Conversation
andy

Andy Newton

Adventures in Meshtastic

I’ve always wanted to play around with LoRa and Meshtastic to see what it can do. Thanks to a little prodding by @emacdona I bought a pair of cheap, Heltec kits.

I seriously have no idea what I am doing here, but managed to futz my way through flashing one of the devices. I let it run over night and woke up to 128 nodes discovered. Pretty interesting.

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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @andy
@andy I'm jealous! I can't get on the mesh! I'm assuming slot 9? Try slot 20 next... I think that may be DC/MD mesh.
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @emacdona
@emacdona Yes. Slot 9. It is pretty amazing because there are a ton of nodes once you hit the beltway, but inside the beltway there aren't that many. Maybe they are on slot 20.
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @andy
@andy -- and you got on with the stock antenna? Indoors? so jealous....
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @emacdona
@emacdona I am using that stubby thing that came with the kit but have a longer one which I will put on there. And yes, all indoors.
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @andy
@emacdona I put the second unit on slot 20, and I am definitely picking up some nodes. But I obviously don't understand this stuff. Some of the same node appear on both slots. I thought slot = frequency, so I am not sure how some of the nodes are on multiple frequencies.
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @andy
@andy I think your understanding is correct: Slot = Frequency. I think that others are just doing what you are doing (running two nodes). I know at least one person in the Alexandria Radio Club that does that.

I went for a walk today and took my node... and I got on the slot 20 mesh!
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @emacdona
@andy Something else I learned after trying to interpret the most confusing snippet of instructions ever (on the Slot 9 mesh's groups.io page):

"[...] Ignore MQTT=Disabled, and OK to MQTT=Enable.

Please do not use or enable the MQTT Module and do not connect to the Meshtastic public MQTT server."

MQTT is a way that meshtastic nodes can connect to the internet. Those instructions can be interpreted as:

1) Don't drop/ignore MQTT packets
2) It's okay to forward MQTT packets
3) It's not okay for YOUR node to be connected to the internet.

At least, that's my interpretation. (1) and (2) seem redundant, so my interpretation may be wrong.

Anyway, it appears that MQTT may be a way to use the internet to connect 2 or more meshes. If you learn more about that, let me know. From what I've gathered via searching the web, Slot 20 is more open to that... the Slot 9 group is less okay with that.
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @emacdona
@emacdona Do people actually use these things to communicate? I see a lot of nodes but zero messages.
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @andy
@andy TBH, I'm not sure how much communication happens over the mesh.
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @emacdona
@andy Also, I'm not sure if you see any indication (in the app that you use to access your node) that your node is relaying encrypted messages between parties that aren't you. I mean, if you had a spectrum analyzer, you'd see it... I'm just not sure if the app gives you any visual cue that your node relayed an encrypted message.
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emacdona

Ed MacDonald

Reply to @emacdona
@andy ALSO, I don't understand the "channel" abstraction. IE: if you and I are both on the Slot 9 mesh, and we both have "Channel 1" on our node... is that the same Channel? Or, is a Channel something I create and associate with a given public key? IE: Maybe my Channel 1 is "Secure communications with Andy" because I use your public key when I create it? Let me know when you figure that out :-)
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @emacdona
@emacdona Yeah, the channel thing is a bit confusing.
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andy

Andy Newton

Reply to @andy
@emacdona Buried in the web client UI when run locally is a "Reset Node DB" feature. This morning I ran that on my Slot 20 (DC) node and it cleared out all the nodes that were apparently left over from when it was on slot 9. I'll wait and see what it picks up, but so far no nodes found. But I think that might be a morning thing because even on slot 9 I see that many of the nodes have not been heard from for awhile.
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