I mean it’s an article for people like me who have never heard of that
Comment on This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service
brunoqc@piefed.ca 5 days ago
Clickbait title. Just say it's meshtastic.
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Sure, but they could at least put that in the title as well so people who are familiar w/ it don’t need to click through.
friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 4 days ago
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.
altphoto@lemmy.today 4 days ago
Yeah this is not SMS! Its probably text that looks like:
¥¢¥^=¶√•€¢√°=¶}{°÷™π^™¥π¥¥° °{}}∆∆×÷°%^¢¢°{]]×=%π¥®√™^%÷sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Exactly. I was hyped because I’d like to send and receive SMS w/o a mobile phone. I was hoping someone implemented the protocol so I could integrate it into my desktop, the “no wi-fi or cell service” was merely a bonus.
But no, this is just a way to communicate over a different radio protocol than mobile phone standards.
Dogyote@slrpnk.net 4 days ago
Then what is it?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 days ago
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.
pezhore@infosec.pub 4 days ago
It is cool! The barrier to entry is relatively low. The only thing to really worry about is:
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).
Image
themadcodger@kbin.earth 4 days ago
I got mine recently in a dxent aized city and while there are plenty of nodes popping up on the map, the local channel is pretty quiet. Is that normal?
pezhore@infosec.pub 4 days ago
Yep, that can be normal. For my city, the local group has a private (but free to join) channel that’s a bit more active.
Do a web search for meshtastic and your city and see if one pops up.
brunoqc@piefed.ca 4 days ago
I don't know. It's the same for me but I got a pretty bad reception. The only time I saw some messages was when someone was sending some from a plane, so I guess it was a special occasion.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Where’d you get that map from?
pezhore@infosec.pub 4 days ago
The official meshtastic app has a map view that shows all known nodes.
brunoqc@piefed.ca 4 days ago
It allows us to make a mesh network 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.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Since LoRa devices use very little power this can be useful when there is no electricity.