That's a cool concept, the camera idea!

Thanks for the advice. I have changed back to a client and set NodeInfo to 300 or every 5 minutes. We'll see how that goes!

@@peterfairlie2296good looks! Repeater device mode is still a little buggy in my experience and it limits your ability to be seen directly by others or receive any messages to your app. A good setting for your location would be Router Client. Even just the Router role is known to be very problematic and likely not resolved fully until 3.0.

Please don't. Although the devs don't make this clear - I have got clarification from them - AND - the actual firmware code. When a node lets call it node A, hears a message from a node that it has never heard before - lets call it node B. Node A will immediately send it's nodeinfo with the request replies flag set, which node B will receive and see a reply was requested and will respond with it's own nodeinfo. It doesn't matter what the packet is, whether it is a message, a broadcast, telemetry etc - this process happens for all them. So you do not ever need to change the nodeinfo settings - which (along with all the other default settings) the devs chose after real world tests (specifically at burning man).

I plan to go all the way to the top once I get everything figured out.

Send it up on a drone!

Andy Kirby did that on his channel in the UK. It's a good way to relay over long distances.

He only used the top half of the antenna. The Tbeam was against the side of the bottom half that isn't hooked up.

The Lora chip can run 868 Euro or 915 USA and you select that in the settings. It's working... today I made my first contact !!!! yeahhhhhh!

Damn I paid $20 for an 18650 today.

If I wanted one overnight from Amazon it's around $25 US or $30 Canadian. There are better deals like AliExpress but you're waiting weeks for it to come from China.

You can not post links in youtube comments unless you are the channel owner. Can you please give the name of the store online? I found some for ~$3.00 USD each from china on aliexpress but shipping is $7.00. Also, don't know how the quality would be.

@@peterfairlie2296 I see what you mean. For me, I'm in the States, so I can get them at like $1.85 a battery, (Just an example of course.) (I also just took a look and called around...man shipping to Canada is expensive, more so for Lithium Ion cells too. I would have offered to have shipped them, but phew it's pricy!)

@@CyberAndy_ Oh sure. The name of the place is (without a direct link) 18650 battery store . It is a commercial entity. I found it on a deals site a while ago and bought a few cells that were discounted and they seem to work fine. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I am a previous customer of theirs.

I do have 2 rotors so this will be something I experiment with as I expand the network!

@@peterfairlie2296 I would love to see how you build out that one.

higher frequency allows for manageable sized biquad yagi antenna, they even better than flat Yagi since each quad is 100 Z and 2 in parallel match perfectly 50 ohm cable and can be stacked like yagi with waveguide quads and reflector

I got my Meshtastic T-Beam from Amazon. They are getting hard to get as everyone wants to get one now.

aliexpress but make sure it uses Sx1262 for USA or Sx1268 for Europe lora chip since it is best parameters radio IC so far

It is below the radiating antenna. There are 2 antenna in the tube. I'm using only the one in the top.

The plastic enclosure, AKA "Radome" has no effect at the 900 MHz frequency. You sure could use PVC pipe.

Gray PVC pipe has carbon which attenuates the signal. Most pure plastics aren't a problem until the thickness is around 1/4 wavelength, which would be around 3" for LoRa frequency. It would be much better to mount the transceiver below the antenna and not next to it where it will attenuate the signal and de-tune the antenna.

It is below the antenna. There are 2 antennas in the tube, it was a dual element antenna and I only used the top half.

Repeaters are not seen by anyone at all. They are invisible. It would be pointless to set a location, it will never broadcast.

Tested its SWR on a VNA

I set mine to 5 minutes

It was actually was a tight fit and it's not going anywhere

@@peterfairlie2296 Cool What did you do/use to keep the boards from touching each other (shorting)? I have used plastic from jugs and virgin note pad backs . I really dig the re-purpose of the antenna . thank you for posting! well done.

I have changed it and have made multiple contacts now kzfaq.info/get/bejne/npqApteFuNSoYas.html

Of course. There are various designs for omni directional and directional antennae available. They can be built with just stiff copper wire or etched copper boards or even copper tape. The only real consideration is matching the antenna size to the frequency being used.

Fingers crossed!

I am just west of Boston. I set up my WisBlock yesterday. My contact info is on my YT page. - Dave

Are you always plugged in? Next time I drive through I’ll see if I can pick you up. Been finding nodes throughout NYC this way sending messages out to channel 0 and then when I get an acknowledgment, checking to see if new nodes appear in my list. I’m sure I’m doing it wrong but it’s working!

@@jakospence I need to get a better antenna, not even getting a mile currently. Happy hunting (:

Thanks, you too!

Where are they $9?

Any info on where?

@@peterfairlie2296 Go directly to Samsung.

Meshtastic is a free to use mesh network used for communication. It's a community-driven, open-source project using LoRa radios for long-range, off-grid communication.

How and why would that be done?

Helium is a network of "rooter' or devices, and using them will mining some crypto currency for you, by example.

I've setup my device as a Router_Client and have made contact with another Meshtastic user now... so I'm happy it's working great.

Should I expect them to send me a bill now?

@@peterfairlie2296 If you attempt to market something. Yeah.