cc @mc-hamster. In some cases storeForwardPluginRadio can be null ;-)
~/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32$ bin/exception_decoder.py -e .pio/build/tbeam/firmware.elf ex
stack:
0x401db467: StoreForwardPluginRadio::sendPayload(unsigned int, bool) at /home/kevinh/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/src/plugins/esp32/StoreForwardPlugin.cpp:235
0x400e7cbd: StoreForwardPlugin::runOnce() at /home/kevinh/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/src/plugins/esp32/StoreForwardPlugin.cpp:225
0x400d4cca: concurrency::OSThread::run() at /home/kevinh/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/src/concurrency/OSThread.cpp:45
0x400f015d: ThreadController::runOrDelay() at /home/kevinh/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/.pio/libdeps/tbeam/Thread/ThreadController.cpp:153
0x400da070: loop() at /home/kevinh/development/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/src/main.cpp:621
0x400ff709: loopTask(void*) at /home/kevinh/.platformio/packages/framework-arduinoespressif32/cores/esp32/main.cpp:19
Signed-off-by: Kevin Hester <kevinh@geeksville.com>
Instead of holding onto only the last measurement, hold onto a copy of the last MeshPacket containing a measurement
This will make it easier to display the last time received
make DHT sensor reads more reliable
user preference for Farenheit vs Celsius
specifying a tag/commit/etc (I haven't tried specifying a branch?)
Without specifying the hash, the build breaks for anyone who already had
a repo (the CI build doesn't see this because it always pulls from scratch)
cc @crossan007 & @mc-hamster
@mc-hamster seems to work pretty good for me, so I'll send a PR to you
for the dev-http branch.
I'll push out an android alpha build later today (once the build is
complete). Once this new device load is out in the field _future_
device builds will support updating spiffs from android. (i.e. device
loads older than 1.1.9 must be updated to 1.1.9 or later before spiffs
support is implemented on the device side - so some users might need to
update twice before the new spiffs contents will appear on their device)
Typo fixed. I placed the latest javascript library files into the static folder. Updated the root file handler to be able to serve both compressed and uncompressed files.
+ // NOTE: The phone app needs to know the ls_secs value so it can properly expect sleep behavior.
+ // So even if we internally use 0 to represent 'use default' we still need to send the value we are
+ // using to the app (so that even old phone apps work with new device loads).
+#define MAX_POWER 27
// if we use 20 we are limited to 1% duty cycle or hw might overheat. For continuous operation set a limit of 17
+// In theory up to 27 dBm is possible, but the modules installed in most radios can cope with a max of 20. So BIG WARNING
+// if you set power to something higher than 17 or 20 you might fry your board.
Could cause hangs on the way into sleep (and enormous power consumption).
Instead of checking for rx packet length (which only changes at completion)
check if we've received preamble bits but haven't yet received a completed
packet interrupt.
notes:
wait to sleep loop problem
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
Can not send yet, busyRx
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
vs normal run
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
radio wait to sleep, txEmpty=0
Starting low level send (id=0x53fe1dd0 Fr0xe5 To0xff, WantAck0, HopLim3 encrypted)
Completed sending (id=0x53fe1dd0 Fr0xe5 To0xff, WantAck0, HopLim3 encrypted)
bogus wakes on TBEAMS because the USB->SERIAL chip pulls the RX input
to ground. This feature is no longer needed because in !isRouter
nodes we force the node to never sleep anyways when on USB power.
// this doesn't work on TBEAMs when the USB is depowered (causes bogus interrupts)
// So we disable this "wake on serial" feature - because now when a TBEAM (only) has power connected it
// never tries to go to sleep if the user is using the API
// gpio_wakeup_enable((gpio_num_t)SERIAL0_RX_GPIO, GPIO_INTR_LOW_LEVEL);
Sample usage:
First configure device to use @mc-hamster's new wifi stuff:
meshtastic --set wifi_ssid mylanname --set wifi_password mylanpassword
Then reboot the device (so wifi starts up).
(assuming device was assigned addr 192.168.81.45)
meshtastic --info --host 192.168.81.45
(See the usual device info you previously had to get over USB)
Caveats:
* Currently we are limiting to one active TCP connection open at once, if
you open a new session the old one is closed automatically
* There are no access controls/authentication needed to open a TCP
connection to the device
* Currently main.cpp is kinda dumb about how we should schedule work and
we rely on too many helper loop() functions. Very soon in my queue
(related to all the other cleanup) is to add a basic notion of coroutines,
so that we can get away from freertos threads and this old school arduino
loop function. Once that cleanup happens we can the a) have much lower
battery consumption (always) and b) super fast response for all operations.
btw - from my read of the NMEA, the lowest value that means 'has a valid
position' is 1 not 2. But I only know this because you pointed me at
it ;-)
Thanks!
oh - I think I found the problem (probably)! we were isolating gpio12 (which isn't used on other boards) to save power during sleep. gpio12 is the button for this board. @thomslik would you mind pulling this commit and seeing if it works better?
However, disabled until someone with suitable hardware can test and report
back.
@slavino and @tschundler would you be willing to try it with your boards?
You'll need to uncomment the following line in configuration.h
// #define BATTERY_PIN 35 // A battery voltage measurement pin, voltage divider connected here to measure battery voltage
@professr I noticed you added a "newStatus" observable to the GPS class.
Do you remember why you didn't remove the old GPS status (which seemed
to be dumber). Is it just because you didn't want to risk breaking
MeshService? (I assume) In this change I removed the old Observable
and all seems well (just using newStatus everywhere).
/**
* Generate a short suffix used to disambiguate channels that might have the same "name" entered by the human but different PSKs.
* The ideas is that the PSK changing should be visible to the user so that they see they probably messed up and that's why they
their nodes
* aren't talking to each other.
*
* This string is of the form "#name-XY".
*
* Where X is a letter from A to Z (base26), and formed by xoring all the bytes of the PSK together.
* Y is not yet used but should eventually indicate 'speed/range' of the link
*
* This function will also need to be implemented in GUI apps that talk to the radio.
*
* https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/issues/269
*/
const char *getChannelName();
@cyclomies thank you for the prodding and help. I'm happy to add more
detail, can you insert a few questions inline? Then I'll answer and
hopefully that will be enough to be useful for others.
The NVS copies of hte BLE pairing info for clients were getting corrupted
occasionally. So I went googling and found some plausible bug reports
but nothing that was an exact match. Then I looked at the arduino-esp32
binaries for the ESP-IDF framework. They were fairly old (Jan 20).
