BLACKBOX NODE - Offline AI, Meshtastic/MeshCore, TAK / ATAK, and Off-Grid Payments
Built for when the internet is gone.
Website: blackbox.host
Blackbox Node is an offline-first command post for Meshtastic or MeshCore LoRa networks. It combines a fully local LLM, radio messaging, TAK / ATAK map-object exchange over Cursor on Target (CoT), telemetry, and Bitcoin + Cashu payments in one self-hosted web UI.
Meshtastic and MeshCore are two different, incompatible LoRa firmware/protocol families. Blackbox Node talks to whichever one your radio runs through a swappable bridge process; pick the transport in Settings -> Device Settings -> Mesh Protocol. Only one transport is active at a time.
It is designed for off-grid communications, disaster response, field operations, community mesh networks, and anyone who wants local AI and situational awareness without cloud infrastructure, without a cell tower, and without a remote server.
Demo
Why people use Blackbox Node
- Run a local offline AI assistant on your own machine with
llama.cpp
- Turn a laptop plus Meshtastic radio into a resilient LoRa mesh node
- Send and receive TAK / ATAK / CoT map objects over the mesh
- Keep chat, telemetry, and node awareness working during outages
- Move value off-grid with Bitcoin and Cashu ecash
- Store everything locally in
./data/ with no accounts and no hosted backend
What is Meshtastic and LoRa?
Meshtastic is a free, open-source project that lets inexpensive hardware form a decentralized mesh radio network. Nodes communicate directly over radio and route messages hop by hop without internet or cellular infrastructure.
The radios use LoRa (Long Range), a spread-spectrum radio modulation that can reach roughly 5-15+ km in open terrain. Every node is both a receiver and a repeater, so the network becomes more resilient as more nodes join.
Popular hardware you can use with Meshtastic:
These devices typically cost about $20-$60 and can run for days on a small battery or indefinitely on solar.
What Blackbox Node does
Local offline AI
Runs a quantized LLM entirely on your machine via llama.cpp. No API keys, no cloud calls, and no internet required during normal operation. You can load small GGUF models for weak hardware or larger models for better responses.
AI over the mesh
Other Meshtastic nodes in range can query your AI by radio. Send @bot your question or !ask your question from any Meshtastic device and the response comes back over the air.
Mesh slash commands
When AI over mesh is enabled, any node can send a slash command as a direct message to get an instant structured response — no open-ended question needed. Send /help to get the full list. Commands work even when the LLM is busy or unavailable; they run from live telemetry data without touching the model.
| Command | What it returns |
|---|
/help | List of all available commands |
/summary | Node counts, network health, activity breakdown, temperature |
/weather | Latest environment readings from telemetry sensors |
/activity | Recent event counts (telemetry, messages, DMs) for the current window |
/battery | Battery levels — average, low nodes, critical nodes |
/nodecheck <name> | Status of a specific node: online state, last seen, SNR, hops, battery |
/wallet | Your wallet balance and available off-grid Cashu proofs |
send <amount> <node> | Send Cashu sats to a node by its short name (requires wallet client auth) |
TAK / ATAK / Cursor on Target (CoT)
Blackbox Node includes a dedicated TAK layer workflow for Meshtastic-backed map exchange:
- send waypoints, circles, and range/bearing lines from the map
- receive incoming CoT XML over the mesh and render supported features such as markers, routes, polygons, circles, ellipses, and rectangles
- delete previously shared TAK objects with generated CoT delete events
- configure TAK channel and TAK hop limit per device
- automatically switch large CoT payloads to fountain transfer for lossy mesh links
- save incoming captures to
data/tak_capture/ for debugging and replay
This makes the project relevant not just for hobby mesh chat, but also for ATAK-adjacent field mapping, team awareness, and situational awareness on disconnected networks.
Communication and telemetry
All inbound and outbound Meshtastic messages are tracked in the web UI. Node positions, telemetry, battery levels, and environment readings are recorded and browsable. Direct messages and channel broadcasts are both supported.
Off-grid payments
Blackbox Node includes a built-in Bitcoin wallet (on-chain, BIP-39/HD) and a Cashu ecash wallet for Lightning-compatible off-grid transactions.
Cashu tokens are bearer instruments that can be copied and pasted like text, so payments can move over Meshtastic radio as plain messages. When connectivity returns, tokens can be melted back to Lightning or held as ecash.
This makes it possible to run basic economic activity such as tipping, paying for services, and splitting resources entirely over a radio mesh network.
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