Elecrow's ThinkNode-M2 Is a Lower-Cost Successor to Its Original Meshtastic Handheld
The ePaper screen is gone, the battery's smaller, there's no rotary encoder or GNSS receiver — but the core functionality remains.
Embedded and hobbyist electronics specialist Elecrow has launched a cut-price successor to the ThinkNode-M1, sensibly dubbed the ThinkNode-M2 — a pocket-friendly all-in-one LoRa transceiver system designed for use with the Meshtastic mesh network project.
"Elecrow ThinkNode-M2 is a high-performance LoRa signal transceiver," the company explains of its latest launch. "It uses the [Espressif] ESP32-S3 module as the main processor and supports Bluetooth. Users can easily configure and monitor the device through their mobile phones. M2 is pre-installed with [the] Meshtastic firmware and equipped with a [Semtech] SX1262 wireless chip, which can efficiently send and receive LoRa signals to ensure the reliability and stability of communication. In addition, M2 is perfectly compatible with the official Meshtastic App."
The new handheld transceiver, brought to our attention by CNX Software, is a successor to the original ThinkNode-M1. The design is similar — a plastic housing with stubby antenna at the top and a display to the front — but there are plenty of differences. To start, the ePaper display of the original has been replaced with a smaller 1.3" 128×64 single-color OLED panel. The Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 has been swapped out for an Espressif ESP32-S3, and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver has been dropped altogether. Finally, the size of the battery has been reduced to 1Ah from 1.2Ah in the original.
Core functionality, though, remains unchanged: the handheld gadget comes pre-loaded with the Meshtastic firmware, requiring only a quick configuration through the project's companion mobile app to connect to the community-driven mesh network. The LoRa transceiver is the same SX1262 as the original, widely supported in Meshtastic, and should provide exactly the same performance — though the new, weaker antenna is no longer easily replaceable, and the rotary encoder for app-free control has been removed.
The ThinkNode-M2 is now available to order on the Elecrow website, priced at $21.90 board-only or $43.90 cased — a decent discount over its predecessor's $39.90 uncased and $57.90 cased pricing.
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