Looking through the commits on ESP-IDF release3.3 it seems like there have
been a few fixes for mutual exclusion errors wrt bluetooth. So I punted
and tried updating ESP-IDF to latest and everything seems fairly solid
now. Currently running a long test run with three nodes.
Meshtastic prompted me to get a couple boards to try, and I had to figure out what frequency. Canada uses the same US902-928 as the US, add it to the list for simplicity.
Not sure where to find an "official" reference, but there's a reference here: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/frequencies-by-country.html
This was a good one. Two problems
1) We've apparently always been using hte sparkfun API the wrong way, but
but we mostly got lucky.
2) Changing to use the API correctly (asyncronously) exposed a bug in
the library - fixed in a seperate commit
The SH1106 is almost indistinguisable from a SSD1306.
- the nr of columns in the sh1106 is 132 vs 128
- use the proper includes/library functions when in use
Note - we do this not by using the uart wake feature, but by the lower
power GPIO edge feature. Recommend sending "Z" 0x5A - because that has
many edges. Send the character 4 times to make sure the device is awake
Somehow nodenum was getting reset to zero (and saved to flash - which is
bad because it makes the failure permanent). So I've changed nodenum
selection to occur after we load the saved preferences (and we try to keep
nodenum stable in that case).
I'm puzzled as to how it ever got set to zero (unless there *shudder*
is some errant pointer that clobbered it). But next week I'm turning
4 byte nodenums back on, which will make this moot - because they
will always be based on macaddr and the current process where nodes
haggle with the mesh to pick a unique one-byte nodenum will be gone.
Hi, I think the problem you were having building for ESP32 was due to
a funny thing. Notice the #define for INTERRUPT_ATTR. That macro expands
to IRAM_ATTR - which is a special flag the ESP32 requires for _any_ code
that is going to be called from an ISR. So that the code is guaranteed
to be in RAM (the ESP32 uses a clever scheme where the FLASH is actually
high speed serial flash and all reads/writes are actually only happening
to a small number of pages in RAM and they have a driver that is constantly
copying blocks they need into that ram. This essentially how VM works
for desktop computers, but in their case they are paging to FLASH.
But for code that runs in an interrupt handler must _always_ be in RAM
because if you took a 'page fault' for that code being missing in RAM they
can't nicely do their clever VM scheme.
So that's all good. The problem was - apparently GCC for the ESP32 has a
a bug when that attribute is applied in the class declaration. So
I moved it out into the cpp file and all seems well now.
Because I was dumb and accidentally ran some code that configured gpio 0
as an output and that was enough to smoke the xtal that was preinstalled
between P0.0 and P0.1.
all using US frequencies. This build fixes this (and makes the build
system cleaner in general).
If you are building your own builds in the IDE you'll need to start
setting an environment variable called COUNTRY to your two letter
country code (or leave unset to get US frequencies). See new comment
in platformio.ini.
* preflightSleep, notifySleep, notifyDeepSleep now allow arbitrary
drivers/devices/software to register for sleep notification.
* Use the proceeding to clean up MeshRadio - now the mesh radio is more
like an independent driver that doesn't care so much about other systems
* clean up MeshService so that it can work with zero MeshRadios added.
This is a prelude to supporting boards with multiple interfaces (wifi,
extra LORA radios etc) and allows development/testing in sim with a bare
ESP32 board
* Remove remaining ESP32 dependencies from the bare simulation target
this allows running on anything that implements the arduino API
because the ESP32 implementation will be different from NRF52
to make this possible I needed to decouple knowlege about bluetooth from
our mesh service. Instead mesh service now uses the Obserable pattern
to let any interested consumer get notified of important mesh changes
(currently that is only bluetooth, but really we should do the same
thing for decoupling the GUI 'app' from the mesh service)
@girtsf would you mind reviewing my Observer changes? I haven't written
C++ code in a long time ;-)
unique to each architecture. For now, we have "esp32" and "bare"
esp32 is the old esp stuff
bare is an target suitable for emulation that doesn't require any
particular hardware to run (no bluetooth, no i2c devices, no spi devices)
* to allow changing to new mesh transport
* to allow a different chipset for the radio
* to allow testing on hardware with a SimRadio
* new "bare" build env for a devboard with virtually no hardware
* make buttons optional
// We don't set useDisplay until setup() is called, because some boards have a declaration of this object but the device
// is never found when probing i2c and therefore we don't call setup and never want to do (invalid) accesses to this device.
Also - now that he fixed that, we can leave PMU interrupts on across sleep
Hopefully the following line will properly credit him in the magic github
universe...
Co-authored-by: spattinson <spattinson@users.noreply.github.com>
* Break out debug screen to a separate class and make it thread-safe.
* Break out power state to a separate class.
* Show battery voltage, charging & USB status on debug screen.
* Show GPS lock / no lock
* Fix an off-by-one that I introduced earlier in `drawRows`.
Work towards separating out how Screen interacts with other stuff.
* `Screen` should now be thread-safe. All commands to it are put in a
queue and handled in `doTask` from the `loop()` task.
* Break dependency from `BluetoothUtil` to `Screen` by changing the
pairing request into a callback.
* All accesses to screen now happen through the class.
* Fix `drawRows` so that the text scrolls along with frame animations.
* Remove example code that wasn't used.
based on initial encouraging feedback from @illperipherals
if more people report success, we'll need to change the install instructions
to:
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 erase_flash
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 write_flash 0x1000 system-info.bin
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 write_flash 0x10000 firmware-HELTEC-US-0.1.6.bin
devices. It caused bogus i2c transactions when device would go to sleep.
Fixed now, also, I now treat GPS usage uniformly between TBEAM and HELTEC
we always probe for and use the GPS if we find it.
Which means for the extra nerds
(someone requested this, I'm sorry - I don't remember who) you can now
optionally attach an external GPS to HELTECs if you want. The pins are:
#define GPS_RX_PIN 34
#define GPS_TX_PIN 12
(@girtsf, sorry about including formatting changes in this PR, apparently
I had my IDE set to not autoreformat until just now
* `Lock`: trivial wrapper for FreeRTOS binary semaphores
* `LockGuard`: RAII wrapper for using `Lock`
* `printThreadInfo`: helper for showing which core/FreeRTOS task we are
running under
Root cause seems to be the axp192 interrupt, which on some boards fires
during sleep. I'm not sure why, but we don't need this yet, so leaving
masked during sleep.
The problem was we were pulsing the display power briefly down while
reentering the ON state (because the ON states exit rule turned it off).
Instead we now just turn off the screen on entry to DARK or LS states
* Have state machine properly enter deep sleep based on loss of mesh and phone comms.
