There's a Meshtastic Node for Almost Everything!

[00:00:00]Today I've got seven different nodes for you for Meshtastic. And yeah, I realized there were six in the thumbnail. I just said seven and I showed five fingers. I think we're all intelligent enough to figure out by the end of this video what all this means. Let's get started. The first node here is the Elocro M1 node.

[00:00:17]And this is going to look very similar, this is your first clue, to the M5 node.

[00:00:22]And I want to give you the differences between these and tell you a couple of things about them. The M1 is a fully self-contained unit. It comes with the radio, the screen, the case, the battery, and the GPS stuff all built into one thing. Here's where this one's special. This is using the NRF 52840 chip inside. And that, my friends, is low power, long battery life. It'll do all the meshtastic stuff. It'll do only meshtastic stuff. Well, it'll do mostly meshtastic stuff. Nothing else has been invented yet that I'm aware of, but feel free to correct me down in the comments.

[00:00:56]And it will do it very well for a very long time. That is the M1. Now, number two, and wouldn't you know it, they call it the Think Node M2. This one here is your dev board for you to make your own projects with. Maybe you found a case out on one of the various 3D printer website STL file sharing type deals, and you want to use it in your own project in your own way. Maybe you want a desktop node to sit on your desk and not a keychain type node to wear on your belt. Maybe you want to build something to stick in a backpack. Who knows? This is your gateway. This one is powered by an ESP32, which also means it does a lot more than just Meshtastic or Mesh Core or any of those other things out there.

[00:01:34]This one has Wi-Fi built into it. Bring a case or not. Bring a battery or not.

[00:01:40]And bring your projects. This one here is the node for you to develop something of your own free will, which is pretty cool. This segment is brought to you by Just Way. A lot of the stuff we work on at Ham Radio eventually runs into the same problem. You build this nice kit, you got it all ready to go, and it's just a bundle of wires inside of a project box, if you're lucky enough to have a project box. And even then, you have weird panels, adapters, mounting plates, all kinds of crazy hardware. And of course, nobody sells it because you're the only person on Earth that knows exactly what part you need. And that's where Just Way comes in. Justway offers CNC machining and 3D printing services for custom parts, prototypes, small project pieces, and the kind of I need this made so I can finish the project. Parts that show up on the bench all the time. Check out Just Way at the link in the description. Send me your design, get a quote, and see what it would take to bring that project out of the computer and into your hands. Thanks to Just Way for sponsoring this video.

[00:02:34]Number three. Next up is the Think Node M3. These guys are really good at naming stuff. This one here is a card-siz tracker, but it brings a couple of extra things to it. I want to take you over to the bench and look into the M3 a little bit more in depth. But first, I've got some notes here I want to look at.

[00:02:51]Besides just mestastic, it also does GPS, Wi-Fi scanning for positioning, BLE, beacon support, Bluetooth, low energy, temperature sensor, humidity sensor. Those things are both relevant in Texas where the temperature and the humidity are both 90s something.

[00:03:05]Accelerometer and movement sensing. And it's got a one-click alert SOS function.

[00:03:10]It's in a waterproof enclosure and it does magnetic charging. Let's go take a look. The Think Node M3 from Elocro.

[00:03:17]Let's take a look inside.

[00:03:19]Retail packaging as if you might find it at your local MicroEnter, but I know you guys want this thing faster than MicroEnter can deliver it. And you're going to want to go to the links in the description down below to get it. You didn't see that screen peel disappear, did you? We have a little mounting plate here in case you wanted to mount it onto something. And then the device somehow miraculously, try not to break it.

[00:03:43]There we go. That thing, oh, didn't see that either.

[00:03:47]Has a grip on there, so you're not going to have to worry about it falling out of your mounting plate. It has recesses for the screws in there, so you can get them flat on whatever surface it is. And then this can be magnetically charged.

[00:04:02]And that's a relatively standard connector. I have seen these with four as well as five dots on it. So, make sure you get the appropriate four dot model. But lucky for us, it comes with the appropriate four dot model inside the box here. It also comes with some mounting screws and some drywall anchors depending on whether you need those things or not. And what do we have in here? This feels heavy.

[00:04:24]Oh, that is a pretty awesome looking little lanyard that goes with it.

[00:04:30]And we've got some self- adhesive stickyback stuff in case you wanted to do some self- adhesive stickyback type deal things with it.

[00:04:38]And then remember it's got that clicky SOS button on the front of it. Pretty cool little device. Pretty good size.

