Never touched a radio before? You'll be sending your first message in about 10 minutes.
Any MeshCore-compatible LoRa device works — see our Devices page for picks, including our own NJ Mesh repeaters if you want to help extend the network while you're at it.
Plug your device into your computer via USB, open the Web Flasher in Chrome, select your board, and click flash. Takes under a minute — no coding required.
Open the settings menu on your device or in the app and match the frequency, bandwidth, and spread factor listed on our Settings page so you can talk to the rest of the network.
Install the MeshCore Web App or mobile companion app, pair over Bluetooth, and say hi on the public channel — see Channels for what's active.
If you're deploying a repeater rather than just a handheld, three more things are worth doing before you consider it done: add it to the Internet Map so others can see it on the official MeshCore website, switch it to a 2-byte path once most repeaters nearby support it, and set up the OTAFIX bootloader before you mount it somewhere hard to reach — it makes future firmware updates painless.
You can absolutely buy a bare board and build your own repeater. Here's why most people don't bother.
We hand-assemble, weatherproof, and range-test every unit ourselves before it goes out. Better antennas, better enclosures, pre-tuned to NJ Mesh settings out of the box — plug it in and it just works. Every purchase also directly funds new community repeaters across the state.
Totally possible if you enjoy tinkering — but expect to source your own enclosure, antenna, and power setup, then test and tune it yourself. Bare boards also don't support the mesh financially the way a direct purchase from us does.