inexpensive GPS mesh radios as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding -
essentially any hobby where you don't have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios
This software is 100% open source and developed by a group of hobbyist experimenters. No warranty is provided, if you'd like to improve it - we'd love your help. Please post in the chat.
We currently support three models of radios. The [TTGO T-Beam](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000119152086.html), [TTGO LORA32](https://www.banggood.com/LILYGO-TTGO-LORA32-868Mhz-SX1276-ESP32-Oled-Display-bluetooth-WIFI-Lora-Development-Module-Board-p-1248652.html?cur_warehouse=UK) and the [Heltec LoRa 32](https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32/). Most users should buy the T-Beam and a 18650 battery (total cost less than \$35). Make
sure to buy the frequency range which is legal for your country. For the USA, you should buy the 915MHz version. Getting a version that include a screen
Prebuilt binaries for the supported radios is available in our [releases](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/releases). Your initial installation has to happen over USB from your Mac, Windows or Linux PC. Once our software is installed, all future software updates happen over bluetooth from your phone.
The instructions currently require a few commmand lines, but it should be pretty straightforward. Please post comments on our group chat if you have problems or successes. Steps to install:
2. Install "pip". Pip is the python package manager we use to get the esptool installer app. Instructions [here](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-pip-for-python/). If you are using OS-X, see these [special instructions](docs/software/install-OSX.md).
5. Confirm that your device is talking to your PC by running "esptool.py chip_id". The Heltec build also works on the TTGO LORA32 radio. You should see something like:
7. Install the correct firmware for your board with "device-install.sh firmware-_board_-_country_.bin". For instance "./device-install.sh firmware-HELTEC-US-0.0.3.bin".
Note: If you have previously installed meshtastic, you don't need to run this full script instead just run "esptool.py --baud 921600 write*flash 0x10000 firmware-\_board*-_country_.bin". This will be faster, also all of your current preferences will be preserved.
9. Please post a comment on our chat so we know if these instructions worked for you ;-). If you find bugs/have-questions post there also - we will be rapidly iterating over the next few weeks.
[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksville.mesh&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub%26utm_medium%3Desp32-readme%26utm_campaign%3Dmeshtastic-esp32%2520readme%26anid%3Dadmob&pcampaignid=pcampaignidMKT-Other-global-all-co-prtnr-py-PartBadge-Mar2515-1)
We'd love to have you join us on this merry little project. Please see our [development documents](./docs/software/sw-design.md) and [join us in our discussion forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
