I have one device at home. Exactly what it writes on the tin. Don't expect the internet, but it's perfectly functional for messaging

Check out !meshtastic@mander.xyz. They can probably answer any and all questions you have.

It's been growing a lot lately, it's rf so range is all about height, the antenna, and your location. But depending on use case, meshcore or Reticulum/Rnode could fit better. I like Reticulum because it uses the LoRa as just another connection and nomadnet is like old web pages done in markup.

Nodes in my area started to become saturated enough that I can message my node at home anywhere in the city. The dream is to have a mobile node and home node then I can send messages home without phone connection. Then I can also hook up a GPS on the mobile node so the home node can see where I'm at. Less dependent on Google location sharing.

We've had a pretty active mesh where I'm from but I see this very similarly to ham radios. They are great for specific scenarios but not terribly useful in everyday life. I still have my meshtastic node powered on but I rarely connect my phone to it to check things. When I do, there aren't that many nodes that are active.

Overally, I'd say it's great if you can afford cheap hardware and/or want to build but you aren't going to get much daily use out of it.

Some of the people I've hung out with on Resonite have messed around with Meshtastic. Probably because there's also an amateur radio group that occasionally meets up on there.

Check out Meshcore as well, it solves a few issues people were having with Meshtastic.

I got into it pretty deep before realizing that it's terrible and doesn't work for shit.

I built several nodes. I think it's most useful as an asset tracking tool, but the battery life isn't great. Like, I have a couple premade credit card sized nodes. It's pretty neat to ping them and get their gps. But, to be honest, your money for that application would probably be better spent on an iPhone and apples tags.

For communication: there are dubiously legal, cheap radios you can get off Amazon that would probably be 100% more useful.

I did enjoy it, though, and I still have some nodes. Also, it's illegal to send encrypted messages over mestastic.

Edit some mestastic nodes double as a low power gps with a screen. These may be useful on their own.

Check out the channel. It has some pretty good videos. Particularly about flock.

Seconding the recommendation. Benn Jordan is great on these subjects. Also, gen AI poisoning.

He's been a music & software mainstay on youtube for years but he's been on an absolute tear recently as kind of de facto public voice of the anti-AI surveillance push. Check out his releases from the past six months, each and every one is a banger.

🤣 me too, and I think basically the same thing every time I watch one of his videos. Though I'd say the ADHD meds thing was just the final straw, there were not so subtle signs that it was coming, then they fucked with his meds.

You can just edit the post.

Fixed