Documents and notes about the speleomesh project
NSW Cave Rescue, NSW Australia.
Replace the aging Michiephone systems for rescue communications.
Lora (915 MHz) radios, currently using Meshtastic as a protocol.
1 - Getting Started 2 - Hardware 3 - Troubleshooting 4 - Laying radios 5 - Specialist Devices
Custom Hardware I am currently trialling several different devices. Mostly nRF52 variants, for better battery life.
A far as off the shelf devices, the Heltec 114 is the best I’ve found, except it is not a sealed unit, but it’s robust, and has decent battery life. The T1000E would be great, but the lack of battery life is an issue.
For relay nodes, the nRF kits are substantially cheaper, or more likely we spin our own. The Wio WM1110 module is a candidate.
Requirements
| Feature | Trunk | Personal |
|---|---|---|
| IP68 | Y | Y |
| Battery life (days) | 3 (5 des) | 1 (3 des) |
| Off switch | Y | Y |
| CO2 sensor | desired | |
| Temp sensor | desired | desired |
| Man down button | desired | desired |
| Range | 200m LoS | 200m LoS |
| Cost | 50 | 50 |
We are running the Flamingo variant firmware. Details here. It is currently set up with CI actions to keep it up to date with meshtastic/firmware:master, and apply the Flamingo patch.
Flamingo - Hunstville, Alabama
Vangelis - UK