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MeshCore Sensor Firmware MeshCore provides a dedicated Sensor firmware variant, separate from the Repeater and Client variants. Flash it onto a supported board (e.g. RAK4631, T-Echo) the same way you would any MeshCore firmware - via the MeshCore web flash...

Site Selection Place sensors where you need data - not where it is convenient to access. Ideal sites are often inconvenient: a peak for a weather station, a stream bank for water level, a crop row for soil temperature. Choose the site first, then engineer...

Overview All sensor-specific settings are accessed through the MeshCore CLI over a USB/serial connection (115200 baud) or via BLE using the MeshCore mobile app. Commands are case-insensitive. Changes take effect immediately and persist across reboots. S...

Urban Propagation at 915 MHz Dense urban environments present some of the most complex RF propagation conditions for mesh networks. Understanding these effects helps planners place nodes effectively and set realistic range expectations. Street Canyon Effect Bu...

Forest and Vegetation Propagation at 915 MHz Vegetation is one of the most significant impairments to 915 MHz propagation. Forested terrain requires a fundamentally different planning approach from open or urban environments. Foliage Attenuation 915 MHz is sig...

Mountain and Complex Terrain Propagation Mountain and highly variable terrain introduces propagation challenges - and opportunities - that differ fundamentally from flat-land or urban planning. Terrain masking is the dominant factor, but ridge placement can tu...

Water and Coastal Propagation Water surfaces create some of the most favorable RF propagation conditions at 915 MHz. Coastal and over-water deployments can achieve ranges that far exceed typical terrestrial links. Over-Water Propagation Water surfaces reflect ...

The fastest way to grow a mesh community is to let people experience the network firsthand. Events and demonstrations convert curious bystanders into active participants in a way that no amount of documentation can match. The Mesh Meetup Format A mesh meetup r...

A community mesh network that isn't documented is one resignation or one hardware failure away from being unrecoverable. Documentation is not overhead - it's the infrastructure that makes the physical infrastructure maintainable. What to Document For every per...

A Meshtastic network that works well with five nodes may behave poorly at fifty. Managing growth proactively - rather than reacting after congestion degrades performance - is what separates a durable community network from one that works great until it doesn't...

Meshtastic's MQTT module extends a LoRa mesh network over the internet by bridging packets between the radio air interface and an MQTT message broker. A gateway node - a Meshtastic device with a working Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection - uplinks packets it hears o...

Any Meshtastic device with Wi-Fi capability (ESP32-based boards such as the LILYGO T-Beam, Heltec WiFi LoRa 32, RAK4631 with Ethernet module, etc.) can act as an MQTT gateway. This guide covers enabling MQTT through the official Meshtastic app and verifying th...

Eclipse Mosquitto is the de-facto standard open-source MQTT broker, widely used with Meshtastic for private mesh deployments. This guide installs Mosquitto on a Raspberry Pi or Ubuntu/Debian server, secures it with TLS, adds authentication, and optionally brid...

Node-RED is a browser-based visual programming tool built on Node.js, ideal for wiring together MQTT data streams from Meshtastic with downstream services such as dashboards, databases, and messaging platforms. This page covers installing Node-RED, subscribing...

If you have ever used Wi-Fi at home, you are already familiar with the most common type of wireless network: the star topology. Every device in your house - your phone, your laptop, your smart TV - talks to one central access point (your router), and the route...

LoRa stands for Long Range. It is a wireless radio modulation technique invented by a French startup called Cycleo and acquired by Semtech in 2012. LoRa chips appear in millions of devices worldwide today, from smart utility meters to wildlife trackers to comm...

One of the most common sources of confusion when starting out is the alphabet soup of acronyms: LoRa, LoRaWAN, Meshtastic, MeshCore. People use them interchangeably, but they are four very different things operating at four different layers. This page explains...

Every LoRa mesh device you buy for use in North America operates in the 915 MHz ISM band. Understanding what that means - and what the rules are - will help you choose the right hardware, set the right channels, and avoid interference with your neighbors. Wha...