You have 2 options. Buying will be more expensive than DIY’ing. That being said prices of prefab nodes have came down and there are some decent options for a fair price. But most optimal mesh devices cost about 1/2 to DIY over buying.

DIY

DIY’ing nodes are a cheap way of getting exactly what you want. Your going to need access to a 3d printer and maybe a soldering iron.

Buy

There are many pre-made Mesh devices ranging from cheap to too expensive. Depending on what you want, your probably going to be between these devices:

**SenseCap T1000-E - $35-40**

This is a small, water/weatherproof device about as thick as 2-3 credit cards. It has an inbuilt antenna.

Pros:

• Inbuilt GPS (if you need this, if your using Meshtastic with your phone, your phones GPS will provide location to the mesh so a dedicated GPS radio is not necessary)
• Actually Weather/Dustproof - Moreso than any other prebuilt node.
• Well-respected NRF52840 LoRa radio
• Best performance for a device with no antenna.
• Actually an incredible value for 35 bucks (go look for discount codes for 5 bucks off, they are out there)

Cons: