6 ms·

Meshtastic 64 – A meshtastic radio for the Commodore 64

123 points by geerlingguy 1y ago

jim-64 1y ago
Thanks! This is my project. Happy to answer any questions.
- geerlingguy 1y ago
  Thanks for showing it at VCF! I'm glad to have met you and gotten to talk about the setup, even better to see more of the story on your blog.
  - jim_64 1y ago
    Hey it was great meeting you and talking! So nice of you to stop and chat while you were carrying around that supper big iMac - LOL! Hope you come back to the show next year too.
simonjgreen 1y ago
Pretty cool. I wish Meshtastic had more focus on routing and a way to safely do store & fwd. It’s difficult to actually mesh well with it. I run a few solar powered higher altitude nodes and provide reasonable coverage but I’ve observed many messages never reach their destination.
- NoiseBert69 1y ago
  Looking at their GitHub there are some things upcomming - They want to make device telemetry opt-in. This will cause the network to be more quiet - A few patches ended up in master for handling corner cases of their flooding and next-hop routing algorithm - There's also a merge request ("Add packet replay feature") which maybe can solve the reliability problem Currently bigger Meshtastic networks are very very unreliable. I almost cannot traceroute a device that is one or two hops away. And our channels are not very saturated (10-20% ChUtil).
- firesteelrain 1y ago
  This. I like the idea of Meshtastic however APRS is much more extensive and even has satellite coverage like the ISS.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - rfmoz 1y ago
    It would work a Meshtastic repeater from the ISS?
    - NoiseBert69 1y ago
      LoRa is extremely robust and can work with super weak signals. At the price of being very very slow in the most reliable configuration . That combination is toxic for a high amount of parallel users. I think it would need big modifications: fast uplink and robust slow downlink.
    - firesteelrain 1y ago
      It would not. We would need to make a case to add Meshtastic. Amateur radio has had a much better chance since the days of the Space Shuttle. Astronauts routinely make ISS to Earth contacts with amateur radio operators. There is also ARISS. 5w ISS contacts are hard enough as it is
  - Gigachad 1y ago
    APRS requires a license right?
    - firesteelrain 1y ago
      Correct. Developed by the late Bob Bruninga. I had many email exchanges with Bob and we were able to send SSTV images through his NO-* series of amateur radio satellites with some technical advice a few years ago. APRS is much more extensive and even available via commercial ham radio
- mikeytown2 1y ago
  Checkout MeshCore, it has the concept of a room server which is a private store and forward server. Also see this https://github.com/mikecarper/meshfirmware/blob/main/MeshCoreAdvantages.md https://github.com/mikecarper/meshfirmware/blob/main/MeshCor...
thw_9a83c 1y ago
In case you didn't know what Meshtastic [0] is: Meshtastic® is a project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. [0]: https://meshtastic.org/ https://meshtastic.org/
spiritplumber 1y ago
Cool! We made https://www.robots-everywhere.com/cellsol/ https://www.robots-everywhere.com/cellsol/ in 2020 but I think Meshtastic is further along. However, ours can run on an atmel328. We also respect and forward Meshtastic and DisasterRadio packets, but there is currently no reciprocity. What can be done about it?
- khimaros 1y ago
  how about reticulum?
  - NoiseBert69 1y ago
    Never gained real traction.
xtajv 1y ago
It pains me to mention this but I don't think it's responsible not to: https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/issues/4030 https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/issues/4030 At time of writing (2025-09-27, plus or minus a timezone), there does not appear to be any serious attempt to secure application-layer message contents. (At least, not yet) My hope is that this cool new radio link option will still gain traction and grow and develop without painting itself into a corner, security-wise. To wit- security hints on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model have improved substantially since my last readthrough.
- ahdanggit 1y ago
  I appreciate you pointing that out. I've been curious about meshastatic and wondered how well the encryption was being handled.
  - mikeytown2 1y ago
    Check out the alternative https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore Seattle has the largest functioning mesh core installation in the world
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - wtallis 1y ago
      MeshCore seems to enforce a strict separation between client devices and repeater devices, which is a significant downside for many use cases.
      - sschueller 1y ago
        I find meshcore way more useful as I know if my messages arrive. On meshtastic the conversations especially in groups are always incomplete.
      - 1y ago
JKCalhoun 1y ago
Jeri Ellsworth posted that she has her Minitel on Meshtastic: https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social/post/3lzjomtgy422o https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social/post/3lzj...
bullen 1y ago
What frequency is the one that you can buy? Is there an assembly application planned or will it be basic for now?
- jim-64 1y ago
  This is my project. I’ve only built 915MHz ones since I’m in the USA but I could provide 868 too. Thanks, I should note this! BASIC works well for parsing strings, printing to the screen, and using the Kernal serial routines. I do have some ideas of helper code using assembly that may get added, but plan to keep the main code BASIC.
  - bullen 1y ago
    I think 433 would be even better? Or 169MHz if meshtastic supports it? Edit: Seems no, sadge. If you add EU freq. I will buy!
_joel 1y ago
Nice, Jeff Geerling / Adrian Black mashup needed
- geerlingguy 1y ago
  Finally got to meet Adrian at VCF Midwest, as I've gone down the retro rabbit hole his videos are a great reference. And he and others have built up some invaluable tools to diagnose and fix quirks on these old systems. Would like to figure out Meshtastic on the Apple II as well!
tclancy 1y ago
Oh man, I have all my retro consoles, but the C64 and 128 were the only gear my parents sold out from under me. I should be happy it’s not taking up space in a closet but stuff like this makes me miss it dearly.
nsxwolf 1y ago
I built a Meshtastic and found a few nodes but made 0 contacts. Gave up after a few weeks. The community seems to be more interested in talking about it and showing pictures of their gear as opposed to actually doing anything with it. It’s like a way less fun ham radio.
- tete 1y ago
  > The community seems to be more interested in talking about it and showing pictures of their gear as opposed to actually doing anything with it. Welcome to Hacker News!
indigodaddy 1y ago
I spy Trader Joe's balsamic vinegar?
ericpp 1y ago
This was really fun to play with at VCF Midwest. It makes me curious to see it working with other vintage computers.
jim_64 1y ago
Here's a demo video I made of my meshtastic 64 project: https://youtu.be/7gDmBlTKk90 https://youtu.be/7gDmBlTKk90

