More Than Just Another Badge: Co-Creating the WisMesh Tag with the Meshtastic Community
From user feedback to product reality, how RAKwireless and MOKOSMART shaped a tracker built for the Meshtastic ecosystem.
How Did This Little Badge Begin?
At first glance, the WisMesh Tag might look like just another badge-style tracker: thin, credit-card sized, designed to hang off a backpack or sit discreetly in a pocket.
But look closer, and you’ll find a deeper story behind its shape and purpose. Its development involved extensive user feedback, engineering decisions, and collaboration between two companies and the Meshtastic community.
Where It All Began: RAK × MOKOSMART - A Shared Vision for Smarter Tracking
It was the spring of 2023 when MOKOSMART first introduced their badge-style tracker, a slim, minimal device designed for LoRaWAN-based asset tracking. At the time, Meshtastic was an emerging technology with a growing user base.
Fast forward to spring 2024, RAKwireless and MOKOSMART sat down to explore a new idea to adapt the sleek form factor into a fully functional Meshtastic node, suitable for various carrying options.
Something light enough to fit in a pocket?
Maybe a wallet?
Or even a keychain?
The idea resonated with both teams. This collaboration leveraged RAKwireless's experience in open-source community engagement and radio technology with MOKOSMART’s manufacturing and form factor expertise.
Over the course of a year, the two teams collaborated on firmware, hardware, antenna design, power optimization, and usability improvements.
The result: The WisMesh Tag, the first badge-style device in the WisMesh Meshtastic-compatible lineup, debuting in August 2025 via RAKwireless Store. If you're in the US, you can also get the WisMesh Tag from our local distributor, Rokland. Check their website for availability now.
MOKOSMART: A Specialist in Tracking Technologies
When it comes to tracking, MOKOSMART is a quiet powerhouse.
Over the years, they’ve developed over 100 tracker form factors, across technologies like BLE, LoRa, and UWB. They understand what it takes to build location-aware devices at scale, and more importantly, to keep them small, efficient, and rugged.
The WisMesh Tag builds on one of MOKOSMART’s existing badge designs, but it’s not just a rebrand. It’s a full-scale adaptation and optimization process, informed by the unique needs of the Meshtastic community.
Community Voices: The Real Driver Behind This Co-Creation
We’ve been following the Meshtastic community for a long time. Watching experiments unfold, talking with builders, and asking questions. The enthusiasm and commitment from the Meshtastic community significantly influenced our engagement in this space.
From early conversations with top community members, it was clear that the badge form factor was loved:
- Small and lightweight
- Easy to attach to gear
- Minimal maintenance
But there were pain points, too:
- Buttons that were hard to press
- Batteries that didn’t last long enough
- Range limitations in outdoor environments
This feedback served as critical design input. And it helped us and MOKOSMART make an important decision:
Let’s make this better. Let’s build something not just compatible with Meshtastic but worthy of it.
Refinement in Action: Turning a Badge into Serious Hardware
With feedback in hand and a strong base to build on, we worked closely with the MOKOSMART engineering team to bring real, tangible improvements to the badge platform. Improvements were guided by Meshtastic community needs and hardware product standards.
Key improvements included:
- The buttons were reengineered for greater reliability and a more satisfying, tactile click.
- The buzzer logic was optimized, keeping alert functionality while eliminating false triggers.
- The battery was upgraded to 1000mAh, paired with an IP66-rated enclosure, making it water and dust resistant, suitable for demanding environments.
- The antenna system was retuned and re-matched to optimize RF performance specifically for Meshtastic mesh networking scenarios.
A rigorous pre-production testing process was conducted to validate these improvements in real-world conditions.
Together with MOKOSMART, we conducted an extensive series of reliability and durability tests, including:
- Thermal shock
- Cyclic damp heat
- High-temperature/high-humidity operational and storage conditions
- Low-temperature operation and storage
- Salt spray corrosion resistance
- Waterproof sealing
- Drop testing
- Tumble barrel endurance
- UV resistance
- Acid and alkali chemical resistance
- Laser engraving durability under abrasion
The tests confirm the WisMesh Tag's durability and functionality.
To further support that goal, the product is also undergoing global certification processes, including FCC, CE, and Telec, so that it can be trusted and deployed worldwide.
The result is something more than just another badge. It’s a field-grade mesh device.
A More Capable Mesh Network - Built with Heart
The WisMesh Tag is a functional Meshtastic device designed for use in various real-world scenarios, including hiking, volunteering, and coordination.
The hardware durability and design consistency reflect RAKwireless's and MOKOSMART's commitment to commercial-grade products that perform reliably in diverse environments.
This platform also offers opportunities for future development by the Meshtastic community, including:
- Use cases like backpack tracking, group communication, outdoor safety, and emergency response.
- Applications that sync with phones, manage node behavior, and support broader ecosystem integrations.
You’re Invited to Build with Us
If you’re part of the Meshtastic community, or curious about joining, we welcome your feedback, ideas, and field experience to shape the next chapter of the WisMesh Tag.
Join us:
Let’s keep building, together.