Do you have any recommendations for a cheap Meshtastic-compatible board? I don’t need GPS or a battery, since I’ll power it with a solar panel or a power bank. Having a case isn’t important; what really matters is avoiding any soldering.
I’m basically looking for a low-cost board with an integrated LoRa antenna. The goal is just to experiment, connecting it via Bluetooth to a PC or smartphone.
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If you plan on using solar or battery power, I strongly recommend against getting any of the boards that are based on the ESP32S3 processor. Get something that uses the nRF52840 processor instead. The main downside is that you don’t get WiFi capability. Most people don’t use that, but it may figure into your decision.
The Heltec V3 is a great starter, but it uses the ESP32S3. The RAK Wisblock kit may be the best overall choice for what you’re doing. The pre-built solar repeaters I see are nearly all best on it. (I have two and they work very well.)
Another good choice is the Heltec T114. It uses the nRF2840 and it is one of the easiest boards to flash firmware onto. My repeaters are RAK Wisblocks, but my personal radios are all Heltec T114s.
And if you really want to get the cheapest possible board to start with, look at Seeed Studio. They have an ESP32S3-baed board that sells complete for under $10. If you want their case for it, that goes up to around $15. It does include an antenna, but does not come with batteries, and the case has no room for a battery.
seeed t1000-e
They can be fun to mess with. I tried it out years ago. Good to MeshMap - Meshtastic Node Map https://share.google/NY5NDDzQzRxqGSMP4
And see if any nodes are in your area.
What counts as “in my area”? There’s no nodes in my county, but there’s a whole bunch in the neighboring counties to my north and south
Lilygo T3S3
The Heltec V3 is more or less the cheapest simplest entry into mesh radio. You may have to plug in an ipex connector but no soldering. They can be found packaged with a very basic case (so you’re not handling the raw pcb) and an antenna for 20-30 $US. If you want to spend a little extra and be able to play with the gps features in MT, the Heltec T114 V2 is great and equally simple to set up. That’s what I started with and glad I did. Have fun!
V3 is esp32, bad for solar unfortunately
What’s the reasoning behind it being bad for solar?
High current draw, something like a rak or T114 is better. Heck there’s probably even better cheaper options these days, but anything esp32 based isn’t gonna be it.
The go to answer, unless I misunderstood your requirements, is always a heltec or a rak wisblock.
https://heltec.org/product-category/lora/meshtastic/
https://store.rakwireless.com/products/wisblock-meshtastic-starter-kit?variant=43884034621638