* Default to enter deep sleep if no LORA received for two hours (indicates user has probably left the mesh).
Signed-off-by: Kevin Hester <kevinh@geeksville.com>
* Suppress warnings about conflicting library names in platformio.ini by
explicitly picking the libraries by id that we want.
* fix unused static function warning by making it not static ;)
* declare arduino-fsm as dependency for BluetoothOTA. Hopefully this
fixes the CI builds?
Tested: `pio run` builds.
while because my TX wire on my ONLY T-BEAM broke while I was soldering
a jtag connector - so I can only RX from the GPS.
My other 5 boards are still delayed due to corona virus.
So I'll work on other features for now
This is the device side code for the [meshtastic.org](https://www.meshtastic.org) project.
# Meshtastic-device
Meshtastic is a project that lets you use
inexpensive GPS mesh radios as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding -
essentially any hobby where you don't have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other
This is the device side code for the [meshtastic.org](https://www.meshtastic.org) project.
inexpensive GPS mesh radios as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding -
essentially any hobby where you don't have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other
members and any text messages sent to your group chat.
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios
will optionally work with your phone, but no phone is required.
Typical time between recharging the radios should be about eight days.
This project is currently early-alpha, but if you have questions please join our chat [](https://gitter.im/Meshtastic/community?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge).
This project is is currently in beta-testing - if you have questions please [join our discussion forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
This software is 100% open source and developed by a group of hobbyist experimenters. No warranty is provided, if you'd like to improve it - we'd love your help. Please post in the chat.
This software is 100% open source and developed by a group of hobbyist experimenters. No warranty is provided, if you'd like to improve it - we'd love your help. Please post in the chat.
## Supported hardware
We currently support two brands of radios. The [TTGO T-Beam](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000119152086.html) and the [Heltec LoRa 32](https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32/). Most users should buy the T-Beam and a 18650 battery (total cost less than $35). Make
sure to buy the frequency range which is legal for your country. For the USA, you should buy the 915MHz version. Getting a version that include a screen
is optional, but highly recommended.
See (meshtastic.org) for 3D printable cases.
We currently support three models of radios.
## Installing the firmware
Prebuilt binaries for the supported radios is available in our [releases](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-esp32/releases). Your initial installation has to happen over USB from your Mac, Windows or Linux PC. Once our software is installed, all future software updates happen over bluetooth from your phone.
- TTGO T-Beam (usually the recommended choice)
- [T-Beam V1.1 w/ NEO-6M - special Meshtastic version](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001178678568.html) (Includes built-in OLED display and they have **preinstalled** the meshtastic software)
- [T-Beam V0.7 w/ NEO-6M](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000574335430.html) (will work but **you must use the tbeam0.7 firmware ** - but the T-Beam V1.0 or later are better!)
- board labels "TTGO T22_V07 20180711"
- 3D printable cases
- [T-Beam V0](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3773717) (GPS and LoRa antenna misaligned if GPS placed as pictured)
The instructions currently require a few commmand lines, but it should be pretty straightforward. Please post comments on our group chat if you have problems or successes. Steps to install:
- [TTGO LORA32](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000211331316.html) - No GPS
Note: The GPS and LoRa stock antennas should be placed in a way, that the GPS antenna faces the sky and the LoRa antenna radiates 360 degrees horizontally. For better GPS reception you might want to [upgrade the GPS antenna](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/the-importance-of-gps-antennas-and-request-to-3d-case-documentation-people/1505) and to properly align the antennas you might want to upgrade to a LoRa antenna that can be adjusted to radiate into the right directions.
**Make sure to get the frequency for your country**
- US/JP/AU/NZ/CA - 915MHz
- CN - 470MHz
- EU - 868MHz, 433MHz
- full list of LoRa frequencies per region is available [here](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/frequencies-by-country.html)
Getting a version that includes a screen is optional, but highly recommended.
## Firmware Installation
Prebuilt binaries for the supported radios are available in our [releases](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/releases). Your initial installation has to happen over USB from your Mac, Windows or Linux PC. Once our software is installed, all future software updates happen over bluetooth from your phone.
Be **very careful** to install the correct load for your board. In particular the popular 'T-BEAM' radio from TTGO is not called 'TTGO-Lora' (that is a different board). So don't install the 'TTGO-Lora' build on a TBEAM, it won't work correctly.
Please post comments on our [group chat](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/) if you have problems or successes.
### Installing from a GUI - Windows and Mac
1. Download and unzip the latest Meshtastic firmware [release](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/releases).
2. Download [ESPHome Flasher](https://github.com/esphome/esphome-flasher/releases) (either x86-32bit Windows or x64-64 bit Windows).
3. Connect your radio to your USB port and open ESPHome Flasher.
4. If your board is not showing under Serial Port then you likely need to install the drivers for the CP210X serial chip. In Windows you can check by searching “Device Manager” and ensuring the device is shown under “Ports”.
5. If there is an error, download the drivers [here](https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers), then unzip and run the Installer application.
6. In ESPHome Flasher, refresh the serial ports and select your board.
7. Browse to the previously downloaded firmware and select the correct firmware based on the board type, country and frequency.
8. Select Flash ESP.
9. Once complete, “Done! Flashing is complete!” will be shown.
10. Debug messages sent from the Meshtastic device can be viewed with a terminal program such as [PuTTY](https://www.putty.org/) (Windows only). Within PuTTY, click “Serial”, enter the “Serial line” com port (can be found at step 4), enter “Speed” as 921600, then click “Open”.
### Installing from a commandline
These instructions currently require a few commmand lines, but it should be pretty straightforward.
1. Install "pip". Pip is the python package manager we use to get the esptool installer app. Instructions [here](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-pip-for-python/). If you are using OS-X, see these [special instructions](docs/software/install-OSX.md).
2. Run "pip install --upgrade esptool" to get esptool installed on your machine.
3. Connect your radio to your USB port.
4. Confirm that your device is talking to your PC by running "esptool.py chip_id". The Heltec build also works on the TTGO LORA32 radio. You should see something like:
1. Purchase a radio (see above) with the correct frequencies for your country (915MHz for US or JP, 470MHz for CN, 870MHz for EU).
2. Install "pip". Pip is the python package manager we use to get the esptool installer app. Instructions [here](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-pip-for-python/).
3. Run "pip install --upgrade esptool" to get esptool installed on your machine
4. Connect your radio to your USB port
5. Confirm that your device is talking to your PC by running "esptool.py chip_id". You should see something like:
```
mydir$ esptool.py chip_id
esptool.py v2.6
@@ -49,50 +107,107 @@ Warning: ESP32 has no Chip ID. Reading MAC instead.
