In this video, we start with a stock Lilygo TDeck with the 915 mhz LoRa radio (for operation in the United States) and we add an external battery, GPS radio, LoRa Antenna, and a 3D Printed case. We then install Meshtastic on the T-Deck and demonstrate adding it as a node to our existing Meshtastic network, making our TDeck capable of encrypted off grid communications as well as being location aware. Additionally, since 915mhz is in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) radio band, it is completely legal to operate this off grid encrypted communications network without a license. Since it is built on extremely cheap hardware, it is very simple to deploy multiple nodes that all mesh together to give you a large coverage area very quickly.

Meshtastic: https://meshtastic.org/
Lilygo TDeck (you must get the LoRa radio for your country for Meshtastic to work): https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck...

3D Printed Case:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:652...

If you would like to support me, consider buying your hardware from my affiliate links:

955565 5000 mAh Battery: https://amzn.to/3ItVfdV
ATGM336H GPS Module (2 pack): https://amzn.to/49MwghV
915 Mhz UFL to SMA LoRa Antenna (4 pack): https://amzn.to/49LHpPR

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A great resource for Antenna testing results and recommendations for the TDeck external antenna can be found here:
https://github.com/RicInNewMexico/Mes...

If you would like to be able to measure the SWR of your antenna, here is the NanoVNA that I use: https://amzn.to/3Pv7ScB
Or you can find much cheaper ones with reduced frequency ranges and features by searching "NanoVNA" on Amazon, like this one: https://amzn.to/4crrojO