Hello I just built my first node, a heltech v4 and I can’t seem to send any messages on the primary channel and no dms are going through. It keeps saying waiting for acknowledgment and then failing and saying max retransmission reached. Does this point to a problem or just bad luck so far? Yes it has an antenna but it’s the stock one that came with it tucked inside the case I have a better one on the way. I’m posting here because the Meshtastic subs on Reddit suck
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Where are you trying to send to? Do you know if there are any nodes nearby? A heltec isn’t going to go very far indoors with the stock antenna.
We had a big meshtastic community in Tucson/Phoenix, but it sucked. You could barely get any messages through. A LOT of people have switched to Meshcore and the system is amazing. Meshtastic has it’s purpose (it’s good for telemetry) but if you actually want to get messages through, meshcore seems to work better. BUT… this all depends on what is in your area. If there is no node nearby, both are useless. So find out what is nearby first. Check out the MeshCore discord and Meshtastic Discord
I’m 20 miles south of Tucson and messages from flagstaff are being relayed down here.
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Also don’t mention Meshcore in the meshtastic discord. They are a little miffed everyone is abandoning them for meshcore and will ban you or at least delete your post. Just another reason to go Meshcore. lol.
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I’m trying to broadcast on the primary channel mainly and there are notes where I am currently where I live is pretty dead but the area where I work has quite a few active ones and I’ve been to some other towns
Definitely try to find people in your area online through the discord. Your area may use non-default settings.
With a small antenna like that you are going to need to be outside on a roof to get more than a mile or so.
I’m just now getting my first mesh radios and I checked the meshtastic and meshcore node maps. I’m in a pretty small town and there were exactly 0 meshtastic nodes.. I was a little bummed.. but then I checked the meshcore map and there are 3 repeaters set up at different city buildings and the local park!? like.. ok I guess I’m flashing meshcore 
I also found this breakdown on reddit which I found useful;
Meshtastic has a few things going for it (bring on the downvotes):
- Meshtastic is easier to get others to join. Yes there are a dozen different radio types, but generally, just use “client” and you’re good. Yes, app is complicated, but “selling” it to others is easy: “Buy a radio, and you’re part of the mesh.” Until an area has a good amount of Meshcore repeaters, a Meshcore companion radio is a paperweight.
- Meshtastic is fun. Watching new nodes pop up, and “Collecting” them is very satisfying. Your list of 250 nodes is useless because 95% of them won’t be reachable, but it’s like Pokemon, they’re fun to collect on your map.
- Meshtastic “works” with only a handful of radios. It doesn’t work well, but it’ll work.
- Meshtastic has a lot more users, and because of that, a lot more support, and a lot more extra tooling.
Meshcore:
At it’s “core” (pun intended), Meshcore is a better protocol. The way it routes messages and all that is IMHO, leagues better. If/when Meshtastic mesh grows in your area, you’re going to have problems, problems that Meshcore arguably won’t have (at least for a much longer time). But none of this matters when there is next to zero users of either mesh.
Meshcore lets you know if your message was delivered. Meshtastic just shouts into the void, maybe someone saw it, maybe they didn’t (they didn’t). Meshtastic needs to stop selling itself as an “emergency” radio network, because I would absolutely not trust my life and well being to it.
Here’s the question you need to answer:
Is this just a fun thing you’re trying out, and you don’t care if messages go through or not, it’s just fun to try and make connections?
If yes, then Meshtastic- this is just for fun. Have fun. You can always reflash your radio, who cares. Go nuts.
If no, and you want this to be a viable and reliable comms platform for your community, then definitely Meshcore. But… you’re probably going to have to get the Meshcore network going in your area (see my previous post).
Here’s the thing with Meshtastic: When nodes are around you, the mesh works. When nodes walk/drive away, the mesh stops working. You’ll have good days, you’ll have bad days (probably more bad days). Meshcore’s repeaters by definition, do not move. So if you’re in an area where Meshcore doesn’t work, it won’t work, until there’s a repeater put up. Once that repeater is up, Meshtastic will work very reliably. If other Meshtastic radios happen to be nearby, 18% of the time, Meshtastic works every time. I was in a downtown major us city this past weekend with a Meshcore and Meshtastic node. There was no Meshcore network, and Meshtastic worked only fraction of the time- most of my messages reached their max re-transmission and failed. My Meshtastic messages were relying on other people to have radios on, and nearby- but the mesh was changing constantly as people drove in and out of range with their clients. Meshcore uses unmanned repeaters to build the mesh, and when a repeater is mounted, it doesn’t move. If you can reach it today, you can reach it tomorrow.
This part is what surprised me the most;
Meshcore lets you know if your message was delivered. Meshtastic just shouts into the void, maybe someone saw it, maybe they didn’t (they didn’t).
Is that still true of Meshtastic? Not having delivery status updates is a fundamental fail IMO. Lacking this feature turns the entire mesh network into a toy, useless for real communication applications.
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Reticulum is also a new LoRa mesh networking protocol that also uses structured routing and has some cool features like mandatory encryption, though strictly speaking Reticulum isn’t just for LoRa and is designed to use any communication hardware that your device supports.
I do not want to derail the topic too much, but where I live we all moved from meshtastic to meshcore and it works extremely well.
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I was rarely able to get messages through on meshtastic. I believe meshtastic had something that would show if it heard it’s own message (i.e. it was repeated) but not delivery confirmation. Don’t quote me on that.
One difference is that Meshtatsic had built in MQTT support and I don’t believe meshcore does. So people would link meshtastic repeatesr over MQTT which would increase the band utilization.
One fundamental difference is advertisements (as in announcing yourself). In Tucson we set nodes to only advertise once every 30 hours. Meshtastic default is much more frequent which also just adds to the noise which lowers the ability to get legit traffic through.
I also recommend using this app
Okay derail time @Pilgrimsmaster feel free to sanction me if you like
The whole idea of offgrid networking is to use it when sh*t hit the fan(therefore I also applied and got a HAM radio license). Having mqtt very much conflicts the idea of offgrid, coz you relay on internet.
Both LoRa implementations have diff purposes. If you’re in the woods with a group of people better go for meshtastic, coz any client retransmit. If you’re in a big city, it would be better to relay on static infra as is in meshcore architecture, repeaters and clients(aka companion nodes). Meshtastic in the city is complete disaster, at least here - lost messages, everyone running crazy with MQTT, wtf. On the other side meshcore have solid performance. BUT you need to pick the technology that works for your use case best. I have bunch of lora hw here, 3 tbeam supremes, bunch of heltecs - v4.3.1, v4.2, t114, t echo and a t-deck plus, sensecap t1000e, rak wishmesh tracker and maybe something else I am forgetting to mention right now some of them run meshcore some meshtastic
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