MAC: 24:6f:28:b5:36:71
Hard resetting via RTS pin...
```
6. Install the correct firmware for your board with "esptool.py write_flash 0x10000 firmware-_board_-_country_.bin". For instance "esptool.py write_flash 0x10000 release/firmware-HELTEC-US-0.0.3.bin". You should see something like this:
5. cd into the directory where the release zip file was expanded.
6. Install the correct firmware for your board with `device-install.sh -f firmware-_board_-_country_.bin`.
Note: If you have previously installed meshtastic, you don't need to run this full script instead just run `esptool.py --baud 921600 write_flash 0x10000 firmware-_board_-_country_-_version_.bin`. This will be faster, also all of your current preferences will be preserved.
Wrote 1223568 bytes (678412 compressed) at 0x00010000 in 10.7 seconds (effective 912.0 kbit/s)...
Hash of data verified.
Leaving...
Hard resetting via RTS pin...
```
7. The board will boot and show the Meshtastic logo.
8. Please post a comment on our chat so we know if these instructions worked for you ;-). If you find bugs/have-questions post there also - we will be rapidly iterating over the next few weeks.
## Meshtastic Android app
The source code for the (optional) Meshtastic Android app is [here](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-Android).
Soon our first alpha release of will be released here:
[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksville.mesh&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub%26utm_medium%3Desp32-readme%26utm_campaign%3Dmeshtastic-esp32%2520readme%26anid%3Dadmob&pcampaignid=pcampaignidMKT-Other-global-all-co-prtnr-py-PartBadge-Mar2515-1)
7. The board will boot and show the Meshtastic logo.
8. Please post a comment on our chat so we know if these instructions worked for you ;-). If you find bugs/have-questions post there also - we will be rapidly iterating over the next few weeks.
# Meshtastic Android app
The companion (optional) Meshtastic Android app is [here](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksville.mesh&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub-dev-readme). You can also download it on Google Play.
# Python API
We offer a [python API](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-python) that makes it easy to use these devices to provide mesh networking for your custom projects.
# Development
The following sections are probably only interesting if you want to join us in developing the software.
## Power measurements
Since one of the main goals of this project is long battery life, it is important to consider that in our software/protocol design. Based on initial measurements it seems that the current code should run about three days between charging, and with a bit more software work (see the [TODO list](TODO.md)) a battery life of eight days should be quite doable. Our current power measurements/model is in [this spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ft1bS3iXqFKU8SApU8ZLTq9r7QQEGESYnVgdtvdT67k/edit?usp=sharing).
We'd love to have you join us on this merry little project. Please see our [development documents](./docs/software/sw-design.md) and [join us in our discussion forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
## Build instructions
This project uses the simple PlatformIO build system. You can use the IDE, but for brevity
in these instructions I describe use of their command line tool.
4. Type "pio run -t upload" (This command will fetch dependencies, build the project and install it on the board via USB)
5. Platform IO also installs a very nice VisualStudio Code based IDE, see their [tutorial](https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/tutorials/espressif32/arduino_debugging_unit_testing.html) if you'd like to use it
This project is run by volunteers. Past contributors include:
-@astro-arphid: Added support for 433MHz radios in europe.
-@claesg: Various documentation fixes and 3D print enclosures
-@girtsf: Lots of improvements
-@spattinson: Fixed interrupt handling for the AXP192 part
# IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS AND FAQ
For a listing of currently missing features and a FAQ click [here](docs/faq.md).
Items to complete soon (next couple of alpha releases).
* text messages are not showing on local screen if screen was on
* The following three items are all the same:
Have state machine properly enter deep sleep based on loss of mesh and phone comms.
Default to enter deep sleep if no LORA received for two hours (indicates user has probably left the mesh).
If the phone doesn't read fromradio mailbox within X seconds, assume the phone is gone and we can stop queing location msgs
for it (because it will redownload the nodedb when it comes back)
* lower wait_bluetooth_secs to 30 seconds once we have the GPS power on (but GPS in sleep mode) across light sleep. For the time
being I have it set at 2 minutes to ensure enough time for a GPS lock from scratch.
* retest BLE software update for both board types
* report on wikifactory
* send note to the guy who designed the cases
* remeasure wake time power draws now that we run CPU down at 80MHz
# Medium priority
Items to complete before the first beta release.
* check fcc rules on duty cycle. we might not need to freq hop. https://www.sunfiretesting.com/LoRa-FCC-Certification-Guide/
* use fuse bits to store the board type and region. So one load can be used on all boards
* "AXP192 interrupt is not firing, remove this temporary polling of battery state"
* make mesh aware network timing state machine (sync wake windows to gps time)
* turn light sleep on aggressively (while lora is on but BLE off)
* research and implement better mesh algorithm
* the BLE stack is leaking about 200 bytes each time we go to light sleep
* use gps sleep mode instead of killing its power (to allow fast position when we wake)
* rx signal measurements -3 marginal, -9 bad, 10 great, -10 means almost unusable. So scale this into % signal strength. preferably as a graph, with an X indicating loss of comms.
* assign every "channel" a random shared 8 bit sync word (per 4.2.13.6 of datasheet) - use that word to filter packets before even checking CRC. This will ensure our CPU will only wake for packets on our "channel"
* Note: we do not do address filtering at the chip level, because we might need to route for the mesh
* Use the Periodic class for both position and user periodic broadcasts
* make debug info screen show real data (including battery level & charging)
* don't forward redundant pings or ping responses to the phone, it just wastes phone battery
* don't treat north as up, instead adjust shown bearings for our guess at the users heading (i.e. subtract one from the other)
* answer to pings (because some other user is looking at our nodeinfo) with our latest location
* show radio and gps signal strength as an image
* only BLE advertise for a short time after the screen is on and button pressed - to save power and prevent people for sniffing for our BT app.
* use https://platformio.org/lib/show/1260/OneButton if necessary
* make an about to sleep screen
* don't send location packets if we haven't moved
* scrub default radio config settings for bandwidth/range/speed
* add basic crypto - https://github.com/chegewara/esp32-mbedtls-aes-test/blob/master/main/main.c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_cipher_mode_of_operation - use ECB at first (though it is shit) because it doesn't require us to send 16 bytes of IV with each packet. Then OFB per example
* override peekAtMessage so we can see any messages that pass through our node (even if not broadcast)? would that be useful?
