Meshcore is easy and fun
For the last two weeks I've been experimenting with Meshcore, to take my radio knowledge from dusty college classroom stuff to practical application. The experience of building out a new network has been exciting so far.
Getting Started
I started with a companion radio kit from Amazon. It’s marketed for Meshtastic, but flashing it to Meshcore is straightforward. I initially considered the Heltec V4, but since it draws more power and only recently got support in the flasher, I went with the Heltec V3 instead. It’s simpler, cheaper, and well-supported.
The kit came with a Heltec V3 board, a stubby antenna, a flat LiPo battery, and a 3D-printed case with internal guides, plus screws and nuts. Assembly was mostly uneventful, although I had to apply more force than expected to seat the antenna connector properly.
I flashed the board using the Meshcore web flasher (https://meshcore.co.uk) over USB-C. It requires Chrome or Edge because it uses WebUSB, which is slightly annoying but not unusual anymore. The whole process took under 5 minutes—I stepped away to make tea and came back to a flashed device.
Testing
Once I had the radio up and running, I stepped outside and immediately ran into a problem: I live in a coverage hole. I often receive messages, probably thanks to the Bay Area’s radio-friendly terrain, but I don’t have a stable repeater in range. To get a better sense of the network, I carried my radio with me while doing errands the next few days. That helped me discover several nearby repeaters. Once I enabled hop count display in the Meshcore app, it became especially interesting to see the paths messages took to reach me.
Setting up a repeater took a bit more work and I can't say that I'm satisfied with the result quite yet. The stubby antenna from the companion kit wasn’t going to be sufficient, so I ordered a whip antenna (from Muzi) along with a few more Heltec boards. My plan was to build additional companion radios for friends and dedicate one board as a repeater.
I first tried installing the repeater in my storage room after seeing others mention attic setups. That didn’t work at all—the metal shelving and low placement killed performance. I then moved the node outside and mounted it on my patio, using a jasmine trellis to get a bit more elevation and reduce obstructions. That setup performs noticeably better. From there, I can just barely reach the nearest park. It’s still not enough to fully connect into the mesh, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Next Steps
At this point, I’m mapping out nearby repeaters and looking for better placement options while I wait for more hardware to arrive. One pebble in my shoe is sourcing: even in Silicon Valley, you can’t just walk into a store and buy decent RF hardware. Amazon has limited inventory, and antenna quality is hit or miss. Shipping directly from recommended manufacturers ends up being an exercise in patience.
To supplement what I see over the air, I’ve been using LetsMesh (https://analyzer.letsmesh.net/map) and Meshmapper (https://meshmapper.net). Meshmapper is especially fun since I can contribute data with just my companion radio, and it would help identify nodes that aren’t well connected to the broader mesh like mine.
Next up: upgrade the home repeater with a better antenna and keep iterating on placement until I can get a reliable link into the network. I have a couple spots in mind that I could chain together, but I'm sure there's more experimenting in my future.