123 points by geerlingguy 1y ago

jim-64 1y ago

Thanks! This is my project. Happy to answer any questions.

geerlingguy 1y ago
Thanks for showing it at VCF! I'm glad to have met you and gotten to talk about the setup, even better to see more of the story on your blog.
- jim_64 1y ago
  Hey it was great meeting you and talking! So nice of you to stop and chat while you were carrying around that supper big iMac - LOL! Hope you come back to the show next year too.

simonjgreen 1y ago

Pretty cool. I wish Meshtastic had more focus on routing and a way to safely do store & fwd. It’s difficult to actually mesh well with it. I run a few solar powered higher altitude nodes and provide reasonable coverage but I’ve observed many messages never reach their destination.

NoiseBert69 1y ago
Looking at their GitHub there are some things upcomming - They want to make device telemetry opt-in. This will cause the network to be more quiet - A few patches ended up in master for handling corner cases of their flooding and next-hop routing algorithm - There's also a merge request ("Add packet replay feature") which maybe can solve the reliability problem Currently bigger Meshtastic networks are very very unreliable. I almost cannot traceroute a device that is one or two hops away. And our channels are not very saturated (10-20% ChUtil).
firesteelrain 1y ago
This. I like the idea of Meshtastic however APRS is much more extensive and even has satellite coverage like the ISS.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- rfmoz 1y ago
  It would work a Meshtastic repeater from the ISS?
  - NoiseBert69 1y ago
    LoRa is extremely robust and can work with super weak signals. At the price of being very very slow in the most reliable configuration . That combination is toxic for a high amount of parallel users. I think it would need big modifications: fast uplink and robust slow downlink.
  - firesteelrain 1y ago
    It would not. We would need to make a case to add Meshtastic. Amateur radio has had a much better chance since the days of the Space Shuttle. Astronauts routinely make ISS to Earth contacts with amateur radio operators. There is also ARISS. 5w ISS contacts are hard enough as it is
- Gigachad 1y ago
  APRS requires a license right?
  - firesteelrain 1y ago
    Correct. Developed by the late Bob Bruninga. I had many email exchanges with Bob and we were able to send SSTV images through his NO-* series of amateur radio satellites with some technical advice a few years ago. APRS is much more extensive and even available via commercial ham radio
mikeytown2 1y ago
Checkout MeshCore, it has the concept of a room server which is a private store and forward server. Also see this https://github.com/mikecarper/meshfirmware/blob/main/MeshCoreAdvantages.md https://github.com/mikecarper/meshfirmware/blob/main/MeshCor...

