How far can MeshCore really reach in the real world?
We put three MeshCore repeaters side by side about 50 feet in the air and tested them across the back roads of South Carolina to see how much range we could actually get from RAK Wireless, Seeed Studio, and the Heltec V4.
For this test, our rover used a Heltec V4 USB companion with a roof-mounted LoRa antenna and sent zero-hop MeshCore pings directly to each repeater. Custom test software logged GPS distance and signal-to-noise data so we could compare performance at the same locations.
The results were pretty clear:
- Around 1 mile: solid, reliable coverage from all three
- Around 1.5 to 2 miles: still usable, but starting to become intermittent
- Around 3 to 4 miles: possible with good line of sight
- Trees, hills, and terrain mattered far more than which radio we used
This is a real-world MeshCore range test, not a theoretical LoRa range estimate. All three repeaters were mounted together at the same height and tested from the same rover, giving us a much better look at what actually affects MeshCore coverage.
Hardware used
Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4
https://store.rokland.com/products/he…
Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 & Wio-SX1262 Kit
https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-nRF5…
RAK Wireless 1W LoRa Booster Kit / RAK3401
https://store.rakwireless.com/product…
Thanks to Circle B Rentals for letting us borrow the lift!
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro & the build
5:31 Prepping the rover
5:52 50 feet up
6:23 The test plan
8:33 Software setup
8:53 The drive test
15:10 What the data says
18:58 Wrap-up & takeaways
Sweet thanks for sharing, interesting video. Was lost on most the jargon, but love learning new things and this was cool to learn. Subscribe and look forward to more videos.
