Text messaging has been around on cellular networks en masse for around three decades now. It’s so common that it’s difficult to remember a time without it. Its two-way quick messaging is incredibly useful, but for even simpler communications there’s a one-way system that predates it. Pagers are able to receive simple messages, but outside of hospitals are rarely used nowadays. Eventually some added in two-way communications like this Motorola T900, but they’re still mostly obsolete. That’s why [zindustries87] converted it to operate on the Meshtastic network instead.
To get this pager working, a lot of reverse engineering was needed. There is essentially no documentation on the chips in these devices, so the screen and keyboard both were reverse-engineered to work with other hardware. In this case, [zindustries87] found space for a Heltec V4 with an ESP32-S3, a popular Meshtastic node with a small form factor. Some programming was needed to get everything communicating together, but from the looks of things it seems to have basic functionality.
[zindustries87] points out that this is a prototype, and didn’t know going in if the keyboard and screen could be brought back to life, or if the other hardware would fit in the case. But with it working on this level, they plan to add a number of other features in and possibly build a drop-in PCB replacement for these devices. They were once fairly popular so there are plenty around, and they’re a good form factor for a dedicated Meshtastic device that doesn’t need a smartphone to work. The only other ways of bringing pagers back to life involve bootstrapping an entire pager network, and Meshtastic is a bit more useful than that now.
Now that’s podracing
Ideal. I need it. Why pine64 or other open source firm no create this?
WHY ? !
Careful when opening such a device, one never knows…
https://hackaday.com/2025/07/31/hands-on-the-hacker-pager/
similar
Why are these things so cool? Palmtops, old clamshell devices with a keyboard, netbooks? I can’t explain it, but I love it. I’m also incredibly impressed by someone reverse engineering the screen and keyboard of one of these. Pretty awesome. I’ve been looking for an excuse to get a device with a similar formfactor and the combination of meshtastic and this type of hardware might just be it :)
I love everything about this new e-cycling trend.
Hrmmmm, Meshtastic on Heltec v3. It could be used on Meshcore as well.
I’ve often thought that the old “Smart Response XE” classroom devices would be great for this sort of thing. Not quite as compact or rugged as this Motorola, but they have a similar display and qwerty keyboard, an arduino-compatible atmel processor, and a bunch of uart/jtag/spi pads readily accessible for hacking.
Most important, they still show up on eBay fairly often, and although they’re almost always sold as bulk sets, the cost per unit is only a few dollars.
(unsurprisingly these have been occasionally featured on hackaday, for example https://hackaday.com/2021/06/29/smart-response-xe-turned-pocket-basic-playground/)
I love it. I still used a motorola pagenet pager and a motorola advisor elite 2 up until last year. There still is a 900 mhz nationwide pager service that works pretty good. I received fire dept alerts to them both. I would buy on of the T900’s in a heartbeat. Would it also allowing meshcore firmware ? Either way, its cool and i would buy one. I already have a few saved on ebay if needed. LOL
This little Xiao node might be an easier fit. Only 18mm x 21mm x 12mm; or less if you ditch the headers. https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-nRF52840-Wio-SX1262-Kit-for-Meshtastic-p-6400.html