* sendToMesh can currently block for a long time, instead have it just queue a packet for a radio freertos thread
* How do avalanche beacons work? Could this do that as well? possibly by using beacon mode feature of the RF95?
* use std::map<NodeInfo*, std::string> in node db
* make a HAM build: yep - that's a great idea. I'll add it to the TODO. should be pretty painless - just a new frequency list, a bool to say 'never do encryption' and use hte callsign as that node's unique id. -from Girts
* add frequency hopping, dependent on the gps time, make the switch moment far from the time anyone is going to be transmitting
* publish update articles on the web
# Pre-beta priority
During the beta timeframe the following improvements 'would be nice' (and yeah - I guess some of these items count as features, but it is a hobby project ;-) )
* Figure out why the RF95 ISR is never seeing RH_RF95_VALID_HEADER, so it is not protecting our rx packets from getting stomped on by sends
* use BLEDevice::setPower to lower our BLE transmit power - extra range doesn't help us, it costs amps and it increases snoopability
* make an install script to let novices install software on their boards
* fix the frequency error reading in the RF95 RX code (can't do floating point math in an ISR ;-)
* See CustomRF95::send and fix the problem of dropping partially received packets if we want to start sending
* use variable length arduino Strings in protobufs (instead of current fixed buffers)
* don't even power on bluetooth until we have some data to send to the android phone. Most of the time we should be sleeping in a lowpower "listening for lora" only mode. Once we have some packets for the phone, then power on bluetooth
until the phone pulls those packets. Ever so often power on bluetooth just so we can see if the phone wants to send some packets. Possibly might need ULP processor to help with this wake process.
* do hibernation mode to get power draw down to 2.5uA https://lastminuteengineers.com/esp32-sleep-modes-power-consumption/
* make sure main cpu is not woken for packets with bad crc or not addressed to this node - do that in the radio hw
* enable fast init inside the gps chip
* triple check fcc compliance
* pick channel center frequency based on name? "dolphin" would hash to 900Mhz, "cat" to 905MHz etc? Or is that too opaque?
* scan to find channels with low background noise?
* share channel settings over Signal (or qr code) by embedding an an URL which is handled by the MeshUtil app.
# Low priority
Items after the first final candidate release.
* split out the software update utility so other projects can use it. Have the appload specify the URL for downloads.
* Use CAD mode of the RF95 to automatically find low noise channels
* read the PMU battery fault indicators and blink/led/warn user on screen
* make a no bluetooth configured yet screen - include this screen in the loop if the user hasn't yet paired
* the AXP debug output says it is trying to charge at 700mA, but the max I've seen is 180mA, so AXP registers probably need to be set to tell them the circuit can only provide 300mAish max. So that the low charge rate kicks in faster and we don't wear out batteries.
* increase the max charging rate a bit for 18650s, currently it limits to 180mA (at 4V). Work backwards from the 500mA USB limit (at 5V) and let the AXP charge at that rate.
* if radio params change fundamentally, discard the nodedb
* discard very old nodedb records (> 1wk)
* using the genpartitions based table doesn't work on TTGO so for now I stay with my old memory map
* We let anyone BLE scan for us (FIXME, perhaps only allow that until we are paired with a phone and configured)
* use two different buildenv flags for ttgo vs lora32. https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/ide/vscode.html#key-bindings
* sim gps data for testing nodes that don't have hardware
* do debug serial logging to android over bluetooth
* break out my bluetooth OTA software as a seperate library so others can use it
* Heltec LoRa32 has 8MB flash, use a bigger partition table if needed - TTGO is 4MB but has PSRAM
* add a watchdog timer
* fix GPS.zeroOffset calculation it is wrong
* handle millis() rollover in GPS.getTime - otherwise we will break after 50 days
* reneable the bluetooth battery level service on the T-BEAM, because we can read battery level there
* report esp32 device code bugs back to the mothership via android
# Done
* change the partition table to take advantage of the 4MB flash on the wroom: http://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/platforms/espressif32.html#partition-tables
* wrap in nice MeshRadio class
* add mesh send & rx
* make message send from android go to service, then to mesh radio
* make message receive from radio go through to android
* test loopback tx/rx path code without using radio
* notify phone when rx packets arrive, currently the phone polls at startup only
* figure out if we can use PA_BOOST - yes, it seems to be on both boards
* implement new ble characteristics
* have MeshService keep a node DB by sniffing user messages
* have a state machine return the correct FromRadio packet to the phone, it isn't always going to be a MeshPacket. Do a notify on fromnum to force the radio to read our state machine generated packets
* send my_node_num when phone sends WantsNodes
* have meshservice periodically send location data on mesh (if device has a GPS)
* implement getCurrentTime() - set based off gps but then updated locally
* make default owner record have valid usernames
* message loop between node 0x28 and 0x7c
* check in my radiolib fixes
* figure out what is busted with rx
* send our owner info at boot, reply if we see anyone send theirs
* add manager layers
* confirm second device receives that gps message and updates device db
* send correct hw vendor in the bluetooth info - needed so the android app can update different radio models
* correctly map nodeids to nodenums, currently we just do a proof of concept by always doing a broadcast
* add interrupt detach/sleep mode config to lora radio so we can enable deepsleep without panicing
* make jtag work on second board
* implement regen owner and radio prefs
* use a better font
* make nice screens (boot, about to sleep, debug info (gps signal, #people), latest text, person info - one frame per person on network)
* turn framerate from ui->state.frameState to 1 fps (or less) unless in transition
* switch to my gui layout manager
* make basic gui. different screens: debug, one page for each user in the user db, last received text message
* make button press cycle between screens
* save our node db on entry to sleep
* fix the logo
* sent/received packets (especially if a node was just reset) have variant of zero sometimes - I think there is a bug (race-condtion?) in the radio send/rx path.
* DONE dynamic nodenum assignment tasks
* make jtag debugger id stable: https://askubuntu.com/questions/49910/how-to-distinguish-between-identical-usb-to-serial-adapters
* reported altitude is crap
* good tips on which bands might be more free https://github.com/TheThingsNetwork/ttn/issues/119
* finish power measurements (GPS on during sleep vs LCD on during sleep vs LORA on during sleep) and est battery life
* make screen sleep behavior work
* make screen advance only when a new node update arrives, a new text arrives or the user presses a button, turn off screen after a while
* after reboot, channel number is getting reset to zero! fix!
