Meshtastic progress

M0RVB March 3, 2024

It appears that the web client is not full featured - so I am told anyway - so presumably I should not expect it to work the way I had thought. Never mind, now that the iOS app has been updated it appears to receive messages fine, at least through the second T3S3 device I have.

So, my setup so far (so far? It's not likely to expand...) is this:

One T3S3 (Node A) is directly connected to a collinear and is accessed via wifi. For this, the web app will send messages but not receive them.

One T3S3 (Node B) with its supplied tiny antenna is powered by USB and accessed via Bluetooth and the iPhone. The MacOS app does not receive messages but the phone does, so all is well.

There are issues here though. Because Node B is getting all of its information from Node A it shows every node in the area as having a good signal strength which is false as only one or two do. Also, when a message is sent it is (presumably) acknowledged by Node A (I am not sure on that) which is not a good indication that the message is actually going anywhere.

For Node A with its wifi connection I have installed the Python API on my Linux box (and also on the Mac but I'd rather it be on Linux) and have a small Python script which reads all data provided by the node and writes to a file - for now. A program then parses this and produces useful output, for example when nodes advertise or messages are sent. The next step for this is to make a database so that nodes can be recorded along with their positions, signal strength and times etc.

This is all just a bit of fun really as I always liked playing with data and transforming it and such - a fair bit of my work (when I did actually work) was related to this. I'm sure that now the iOS app has been updated I can swap Node A over to use Bluetooth and access it directly but this way I get a record of everything in the area too. It does add a hop to messages going out from my Node B but I can always adjust that setting anyway.

All in all Meshtastic is a fun / serious / useful 'thing' quite literally able to form ad-hoc networks for very little outlay or even experience. Devices can be put in a weatherproof box with a reasonable antenna, plus a battery and maybe a GPS, and perhaps even a solar charger, and positioned in an area to form an ad-hoc network - just like it says on the tin.

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M0RVB March 24, 2024

Current Meshtastic setup

After a lot of fiddling about writing code to look at mesh traffic I am on other projects (like, sorting the house out!)... so here is my current state of play... I have an 868MHz node in the loft directly connected to a collinear which is hanging off the rafters. This is powered by USB from one of the Pi systems in the shack. It is set to work over wifi, not BLE as it's just too far away. Its position coordinates are fixed. But I do not need to access it directly, see below. The useful thing here is I have installed the Python CLI on that Pi and can access the node's data stream directly. There is one 868MHz node in the shack with the supplied stubby little antenna. There is no way this can see any other nodes in the local area (I've tried) but can access the node in the loft. So this one has hops set to 4 as it uses one just to get upstairs. This node is set to read position data from the iPhone and can thus go mobile. Well, ok, it could go mobile anyway but at least this way it…

M0RVB March 16, 2024

More meshtastic

This Meshtastic business seems often very hit and miss. Locally there is an expectation that it will always work and if you can hit one node one day you should always be able to. Or at least that's what I glean from comments. Of course, just a few mW at 868MHz is not destined for long distance comms, and yet I can get 24 miles provided the path is line of sight. Not bad. But I can't manage 1.3km to my nearest neighbour who can get out all over the place. There is a hill to consider there, plus many houses, so not surprising really. Oh yes, and there is the small matter of the antenna still being in the loft so it has to punch through wood and concrete, often wet at that, before it gets to air. For now, at least locally traffic is mostly messages asking if one can be heard. There is a series side of course. Nodes can be placed in advantageous positions, run off battery and solar recharged, and left as area repeaters (or routers in Meshtastic parlance) forming a mesh with other similarly advantageously placed nodes. We have this locally to some extent.

M0RVB March 4, 2024

More meshtastic ideas

I had a change of plan. I've installed the Python API on one of the radio Pi systems, relocated the node that was hanging in the window up into the loft and connected it to the Pi directly. The node has been set back to using Bluetooth. Now I can get the raw(-ish) data via USB using the meshtastic app and also access the node from the phone. The mobile node - or rather the other node that is intended to be a mobile node when I get a battery etc. - is now disconnected. I will run this off a power bank at some stage and do some range testing but my power bank is currently not even in this continent... The raw(-ish) data is quite interesting and gives some insight into how the device works, although still at quite a high level. Two examples: DEBUG | 08:33:54 34116 [RadioIf] Lora RX (id=0x2c340449 fr=0x0c to=0xff, WantAck=0, HopLim=2 Ch=0x8 encrypted rxSNR=-13.75 rxRSSI=-130 INFO | 08:33:54 34116 [Router] Received DeviceTelemetry from=0xda5c870c, id=0x2c340449, portnum=67, payloadlen=24 I am going to code something to work this data into a useful output, just for fun of course. In other news, apparently the MacOS app has…