For most of the day, I can be found carrying a T-1000e in my pocket. My home has (or will have ) a node on the roof with a longer range antenna, and my T-1000e works perfectly to keep myself connected to the mesh, even if my phone can’t connect all the way to my roof node via bluetooth. However, when I travel outside of the house the tiny antenna in the T-1000e leaves something to be desired.

I’m calling this a “medium priced” node because I didn’t really budget and just bought parts as they became necessary. There are also many examples of cheaper nodes, such as the Harbor Breeze Solar Light Hack, which I will perhaps attempt another time. For now, here’s a reasonably reliable node that costs around $110 for just the essential parts. Parts List Essential Parts Parts Price Description WisBlock Starter Kit $24.99 This is the Meshtastic node.

In August 2024 Meshtastic made changes to their official MQTT server due to potential safety issues of third parties tracking and storing user location data. While one of the main Meshtastic node mapping websites meshmap.net continues to rely on the official MQTT server, another popular site meshtastic.liamcottle.net now runs their own separate MQTT server. While MQTT can be leveraged to connect Meshtastic nodes to one another over-the-Internet to bridge separated networks or isolated nodes, many people instead use this feature specifically for contributing to node maps so others can see what nodes may be operating in their area.