* send user and location events much less often
* send location (or if not available user) when the user wakes the device from display sleep (both for testing and to improve user experience)
* make real implementation of getNumOnlineNodes
* very occasionally send our position and user packet based on the schedule in the radio info (if for nothing else so that other nodes update last_seen)
* show real text info on the text screen
* apply radio settings from android land
* cope with nodes that have 0xff or 0x00 as the last byte of their mac
* allow setting full radio params from android
* add receive timestamps to messages, inserted by esp32 when message is received but then shown on the phone
* update build to generate both board types
* have node info screen show real info (including distance and heading)
* blink the power led less often
* have radiohead ISR send messages to RX queue directly, to allow that thread to block until we have something to send
* move lora rx/tx to own thread and block on IO
* keep our pseudo time moving forward even if we enter deep sleep (use esp32 rtc)
* for non GPS equipped devices, set time from phone
* GUI on oled hangs for a few seconds occasionally, but comes back
* update local GPS position (but do not broadcast) at whatever rate the GPS is giving it
* don't send our times to other nodes
* don't trust times from other nodes
* draw compass rose based off local walking track
* add requestResponse optional bool - use for location broadcasts when sending tests
* post sample video to signal forum
* support non US frequencies
* send pr https://github.com/ThingPulse/esp8266-oled-ssd1306 to tell them about this project
* document rules for sleep wrt lora/bluetooth/screen/gps. also: if I have text messages (only) for the phone, then give a few seconds in the hopes BLE can get it across before we have to go back to sleep.
* wake from light sleep as needed for our next scheduled periodic task (needed for gps position broadcasts etc)
* turn bluetooth off based on our sleep policy
* blink LED while in LS sleep mode
* scrolling between screens based on press is busted
* Use Neo-M8M API to put it in sleep mode (on hold until my new boards arrive)
* update the prebuilt bins for different regulatory regions
* don't enter NB state if we've recently talked to the phone (to prevent breaking syncing or bluetooth sw update)
* have sw update prevent BLE sleep
* manually delete characteristics/descs
* leave lora receiver always on
* protobufs are sometimes corrupted after sleep!
* stay awake while charging
* check gps battery voltage
* if a position report includes ground truth time and we don't have time yet, set our clock from that. It is better than nothing.
inexpensive ($30 ish) GPS radios as an extensible, super long battery life mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding -
essentially any hobby where you don't have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other
members and any text messages sent to your group chat.
Meshtastic® is a project that lets you use
inexpensive (\$30 ish) GPS radios as an extensible, long battery life, secure, mesh GPS communicator. These radios are great for hiking, skiing, paragliding - essentially any hobby where you don't have reliable internet access. Each member of your private mesh can always see the location and distance of all other members and any text messages sent to your group chat.
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios
will optionally work with your phone, but no phone is required.
The radios automatically create a mesh to forward packets as needed, so everyone in the group can receive messages from even the furthest member. The radios will optionally work with your phone, but no phone is required.
### Uses
Note: Questions after reading this? See our new [forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
* Outdoor sports where cellular coverage is limited. (Hiking, Skiing, Boating, Paragliding, Gliders etc..)
* Applications where closed source GPS communicators just won't cut it (it is easy to add features for glider pilots etc...)
*Secure long-range communication within groups without depending on cellular providers
*Finding your lost kids ;-)
## Uses
-Outdoor sports where cellular coverage is limited. (Hiking, Skiing, Boating, Paragliding, Gliders etc..)
-Applications where closed source GPS communicators just won't cut it (it is easy to add features for glider pilots etc...)
- Secure long-range communication within groups without depending on cellular providers
- Finding your lost kids ;-)
- Through our [python API](https://pypi.org/project/meshtastic/) use these inexpensive radios to easily add mesh networking to your own projects.
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNbMbVZlHI "Meshtastic early demo")
### Features
Not all of these features are fully implemented yet - see below. But they should be in by the time we decide to call this project beta (three months?)
## Features
* Very long battery life (should be about eight days with the beta software)
* Built in GPS and [LoRa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa) radio, but we manage the radio automatically for you
* Long range - a few miles per node but each node will forward packets as needed
* Shows direction and distance to all members of your channel
* Directed or broadcast text messages for channel members
* Open and extensible codebase supporting multiple hardware vendors - no lock in to one vendor
* Communication API for bluetooth devices (such as our Android app) to use the mesh. So if you have some application that needs long range low power networking, this might work for you.
* Eventually (within a couple of months) we should have a modified version of Signal that works with this project.
* Very easy sharing of private secured channels. Just share a special link or QR code with other users and they can join your encrypted mesh
This project is currently in early alpha - if you have questions please join our chat [](https://gitter.im/Meshtastic/community?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge).
Not all of these features are fully implemented yet - see **important** disclaimers below. But they should be in by the time we decide to call this project beta (three months?)
This software is 100% open source and developed by a group of hobbyist experimenters. No warranty is provided, if you'd like to improve it - we'd love your help. Please post in the [chat](https://gitter.im/Meshtastic/community).
- Very long battery life (should be about eight days with the beta software)
- Built in GPS and [LoRa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa) radio, but we manage the radio automatically for you
- Long range - a few miles per node but each node will forward packets as needed
- Secure - channels are encrypted by AES256 (But see important disclaimers below wrt this feature)
- Shows direction and distance to all members of your channel
- Directed or broadcast text messages for channel members
- Open and extensible codebase supporting multiple hardware vendors - no lock in to one vendor
- Communication API for bluetooth devices (such as our Android app) to use the mesh. An iOS application is in the works. And [Meshtastic-python](https://pypi.org/project/meshtastic/) provides access from desktop computers.
- Very easy sharing of private secured channels. Just share a special link or QR code with friends and they can join your encrypted mesh
This project is currently in beta testing but it is fairly stable and feature complete - if you have questions please [join our discussion forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
This software is 100% open source and developed by a group of hobbyist experimenters. No warranty is provided, if you'd like to improve it - we'd love your help. Please post in the [forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/).
### Beginner's Guide
For an detailed walk-through aimed at beginners, we recommend [meshtastic.letstalkthis.com](https://meshtastic.letstalkthis.com/).
### Related Groups
Telegram group for **Italy**-based users [t.me/meshtastic_italia](http://t.me/meshtastic_italia) (Italian language, unofficial).<br/>
Telegram group for **Russian**-based users [t.me/meshtastic_russia](https://t.me/meshtastic_russia) (Russian language, unofficial).
# Updates
* 02/25/2020 - 0.0.4 of the Android app is released. This is a very early alpha, see below to join the alpha-testers group.
* 02/23/2020 - 0.0.4 release. Still very bleeding edge but much closer to the final power management, a charged T-BEAM should run for many days with this load. If you'd like to try it, we'd love your feedback. Click [here](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/README.md) for instructions.
