing, but I don't think mine is. I have nodes pretty far away in my nodes list, with an SWR of +/- 5. I know an SWR of 5 is generally trash, but I was told that's a common SWR for these little whip antennas. I'm not sure how to check which nodes were my first hop, though. I'll contact the seller (this was a prebuilt unit from Etsy) and see if a burnt radio is a possibility, though.

@TrevHolland

Ай бұрын

@@DawnPatrol-ce5rk Well, after some testing and doing traceroutes, I am hitting nodes around 5 miles away (on a hill that I can see from my house). They're using GPS so I'm fairly confident in the distance accuracy. It doesn't appear to be a burnt radio. That said, nearly every message I send still results in a cloud with a line through it and the status "ERROR". Oh well.

@ChristopherJohnston-ml6pc

Ай бұрын

​@TrevHolland I have verified 5 miles on my RAK Wisblock devices using Google maps after sending messages. Both were my own nodes so I was able to verify the message after I got home from the test. I have 4 RAK nodes.

@rainmannoodles

Ай бұрын

I got a pair of these to experiment with. I knew about the potential issues with the antennas not being plugged in (honestly, something the hardware should be able to deal with, but these are cheap Chinese trash radios so whatever) and I had no problem connecting the two nodes together. Getting more than about 1-2 blocks of range between them (line of sight) is basically impossible. And I've seen exactly 0 nodes anywhere - I've driven around with one, taken it multiple places... nothing. I suppose there are some very specific pockets where people are running dedicated high-gain repeaters, but otherwise Meshtastic is basically a novelty.

“Over the top”. 😂😂😂😂

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

You’re the first to catch that!

Can we get a “plum” counter lmao

Pro Tip: Only hold soldering irons when you are actually using them. Never just hold it while doing other things.

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

100% that is exactly what I screwed up on there. I seldom ever do that.

No links.

If you tin it first it might not fit thru the hole!

Blood sacrifice complete.

Hi im starting meshtastic, however i left my node at home and when i got home i say in longfast sender "16jail" sent just jumbled numbers and letters. I do live near a prison 2 miles away. I wanna know what would you do? Would you bring it to the attention to the authorities? Or just let it be?

@HamRadioCrashCourse

Ай бұрын

I’d probably see if I saw more traffic and then made a decision.

What is this device for?

Where’s muh affiliate link? Been meaning to order a few of these as backup comms with the family, might as well help you a little along the way! 73 KN6ZJX