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Hospital equipment, bus arrivals, crop monitoring: A look at real-world Meshtastic use cases
In the MeshCN community, we often emphasize that Meshtastic is more than just a fun wireless network; it can also play an important role in many real-world scenarios. From public transportation tracking to agricultural monitoring to ensuring communication in emergencies, the applications of LoRa technology far exceed imagination.
Recently, on the Meshtastic subreddit forum, many users have shared their explorations of Meshtastic in serious applications, demonstrating its potential in the real world.
Bus Tracking: Building an Offline GPS Tracking System
In many foreign cities, the real-time tracking function of the public transportation system is seriously lagging behind, and even Google Maps cannot query bus routes and estimated arrival times.
In this context, user MustacheCache designed a bus tracking system based on Meshtastic, which successfully achieved real-time sharing of bus locations without relying on mobile networks.
"My local bus system sucks and they've been 2 years without a tracking feature and no google maps integration for even looking up directions to use them."
To build this system, he first took the bus and manually recorded the locations of all bus stops. He then developed a web interface that allowed users to find the nearest bus stop and calculate the estimated arrival time of the bus. This phase of the system greatly facilitated his daily commute, but he didn't stop there.
"Now I've posted up a node that covers one of my local routes with a script that reads location data sent from another node that has GPS."
In the next optimization, he deployed a Meshtastic node at a fixed location on a bus route. The node can receive location information from GPS devices and use this data to construct the bus's travel path.
At the same time, he developed an overlay map that displays the bus's travel trajectory in real time, providing bus operation status to more users.
“This weekend I am coding a Waveshare E-paper hat on a Pi 2 Zero W that displays 8 route numbers for a driver to choose as the reported route.”
He further plans to use the Raspberry Pi Zero W and electronic ink screen (e-paper) to provide a simple interface for bus drivers, allowing them to select the route number currently in operation.
Once the route number is selected, the system will automatically broadcast the location information of the bus to the Meshtastic network and update it to the web server, so that all users can view the real-time location of the bus.
“All without spending a dime on monthly data charges to a cell carrier.”
The biggest advantage of this system is that it is completely independent of the mobile network and does not require any traffic charges.
In the future, he plans to further expand the system's functionality, such as using the OBD2 onboard diagnostic interface to send the vehicle's status data to the Meshtastic network for more comprehensive remote monitoring.
Emergency communications: When cellphone networks fail, LoRa still works
In emergency situations, such as severe weather that damages power and communications infrastructure, many homes and communities may lose cell phone signal. In such situations, user kanitypt found Meshtastic to be a reliable backup means of communication.
“That said, my original motivation was to have another backup comm method if something takes out the usual primary stuff.”
While his primary interest lies in exploring new technologies, he also recognizes the value of Meshtastic during crises. His area was once hit by a severe storm that caused widespread power outages and completely cut off cell phone service, leaving many residents without contact for days. This experience prompted him to consider how to ensure basic communication needs during similar disasters in the future.
"Ham radio will get me distance, but only to one subset of people, meshtastic opens up a different subset."
While amateur radio (HAM Radio) can cover greater distances, it requires a license and is not widely used by the general public. Meshtastic, on the other hand, is much more accessible, allowing more community members to participate.
"Next time it happens, if any of my neighbors happen to have a node sitting in a drawer somewhere and they decide to try reaching out on it, there's someone listening."
He hopes that when the next disaster strikes, if a nearby neighbor happens to have a Meshtastic device, they can try to turn it on and contact others in the community through the LoRa network, while he himself will remain online and ready to receive help messages at any time.
Agricultural Monitoring: Off-Grid IoT Sensor Networks
Agriculture is a natural application scenario for LoRa technology. User automatedcharterer mentioned that the LoRa devices provided by RAK Wireless can be combined with various sensors for agricultural monitoring, and these devices can operate completely off the grid.
"If you look at the kits that RAK wireless sells you'll get a good idea of use cases for LoRa beyond just off grid communication."
He gave the example of how traditional computer network deployment on large farms is extremely expensive, while Meshtastic allows farmers to build sensor networks at a much lower cost. For example, soil moisture sensors can report drought conditions in farmland in real time, helping farmers with precise irrigation. Temperature and humidity sensors can monitor climate conditions to prevent extreme weather from affecting crops. Meshtastic devices with GPS can even track livestock to prevent them from getting lost.
“Then consider that all of that could be done completely off grid using solar and battery power.”
Best of all, these sensors can be solar-powered, truly enabling complete off-grid operation, allowing them to be installed in any remote farmland or ranch without worrying about energy supply issues.
Hospital IT Monitoring: Low-Cost Environmental Sensor Networks
In the medical industry, the stability of the equipment environment is crucial. Any slight error may cause huge economic losses and even affect the patient's treatment process.
“During a particularly cold week, we had a heater go out in the primary backup power room for our CAT and MRI scanners, which resulted in the water pipes for the Sprinkler system bursting, causing a few hundred thousand in damages.”
User shipsherpa shared a bloody lesson.
His hospital experienced a costly equipment failure: the heating system in the backup power room failed during extreme cold weather, causing pipes to freeze and rupture, triggering the sprinkler system and ultimately causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. This incident prompted him to consider how to use Meshtastic to build a low-cost environmental monitoring system to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
His vision is to deploy Meshtastic nodes in key areas of the hospital (such as MRI scanning rooms, power control centers, and cold storage areas for expensive medicines), connect them to temperature and humidity sensors, and transmit data to a central server via the LoRa network.
Once the temperature or humidity in a certain area exceeds the set threshold, the system will trigger an alarm, automatically run a Python script, and send an alert email to the IT department, maintenance team, and hospital management, allowing timely intervention before problems occur.
"My plan is to setup nodes with relevant sensors in all the critical and expensive areas, and setup a pi node to watch the sensors for a trigger value we'll set."
Compared to traditional wired monitoring systems, the Meshtastic solution is lower in cost, more flexible in deployment, does not require the laying of complex network lines, and can even operate completely off-grid using batteries and solar panels.
In the future, Shipsherpa also plans to expand this system to the hospital's external clinics to achieve cross-regional remote monitoring, thereby establishing a more extensive medical environment sensor network to ensure that the hospital's high-value equipment and resources are always safe.
Conclusion
These cases demonstrate the huge potential of Meshtastic. Whether it is public transportation, disaster communications, agricultural monitoring, or medical IT management, LoRa technology can provide low-cost, highly reliable solutions.
Do you have your own Meshtastic application case? Welcome to join the Meshtastic China WeChat group to explore more possibilities together!
Author: Hays Chan | Community blogger
Translator:Joe Tan | KEEPTEEN | meshtastic node repeater
Website: https//www.keepteen.com
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