* 02/20/2020 - Our first alpha release (0.0.3) of the radio software is ready for early users.
Note: Updates are happening almost daily, only major updates are listed below. For more details see our forum.
- 09/14/2020 - 1.0.0 Now with over 1700 android users, over 2000 nodes and translated into 15 languages. This project will always be a "beta" experiment, but now quite usable. We are currently selecting 1.1 features in our discussion forum.
- 06/24/2020 - 0.7.x Now with over 1000 android users, over 600 people using the radios and translated into 22 languages. Fairly stable and we are working through bugs to get to 1.0.
- 06/04/2020 - 0.6.7 Beta releases of both the application and the device code are released. Features are fairly solid now with a sizable number of users.
- 04/28/2020 - 0.6.0 [Python API](https://pypi.org/project/meshtastic/) released. Makes it easy to use meshtastic devices as "zero config / just works" mesh transport adapters for other projects.
- 04/20/2020 - 0.4.3 Pretty solid now both for the android app and the device code. Many people have donated translations and code. Probably going to call it a beta soon.
- 03/03/2020 - 0.0.9 of the Android app and device code is released. Still an alpha but fairly functional.
- 02/25/2020 - 0.0.4 of the Android app is released. This is a very early alpha, see below to join the alpha-testers group.
- 02/23/2020 - 0.0.4 release. Still very bleeding edge but much closer to the final power management, a charged T-BEAM should run for many days with this load. If you'd like to try it, we'd love your feedback. Click [here](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/README.md) for instructions.
- 02/20/2020 - Our first alpha release (0.0.3) of the radio software is ready brave early people.
## Meshtastic Android app
Once out of alpha the companion Android application will be released here:
[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksville.mesh&referrer=utm_source%3Dhomepage%26anid%3Dadmob)
Our Android application is available here:
But if you want the bleeding edge app now, we'd love to have your help testing. Three steps to opt-in to the alpha- test:
[](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geeksville.mesh&referrer=utm_source%3Dgithub-homepage)
The link above will return older more stable releases. We would prefer if you join our alpha-test group, because the application is rapidly improving. Three steps to opt-in to the alpha- test:
1. Join [this Google group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/meshtastic-alpha-testers) with the account you use in Google Play.
2. Go to this [URL](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.geeksville.mesh) to opt-in to the alpha test.
3. If you encounter any problems or have questions, post in our gitter chat and we'll help.
3. If you encounter any problems or have questions, post in our [forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/) and we'll help.
If you'd like to help with development, the source code is [on github](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-Android).
If you'd like to help with development, the source code is [on github](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-Android).
The app is also distributed for Amazon Fire devices via the Amazon appstore: [](https://www.amazon.com/Geeksville-Industries-Meshtastic/dp/B08CY9394Q)
## Supported hardware
We currently support two brands of radios. The [TTGO T-Beam](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000119152086.html) and the [Heltec LoRa 32](https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32/). Most users should buy the T-Beam and a 18650 battery (total cost less than $35). Make
sure to buy the frequency range which is legal for your country. For the USA, you should buy the 915MHz version. Getting a version that include a screen
is optional, but highly recommended.
Instructions for installing prebuilt firmware can be found [here](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/README.md).
We currently support two brands of radios. The [TTGO T-Beam](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001178678568.html) and the [Heltec LoRa 32](https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32/). Most people should buy the T-Beam and a 18650 battery (total cost less than \$35). Also, the version of the T-Beam we link to is shipped with Meshtastic **preinstalled** by TTGO, so you don't have to install it yourself.
For a nice TTGO 3D printable case see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3773717) by [bsiege](https://www.thingiverse.com/bsiege).
For a nice Heltec 3D printable case see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3125854) by [ornotermes](https://www.thingiverse.com/ornotermes).
Make sure to buy the frequency range which is legal for your country. For the USA, you should buy the 915MHz version. Getting a version that include a screen is optional, but highly recommended.
# Disclaimers
Instructions for installing prebuilt firmware can be found [here](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/README.md).
This project is still pretty young but moving at a pretty good pace. Not all features are fully implemented in the current alpha builds.
Most of these problems should be solved by the beta release:
For a nice looking cases:
*We don't make these devices and they haven't been tested by UL or the FCC. If you use them you are experimenting and we can't promise they won't burn your house down ;-)
* Encryption is turned off for now
* A number of (straightforward) software work items have to be completed before battery life matches our measurements, currently battery life is about two days. Join us on chat if you want the spreadsheet of power measurements/calculations.
* The current Android GUI is pretty ugly still
* The Android API needs to be documented better
*The Bluetooth API needs to be documented better
* The mesh protocol is turned off for now, currently we only send packets one hop distant
* No one has written an iOS app yet ;-)
-3D printable cases
1. TTGO T-Beam V0 see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3773717) by [bsiege](https://www.thingiverse.com/bsiege).
2. TTGO T_Beam V1 (SMA) see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3830711) by [rwanrooy](https://www.thingiverse.com/rwanrooy) or this [remix](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3949330) by [8ung](https://www.thingiverse.com/8ung)
3. TTGO T_Beam V1 (IPEX) see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4587297) by [drewsed](https://www.thingiverse.com/drewsed)
4. Heltec Lora32 see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3125854) by [ornotermes](https://www.thingiverse.com/ornotermes).
-Laser-cut cases
1. TTGO T_Beam V1 (SMA) see this [design](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4552771) by [jefish](https://www.thingiverse.com/jefish)
For more details see the [device software TODO](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/TODO.md) or the [Android app TODO](https://github.com/geeksville/Meshtastic-Android/blob/master/TODO.md).
# IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS AND FAQ
For a listing of currently missing features and a FAQ click [here](faq.md).
This project is still pretty young but moving at a pretty good pace. Not all features are fully implemented in the current alpha builds.
Most of these problems should be solved by the beta release (within three months):
- We don't make these devices and they haven't been tested by UL or the FCC. If you use them you are experimenting and we can't promise they won't burn your house down ;-)
- The encryption implementation is good but see this list of [caveats](software/crypto.md#summary-of-strengthsweaknesses-of-our-current-implementation) to determine risks you might face.
- A number of (straightforward) software work items have to be completed before battery life matches our measurements, currently battery life is about three days. Join us on chat if you want the spreadsheet of power measurements/calculations.
- The Android API needs to be documented better
- No one has written an iOS app yet. But some good souls [are talking about it](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/issues/14) ;-)
For more details see the [device software TODO](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-esp32/blob/master/docs/software/TODO.md) or the [Android app TODO](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-Android/blob/master/TODO.md).
