I just got these Heltec v3 sets for 29€ and plan to give one to a friend and keep the other for myself.
As they don’t come with a battery it would be convenient to power them from a phone. I’ve read that this can be tricky with the Heltec v3, depending on if the phone will provide power without PD handshake or not. Does anyone know if this works with Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 (Qualcomm-based)? Does the cable make a difference when powering from a phone?
Also the antennas look quity wonky and the listing states 2dBi. We will run on 868mhz, what can I expect from this? My friend and I will be visiting a tech event soon and I guess there it’ll be fine. In my home, the next node on meshmap is ~6km far, which is probably too much, right?
Re: nodes on meshmap. Since the post is 6 days oid, so you might’ve already learned this. Meshmap shows GPS enabled devices that are both able and are configured to share their location over MQTT to the default server. Which, in my personal experience is a pretty small percentage. About 10% I’d guess. So might be closer ones your area.
Yes, if I leave it running on my workdesk over night I can see 5-6 nodes incl. the ones on the map. When I am actually working on the desk I loose all reception, probably my computer and monitors are causing too much noise. I tried to send some messages but I don’t think anyone can receive them. I should try it when I am outside.
I was wondering how I can make my own node appear on the map? It has wifi, I configured a fixed location, it has an update time for location sharing and MQTT should be enabled. Do I need to also enable upstream/downstream? Primary channel is still on default.
Sounds like you’re most of the way there. They’ve got an FAQ linked at the top of the page, which should get you the rest.
https://github.com/brianshea2/meshmap.net?tab=readme-ov-file#how-do-i-get-my-node-on-the-map
I’ll also take a guess at what’s left. You’ll want uplink enabled on your primary channel. OK to MQTT in LoRa settings, and MQTT enabled in in MQTT settings. I think you also need Map Reporting set there but can’t recall for sure and the FAQ isn’t clear on that one.