So, I’m looking into getting commercially available meshtastic nodes. Buying a bulk set of like 5 of them, and handing them out as birthday presents to my friends to help adoption in the area. A few of them have expressed interest in what I’ve been experimenting with, but don’t want (or can’t afford) to invest themselves.
What would be the most cost effective device to invest in?
My basic requirements are going to be
- Screen mandatory (these are not all techy people, they need to see that it’s on and doing something)
- GPS would be nice, but probably not worth the device cost
- Bluetooth only- I assume everyone will only be using these with the Android app
- Full housing, battery, antenna provided (no setup)
My top 3 so far are the
- ThinkNode M1 ($53)
- Lilygo TTGO T-Echo ($65)
- RAK WisMesh Pocket ($84)
I’m leaning towards the ThinkNode for price and features alone, but I like the form factor and E-ink display of the Lilygo more.
I just got me an M-1, so far my biggest frustration is having to choose between InkHUD and stock (please let me know any forks of InkHUD that show coordinates). The stock UI is somewhat more sluggish and refreshes the screen frequently.
I do not rec the M-5, battery life is way too poor.
That Lilygo may be my next node to try, the M-1 seemingly lacks any extra IO and I would love to build a custom rig with a rotary encoder and such, and somehow is cheaper than the M-1 I just bought lol