[00:04:45]It's not heavy at all. So slip this in your backpack and know where your backpack is. Put it on your dog's collar or your cow's collar and let it ding-ing on the way all around and tell the world where your cow is. And then for comparison sakes, this is the T1000 from Seed Studios. And it is another one of those, this is more credit card size, but not credit card thick type devices.

[00:05:06]And then my buddy Dave, mesh dealer Dave, printed out this nice case, 3D printed case to hold it in, which still allows for the charging in the back and takes a regular bow fang clip. And so comparing the size of the two, they are in pretty good nick in terms of size comparison, but they do service different markets because this one has the extra sensors in it. Fresh back from the M3. Number four. This is the Think Node M4. It is a power bank in addition to being a meshtastic node. Pretty cool stuff. Let's go take a look at it on the bench. The Think Node M4. Let's take a look at this one. More retail type packaging. USB adapter. USB cable. Oh, instruction manual. Nice. This is that power bank model. And at first I was like, why do I want the world's largest meshtastic node? And really the answer is the power bank. I don't know what kind of charge it comes from the factory, but we're going to check it out. Maybe I need to turn it on first.

[00:06:01]Might not have a charge from the factory. What's going on there? We'll take a look at that in a second. Two USB cables. It looks like one is probably input and one is probably device. We'll take a look in the manual for that real quick. Some covers for it. [snorts] They do just kind of stick out though. But this is also somewhat of a lanyard type option for you. Pretty slick looking device. Let's go over some of the specs here. 3.6V 6vt battery power 25.2 W hours. It is 915 for US Laura or Meshtastic and it is 868 for U EU based meshtastic. It is a meshtastic tracker and a 20 watt fast charging device. And then we have a function button on the back and a status light. And again, we've got that adapter. So, I'm still want to double check these guys here. Let's see in the manual what those icons are. Type-C receptacle cable for programming and type-C plug cable for charge. And I really think they probably just gave you two of those to make that lanyard type function I was telling you about. Type-C input and then the on and off button. So, let's get some input into it. We've got the input in and we've got a light. Okay. So, the battery was dead from the factory. So, that's what the deal was. Now, we've got some power in. Nothing yet. Oh, it lights up. There's a light.

[00:07:14]That's actually a decent size light for like, you know, room ambiance or whatnot. gets brighter and then it goes into SOS mode.

[00:07:24]It literally sends SOS over Morse code.

[00:07:27]There we go. Charging. I had it for a second and then my screen revealed all of my privacy stuff that I didn't want you guys to see. Wired charging.

[00:07:34]Wireless charging. Place your phone on the magnetic area to charge. That's all it says. Power button. Press and hold for three seconds and release. Turns on the first gear of the lighting function.

[00:07:41]Press it again. Long press. Second gear.

[00:07:43]We did that. Third press and then release. Turn on SOS. Fourth press. Turn off the lighting function. Yep. What does the function button do? Function button, single click in standby to wake up the devices Laura function in working state. Update node device location information and display battery level.

[00:08:00]So that's your beacon. Double click disable and enable other functions.

[00:08:04]Accept the Laura transceiving. Press and hold. So long press device enters standby. Sleep state. Press and hold for 10 seconds. So So long press device reset. And super duper long press is programming mode. This here is where my thumbnail clickbait might take a little bit of understanding, a little bit of like poof, magic. I get it now. This is the Think Node M5. And it looks a lot like the M1, which is why there's only six in the thumbnail, which is why I also showed five in the beginning. This is number five. This one here is exactly the same as the other one, except it uses an ESP32. And while it is not as power efficient as the nrf chip is, this one does bring a whole bunch of extra functionality to the table besides just meshtastic or meeshcore or things along those lines, Laura, etc. This also brings war driving. So there's a ton of firmwares out there right now. And from my notes, we've got Piglet. Piglet explicitly supports the Xiao ESP32S3, but that's the chipset that's on here is the ESP32S3. But maybe with a little bit of tweaking you can get Piglet to work.