thw_9a83c 1y ago

In case you didn't know what Meshtastic [0] is: Meshtastic® is a project that enables you to use inexpensive LoRa radios as a long range off-grid communication platform in areas without existing or reliable communications infrastructure. [0]: https://meshtastic.org/ https://meshtastic.org/

spiritplumber 1y ago

Cool! We made https://www.robots-everywhere.com/cellsol/ https://www.robots-everywhere.com/cellsol/ in 2020 but I think Meshtastic is further along. However, ours can run on an atmel328. We also respect and forward Meshtastic and DisasterRadio packets, but there is currently no reciprocity. What can be done about it?

khimaros 1y ago
how about reticulum?
- NoiseBert69 1y ago
  Never gained real traction.

xtajv 1y ago

It pains me to mention this but I don't think it's responsible not to: https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/issues/4030 https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/issues/4030 At time of writing (2025-09-27, plus or minus a timezone), there does not appear to be any serious attempt to secure application-layer message contents. (At least, not yet) My hope is that this cool new radio link option will still gain traction and grow and develop without painting itself into a corner, security-wise. To wit- security hints on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model have improved substantially since my last readthrough.

ahdanggit 1y ago
I appreciate you pointing that out. I've been curious about meshastatic and wondered how well the encryption was being handled.
- mikeytown2 1y ago
  Check out the alternative https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore Seattle has the largest functioning mesh core installation in the world
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - wtallis 1y ago
    MeshCore seems to enforce a strict separation between client devices and repeater devices, which is a significant downside for many use cases.
    - sschueller 1y ago
      I find meshcore way more useful as I know if my messages arrive. On meshtastic the conversations especially in groups are always incomplete.
    - 1y ago

JKCalhoun 1y ago

Jeri Ellsworth posted that she has her Minitel on Meshtastic: https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social/post/3lzjomtgy422o https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social/post/3lzj...

bullen 1y ago

What frequency is the one that you can buy? Is there an assembly application planned or will it be basic for now?

jim-64 1y ago
This is my project. I’ve only built 915MHz ones since I’m in the USA but I could provide 868 too. Thanks, I should note this! BASIC works well for parsing strings, printing to the screen, and using the Kernal serial routines. I do have some ideas of helper code using assembly that may get added, but plan to keep the main code BASIC.
- bullen 1y ago
  I think 433 would be even better? Or 169MHz if meshtastic supports it? Edit: Seems no, sadge. If you add EU freq. I will buy!

_joel 1y ago

Nice, Jeff Geerling / Adrian Black mashup needed

geerlingguy 1y ago
Finally got to meet Adrian at VCF Midwest, as I've gone down the retro rabbit hole his videos are a great reference. And he and others have built up some invaluable tools to diagnose and fix quirks on these old systems. Would like to figure out Meshtastic on the Apple II as well!

tclancy 1y ago

Oh man, I have all my retro consoles, but the C64 and 128 were the only gear my parents sold out from under me. I should be happy it’s not taking up space in a closet but stuff like this makes me miss it dearly.

nsxwolf 1y ago

I built a Meshtastic and found a few nodes but made 0 contacts. Gave up after a few weeks. The community seems to be more interested in talking about it and showing pictures of their gear as opposed to actually doing anything with it. It’s like a way less fun ham radio.

tete 1y ago
> The community seems to be more interested in talking about it and showing pictures of their gear as opposed to actually doing anything with it. Welcome to Hacker News!

indigodaddy 1y ago

I spy Trader Joe's balsamic vinegar?

ericpp 1y ago

This was really fun to play with at VCF Midwest. It makes me curious to see it working with other vintage computers.

jim_64 1y ago

Here's a demo video I made of my meshtastic 64 project: https://youtu.be/7gDmBlTKk90 https://youtu.be/7gDmBlTKk90