I’m beautiful and tough like a diamond…or beef jerky in a ball gown.

  • 16 Posts
  • 79 Comments
Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: July 15th, 2025

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  • i should clarify a generic radio repeater that inst meshtastic but is able to repeat LORA signal

    Well, the numbers I gave would be the same since those Meshtastic “modes” are just profiles for different LoRa settings, and the same LoRa Settings + frequency slot still applies (Meshtastic just runs on top of that).

    I think what you’re looking for is a dumb signal repeater, but I’m not super knowledgeable of the pros/cons/legality of those for the entire 915 MHz band. You’d be repeating anything in that frequency range, not just LoRa. And those also repeat noise the same as signal. Basically, it could end up making things worse in the long run by introducing noise.

    Probably best to just coordinate with or start a community mesh group and settle on a specific frequency and LoRa settings.


  • AFAIK, the only way to truly turn them off is to remove the battery or cut the positive lead and splice in a switch. Only drawback is the switch has to be on for it to be able to charge, so that’s a bit awkward. The “soft off” when you hold the power button is just deep sleep.

    Mine frequently wake up from deep sleep but not after 5 minutes. More like 3-4 days. Which makes keeping a few always charged difficult.

    Edit: I just checked the Power settings in the app (they’ve changed it a bit since I set mine up). The longest it can deep sleep is 72 hours it seems. Maybe yours is set to 5 minutes?


  • I don’t think what you’re trying to do is very practical.

    For US 915, there are between 52 (SHORT_TURBO) and 208 (LONG_SLOW) frequency slots. Each node has to use the same LoRA parameters (called mode presets in Meshtastic) as well as the same frequency slot in order to communicate (or relay).

    LoRa signals are low bandwidth (125, 250, or 500 kHz) so there are a lot of frequency slots. In addition to having one radio for each frequency slot, you would also have to have one for each LoRA parameter preset in that frequency slot. Nodes can only operate in one mode and frequency at a time.

    So to cover all cases, you’d need:

    • 52 nodes operating in SHORT_TURBO mode
    • 104 nodes operating in SHORT_FAST
    • 104 nodes operating in SHORT_SLOW
    • 104 nodes in MEDIUM_FAST
    • 104 in MEDIUM_SLOW
    • 104 in LONG_FAST mode
    • 208 in LONG_MODERATE mode
    • Plus another 208 in LONG_SLOW mode

    Source for those counts

    That’s a total of 988 nodes to cover all, and that’s not even getting into the fact that they’d be talking over each other.

    Basically, if you want to be a generic repeater (note the docs clearly state to not run repeater mode willy-nilly), it’s best to stick with LONG_FAST, set your custom channels as primary (if you even want to have custom channels, that is), and create a LongFast secondary channel with the default dummy encryption key. Then manually set your radio frequency to the one used by the default LONG_FAST setting (908.875 MHz).

    That’s basically what I do and lets me have my own private channels while also relaying for and being able to make contact with anyone else using the default config.


    Edit: Coordination of local frequencies, etc is usually done by forming a Meshtastic community group. Then you could just join (or start) that group and use a standardized frequency and LoRa parameters.














  • I always start out with a random race, head in the opposite direction of Riverwood, eat everything I can pick up, and just start making and selling potions lol. Then I use the money to buy iron ore and start crafting daggers and selling those. Along the way, I may take a few side quests for extra cash. Then eventually buy or build a house.

    By the time I finally go to Riverwood to start the main game, I’m…a fully Daedric-clad stealth archer. Every time. lol. (I don’t quite have the patience to level smithing to 100 for dragonbone, so I upgrade that along the way of the main quest).












  • I do wonder what the refresh rate is like on these. I’ve been daily driving a Minimal Phone for a few months now. While I like it, it definitely took some getting used to. While it’s actually quite snappy, it feels abysmally slow even compared to the Cat S22 Flip it replaced (which is a low-end Android smartphone in a flip phone form factor).

    I also wonder why they bothered with a camera on it. The camera on the Minimal is extremely “meh”, but the thing that makes it mostly useless is the refresh rate of the e-ink. You never know if you got a blurry mess of a picture or what. The firmware will put the screen into “fast refresh / low fidelity” mode to try to improve it, but it’s still a roll of the dice when trying to take any kind of photo. About the only thing it’s good for is scanning QR codes.