A community mesh network for Canada
CanMesh runs Reticulum — an encrypted, identity-based mesh networking stack — over LoRa radio at the 915 MHz ISM band (North America). It is the Canadian counterpart to ScotMesh (Scotland, 868 MHz).
The reference hardware is the Seeed SenseCAP Solar Node P1: a solar-powered, weatherproof LoRa node that runs standalone as a hilltop relay or backyard gateway. No Raspberry Pi needed — the board IS the node.
What it does
📡 LoRa at 915 MHz
Long-range encrypted mesh over the North American 915 MHz ISM band. No license required under ISED RSS-247.
🔋 Solar-powered
The SenseCAP Solar Node P1 has a 5W panel and 4× 18650 batteries. It runs for weeks without sun and relays traffic even with no host computer.
🔒 End-to-end encrypted
Every link is encrypted. Reticulum nodes cannot read the traffic they relay. No registration, no account, no company in the middle.
🌐 Standalone or bridged
The board runs its own Reticulum identity. Connect it to a host via USB for internet bridging, or leave it on a hill as a relay.
915 MHz radio profile
Every radio on the mesh must match all five parameters exactly. A radio that differs on any one is not weakly connected — it is deaf, and nothing reports an error.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 915 MHz (915,000,000 Hz) |
| Bandwidth | 125 kHz |
| Spreading factor | SF8 |
| Coding rate | 4/5 |
| TX power | 17 dBm (50 mW) |
Hardware
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Board | Seeed SenseCAP Solar Node P1 |
| MCU | XIAO nRF52840 Plus |
| Radio | Wio-SX1262 (779–928 MHz) |
| Power | 5W solar + 4× 18650 Li-ion |
| Enclosure | IPX6 weatherproof |
| Firmware | Hopspot (Prns) v0.3.8 |
How it works
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SenseCAP Solar Node P1 (solar + battery) │
│ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │
│ │ nRF52840 │───▶│ SX1262 │───▶│ 915 MHz │ │
│ │ Hopspot │ │ Radio │ │ LoRa ISM │ │
│ └─────┬─────┘ └──────────┘ └───────────┘ │
│ │ USB-C (vendor-specific 1209:0001) │
└────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Host │ prnsd (Reticulum daemon) │
│ │ PrnsUsbAuto → Hopspot-LoRa (915 MHz) │
│ │ Bridges LoRa to TCP, I2P, other RNS │
└────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘
The board runs its own Reticulum identity and routes traffic over LoRa at 915 MHz. prnsd on the host bridges it to the wider network. The board can also operate standalone (solar-powered, no host) as a relay.
Credits
CanMesh is adapted from ScotMesh — Scotland's community Reticulum network. Firmware by ScotMesh (microReticulum, GPL-3.0) and KenAKAFrosty (Hopspot/Prns, Apache-2.0/MIT).