[00:09:11]And it does exactly the classic war driving thing. Wi-I I don't want to get this stuff wrong, so I'm reading my notes. Wi-Fi scanning, GPS position logging, wiggle compatible, CSV files, SD storage, and a web UI. That's Piglet that does it. I don't think there's SD storage on this ESP32 deal, but you could plug it in if you opened up the case and plugged in the little pin things. Ghost ESP supports ESP 32S3 class hardware and includes GPS war driving functionality among its broader wireless research feature set. Bruce firmware also includes a war driving function and supports a range of ESP32 devices including the S3, the M5 stack and some stuff from LIIGO. So, you can do all your meshtastic node stuff, you can do all of your device-based messaging stuff, but you can also do this new war driving thing, which is becoming super popular, or ethical hacking or just information, signals, intelligence about stuff that's going on in your area. The S3 supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't support 5 GHz Wi-Fi. I think you need the ESP 32C5 model for that. But that's the Think Node M5 and that's how it's different than the Think Node M1. It got me at first when I'm like these two have the same case and the same screen and the same price tag, I believe. What's up with that? So, this is what's up with that. We got this. We figured it out.

[00:10:31]Number six. See, I can count to six.

[00:10:34]This is the Think Node M6, the outdoor solar power node for Meshtastic. Let's get over to the bench and take a look at this one. And it's got that NRF 52840 chip in it. The Think Node M6. My buddy Rob over at the Digital Ranser channel just did a recent review on this and he went pretty in-depth into his usage of it on field day on his RV out in the rain, how it survived all that stuff.

[00:10:57]Really good stuff. I just want to show you what comes in the box right here.

[00:10:59]915 or 868 for US or EU, 18650 battery, 7,000 milliamp hours inside. And the dimensions 210 x 156x 42 mm, IP65 rating. Main board input is 5 volts, 1 amp, and the rated output power of the solar panel is six watts. And Rob was saying that this lasted him just fine in cloudy, overcast conditions. And look at that. That's your solar panel right there. That's pretty cool. And then this is where the node gets super interesting. We peel this off and we take a look at the back. Let me get the box out of the way. And we have a mounting shoe for putting the mounting in there. We've got the USB C port for programming and initial charging. We have some power and data lights here.

[00:11:43]And then these guys here are really cool. These are UART connectors for external upgrade modules for you. And these are using I want to call these aircraft connectors, but I know you guys will correct me if I get that wrong.

[00:11:53]They're using some screw on connectors, some four pin deals, and these are waterproof connectors, so you can add some extra sensors and expand the unit with some extra functionality. We've got an SMA male plug on the side for the antenna, an SMA male plug on the side for the other antenna. There are two more little donuts down there behind this job that you can see. And the solar panel is actually pretty cool. That top is a little textured and that is actually to help, you know, re re-red redirect the light back at the panel that would bounce off the panel otherwise and bring it back in. See what else we get inside the box. We get some mounting hardware if I can get it out of the box. That's why I can't get it out of the box. So, you could screw it down. There's some anchors if you need to use anchors for whatever reason.

[00:12:38]You've got your two antennas in here.

[00:12:40]One is for GPS and one is for 915. They look identical, but they're probably not inside. And then let's see, the pole can expand to give you a little bit more range of motion if you need it.

[00:12:53]You can control the tilt angle if you need it.

[00:12:59]And then you could screw it down or you could tie wrap it. or you could do any kind of magic tricks to get that adapted to whatever mounting surface you want to have it adapted to. USBA to USBC cable is included so you can do your programming and updates and that probably also means it's actually technically a USBA port on the back of the box. So that is the Think Node M6.

[00:13:21]And then last but not least, I did promise you the M7. I promised you seven models. This is number seven.

[00:13:31]I kind of Yeah, we got this. This device here is actually pretty interesting. The outdoor M6 node handles all of the stuff. And if you're close enough in proximity to an indoor Wi-Fi network, you can do the MQTT stuff. This one here is more specifically designed to be indoors and do all of the stuff that the outdoor model does, but it is wired into your network and does the MQTT stuff.

[00:13:54]And since it's indoors and wired into the network, that means maybe power over Ethernet. And that also really means that solar is not a thing. So what we've got here is the M7 indoor gateway node that will get you from your meshtastic devices to the local node inside to the internet at large and you provide all of that infrastructure. So if you need something for all of the different needs and all of the different things you can do with these meshtastic devices, then I've got links for you in the description down below. What do you think the Think Node M8 should be? Tell me all about it in the comments down below. And on your way down there, hit that like button and maybe the subscribe button, too. In the meantime, if you need to know more about Meshtastic, I have a playlist featuring all kinds of meshtastic nodes and all of their differences and how to send messages and how to flash firmware and how to set up your phone and all those other kinds of things linked right over here for you.

[00:14:49]Thanks for being awesome. I'll see you over there.