Skip to content

Hardware options

This page documents a certain number of LoRa and Meshtastic hardware devices we have tested or somehow evaluated. It is of course not exhaustive, and it is opinionated in the sense that it tries to guide you towards specific purchases to simplify your life.

Also, in the main guide, we recommend specific devices, while here we are more open to suggestions.

Pocket-sized

Those are day-to-day use device, can you can easily carry in a pocket or a pouch. Those generally have a battery.

Untested

  • T-Echo: e-ink display, GPS, BT 5.0, no wifi, only three buttons, NFC, 850mAh battery, temperature/pressure sensor, 55$
  • T-Beam Supreme: 1.3" OLED display, 18650 battery socket, magnetometer, 2.4GHz WiFi, BLE 5, GNSS, no case, 52$, the T-Beam SoftRF is similar but without a display and cheaper, 30$
  • T-Deck Pro: 3.1" e-ink touch screen, 4G module, WiFi 2.4GHz, BLE 5, GPS, TF Card, mic, speaker, keypad, see also the T5 e-paper s3 pro
  • Muzi has builds on top of the Heltec, e.g. this H2T (137CAD) made with a Heltec T114, this R1 Neo (123CAD) is similar to the WisMesh Pocket, but smaller, better sealed, but more expensive
  • Seeedstudio XIAO ESP32S3 & Wio-SX1262 Kit: tiny, cheap, - 40℃ ~ 100℃, WiFi 2.4GHz, BLE 5.0 / Mesh, reset/boot button, 22x23x57mm, 37g, exposed GPIO ports, unclear if has a battery, 20$

Base stations and solar

Those are bulkier devices that are mounted on a mast or are used as a back-haul, possibly with a special antenna. The devices may or many not have batteries.

Untested

Development boards

Those are bare-bones circuit boards that work standalone but cannot really be used in production as they lack a proper case.

The devices here generally do not have a battery.

  • HELTEC v4 (v3) is the cheapest option, 20$ with the case (but no battery, and battery doesn't fit in the case), they also have an eink dev board. one advantage Heltec has over the below RAK kits is that you can connect to them over wifi, the downside is they use more power because they are ESP32 based instead of NRF5280
  • the RAK19003 base kit (28$), without a case which can be printed but it's tricky because there are many (83!) design files in there, useful if you already order from RAK wireless and need extra kits and know your way around DIY builds. you need to also buy:

Power

Most devices listed here are powered over regular USB-C cables. Similarly regular power supplies should generally suffice. Some devices can be powered with Power over Ethernet as well.

Solar

Some nodes have their own solar panels, which are generally preferable for simplicity reasons.

The configuration of a separate solar power system is considered out of scope here for the moment, but our previous wiki had some documentation about power generation but consider that the information provided there is over 10 years old and things have changed significantly in that space since then. We'd welcome a guide on various solar panel setups that could accommodate various setups, from a small base station to a full house.

Batteries

Battery setups depends on the particular device. The Heltec v4 pre-built kit, for example, uses 18650 battery cells. Those cells need to be handled with care, see this discussion about those batteries, for example.

It's best to buy "protected" cells, which are typically sold in "vape shops".

Antennas

Hacks