Artist and critical engineer Julian Oliver has spent a weekend prototyping a portable Meshtastic node for disaster response situations — acting as both a mesh network for text communications and a Wi-Fi access point for disseminating useful information.
“Glad to share a fun weekend project, a powerful Meshtastic node in a waterproof & rugged case,” Oliver writes of the project, “for use in comms blackout situations/emergencies. It allows for texting across the mesh with a smartphone. It also has an offline Wi-Fi network serving both the Collapsible wiki and simple usage instructions.”
If you need quick comms in a hurry, this ready-to-grab solar-charged Meshtastic box-of-tricks is there for you. (📷: Julian Oliver)
Oliver’s device is designed to serve as a node in a Meshtastic network — a community-driven project that turns low-cost hardware into clients and repeaters on a LoRa-based long-range low-power mesh radio network. Unlike most, though, it’s been built with disaster response in mind: it’s housed in a rugged case, which provides both protection from the elements and easy portability, with a solar panel added on the outside to keep a 12Ah 12.8V deep-cycle lithium battery topped up — good for around a week of operation, Oliver estimates.
Inside the housing is a Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board computer and a LILYGO T-Beam LoRa development board with integrated u-blox Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. “I went with a trusty VERT900 antenna,” Oliver adds, “which I interfaced via SMA by repurposing the case’s pressure valve hole. It performs great in the ~915MHz space and is rugged. I haven’t range-tested yet, but for line-of-sight 50km [around 31 miles] should be easy.”
A high-quality antenna located on the outside of the case provides excellent range. (📷: Julian Oliver)
While the device is functional as-is, Oliver is planning a range of upgrades — including using the spare space in the case to pack a laminated instruction card, torch, first-aid kit, and even a preconfigured and pre-charged Android smartphone with the Meshtastic software available to serve to other device. “I wanted a nice yellow case as it’s cooler in the sun, and cooler in general,” Oliver adds, “but they were out of stock.”
More information is available in Oliver’s Mastodon thread.
