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Room Server Federation Federation is the mechanism by which two or more MeshCore room servers, each serving their own local mesh island, share messages with one another over the internet — forming a single logical room that spans geographically separated areas...

Meshtastic MQTT Overview 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 — u...

Setting Up a Meshtastic MQTT Gateway 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 off...

Running a Self-Hosted MQTT Broker 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 a...

MQTT to Node-RED Integration 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 ins...

What Is a Mesh Network? 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 (yo...

LoRa Technology Explained 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 t...

LoRa vs LoRaWAN vs Meshtastic vs MeshCore 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 a...

The 915 MHz ISM Band 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 wit...

Getting Your First Message Through: Meshtastic This guide will take you from zero to sending a LoRa mesh message on Meshtastic, step by step. No prior RF or networking experience is required. If you get stuck, the What to Check sections at the end will help y...

Getting Your First Message Through: MeshCore MeshCore is a newer peer-to-peer LoRa mesh platform that differs from Meshtastic in some important ways. This guide walks you through buying hardware, flashing firmware, and sending your first message — including a...

Connecting to Your Local Community Mesh Having a single node transmitting into the void is technically functional, but the real magic of a mesh network only appears when you are connected to other people. This page explains how to find out whether there is al...

How Antennas Work at 915 MHz An antenna is a transducer that converts electrical energy (RF current on a transmission line) into electromagnetic waves and vice versa. Understanding the physics of this conversion is essential for making informed antenna choices...

Antenna Types for LoRa Mesh Choosing the right antenna type for a LoRa mesh deployment is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make. A 3 dB improvement in antenna gain doubles your effective communication range. This page describes the principal anten...

Antenna Gain and Coverage Tradeoffs Antenna gain is not free — it is always traded against something else. Understanding what gain costs you is essential before choosing an antenna for a mesh deployment. The fundamental law of antenna physics is conservation o...