Peter "Bobricius" Misenko's TrackSenger and Robust MechSenger Are Dedicated Meshtastic Comms Gadgets

Peter "Bobricius" Misenko is once again experimenting with portable long-range communications, this time hitching his wagon to the Meshtastic project with the TrackSenger — and the robust, mechanical keyboard-equipped MechSenger.

The latest in Misenko's long-running Armachat family of text-based communication devices, the original "Doomsday Communicator" of which was unveiled four years ago. Since then, Misenko has been tinkering with the design — and the latest model in the range, the TrackSenger, adds support for the Meshtastic LoRa mesh network.

That support comes courtesy of a Heltec Tracker, which serves as the heart of the project — running the Meshtastic firmware on an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller and communicating with other Meshtastic devices over a Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The development board's built-in display is exposed through a hole in the TrackSenger's upper PCB layer, which provides labels for a push-button keyboard for text-based messaging.

For those who want something more robust, Misenko has designed the MechSenger — a variant of the TrackSenger designed on a single PCB and that offers a larger mechanical keyboard and a 2.42" OLED display, suitable for housing in a Peli-style case. "For this project [it] is better [to use the Heltec] Tracker without screen," Misenko explains. "You can order [the] NO SCREEN version or remove [the] screen from [the] board. [If used in] combination with [the] OLED display, [the] onboard screen is inactive and dark."

At the time of writing, only the Meshtastic firmware was complete; Misenko has indicated that support for his original Armachat platform will follow, without giving a timescale for the release of an updated firmware.

Misenko has listed the TrackSenger on Tindie, priced at $9.99 for a bare PCB up to $108.99 full-assembled with Heltec Tracker board; the MechSenger is available on a separate listing, priced at $24.99 for a bare PCB up to $274.99 fully assembled. Additional information is available on the TrackSenger and MechSenger Hackaday.io pages.