# FAQ
If you have a question missing from this faq, please [ask in our discussion forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group/). And if you are feeling extra generous send in a pull-request for this faq.md with whatever we answered ;-).
## Q: Which of the various supported radios should I buy?
Basically you just need the radio + (optional but recommended) battery. The TBEAM is usually better because it has gps and huge battery socket. The Heltec is basically the same hardware but without the GPS (the phone provides position data to the radio in that case, so the behavior is similar - but it does burn some battery in the phone). Also the battery for the Heltec can be smaller.
In addition to Aliexpress, (banggood.com) usually has stock and faster shipping, or Amazon. If buying a TBEAM, make sure to buy a version that includes the OLED screen - this project doesn't absolutely require the screen, but we use it if is installed.
@claesg has added links to various 3D printable cases, you can see them at (www.meshtastic.org).
## Q: Do you have plans to commercialize this project
Nope. though if some other person/group wanted to use this software and a more customized device we think that would be awesome (as long as they obey the GPL license).
## Q: Does this project use patented algorithms?
(Kindly borrowed from the geeks at [ffmpeg](http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html))
We do not know, we are not lawyers so we are not qualified to answer this. Also we have never read patents to implement any part of this, so even if we were qualified we could not answer it as we do not know what is patented. Furthermore the sheer number of software patents makes it impossible to read them all so no one (lawyer or not) could answer such a question with a definite no. We are merely geeks experimenting on a fun and free project.
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ We don't collect any personal identifying information.
If you have opted-in to analytics (thank you - that helps us know what things we need to improve), we'll receive anonymized information about user behavior. i.e. which screens you used in the app etc... We never
capture usernames, the contents of your texts or your location.
This is an open-source project run by hobbyists and we try to be completely transparent. If you have questions on this policy, please file [a github issue](https://github.com/geeksville/meshtastic-esp32/issues) and we'll reply/clarify/correct.
This is an open-source project run by hobbyists and we try to be completely transparent. If you have questions on this policy, please file [a github issue](https://github.com/meshtastic/meshtastic-esp32/issues) and we'll reply/clarify/correct.
We use the same channel maps as LoRaWAN (though this is not LoRaWAN).


See [this site](https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Tutorials/LoRa-channels-list.html) for more information.
## LoRaWAN Europe Frequency Band
The maximum power allowed is +14dBM.
The maximum power allowed is +14dBm ERP (Effective Radiated Power, see [this site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_radiated_power) for more information).
### 433 MHz
There are eight channels defined with a 0.2 MHz gap between them.
Channel zero starts at 433.175 MHz
### 870 MHz
There are eight channels defined with a 0.3 MHz gap between them.
Channel zero starts at 865.20 MHz
@@ -17,7 +24,82 @@ Channel zero starts at 865.20 MHz
LoRaWAN defines 64, 125 kHz channels from 902.3 to 914.9 MHz increments.
The maximum output power for North America is +30 dBM.
The maximum output power for North America is +30 dBm ERP.
The band is from 902 to 928 MHz. It mentions channel number and its respective channel frequency. All the 13 channels are separated by 2.16 MHz with respect to the adjacent channels.
Channel zero starts at 903.08 MHz center frequency.
Channel zero starts at 903.08 MHz center frequency.
## Data-rates
### About
Various data-rates are selectable when configuring a channel and are inversely proportional to the theoretical range of the devices.
Considerations:
* Spreading Factor - How much we "spread" our data over time.
* * Each step up in Spreading Factor dobules the airtime to transmit.
* * Each step up in Spreading Factor adds about 2.5db extra link budget.
* Bandwidth - How big of a slice of the spectrum we use.
* * Each doubling of the bandwidth is almost 3db less link budget.
* * Bandwidths less than 31 may be unstable unless you have a high quality Crystal Ossilator.
* Coding Rate - How much redundency we encode to resist noise.
* * Increasing coding rate increases reliability while decrasing data-rate.
* * 4/5 - 1.25x overhead
* * 4/6 - 1.5x overhead
* * 4/7 - 1.75x overhead
* * 4/8 - 2x overhead
### Pre-Defined
We have four predefined channels. These are the most common settings and have been proven to work well:
| Channel setting | Alt Channel Name | Data-rate | SF / Symbols | Coding Rate | Bandwidth | Link Budget |
| Short range (but fast) | Short Fast | 21.875 kbps | 7 / 128 | 4/5 | 125 | 134dB |
| Medium range (but fast) | Medium | 5.469 kbps | 7 / 128 | 4/5 | 500 | 140dB |
| Long range (but slower) | Long Alt | 0.275 kbps | 9 / 512 | 4/8 | 31 | 153dB |
| Very long range (but slow) | Long Slow | 0.183 kbps (default) | 12 / 4096 | 4/8 | 125 | 154dB |
The link budget used by these calculations assumes a transmit power of 17dBm and an antenna with 0dB gain. Adjust your link budget assumptions based on your actual devices.
### Custom Settings
You may want to select other channels for your usage. The other settings can be set by using the Python API.
After applying the settings, you will need to restart the device. After your device is restarted, it will generate a new crypto key and you will need to share the newly generated QR Code or URL to all your other devices.
Some example settings:
| Data-rate | SF / Symbols | Coding Rate | Bandwidth | Link Budget | Note |
| 0.073 kbps | 12 / 4096 | 4/5 | 31 | 160dB | Twice the range and/or coverage of "Long Slow", low resliance to noise |
| 0.046 kbps | 12 / 4096 | 4/8 | 31 | 160dB | Twice the range and/or coverage of "Long Slow", high resliance to noise |
The link budget used by these calculations assumes a transmit power of 17dBm and an antenna with 0dB gain. Adjust your link budget assumptions based on your actual devices.
These channel settings may have not been tested. Use at your own discression. Share on https://meshtastic.discourse.group with your successes or failure.
## Cryptography
The preshared key used by the devices can be modified.
* 0 = No crypto
* 1 = Default channel key
* 2 - 10 = The default channel key, except with 1 through 9 added to the last byte
Use of cryptography can also be modified. To disable cryptography (maybe useful if you have HAM radio license):
* DONE use get channels & get settings from android
* DONE use set-channel from python
* DONE make settings changes from python work
* DONE pthon should stop fetching channels once we've reached our first empty channel definition (hasSettings == true)
* DONE add check for old devices with new API library
* DONE release python api
* DONE release protobufs
* DONE release to developers
* DONE fix setch-fast in python tool
* turn off fault 8: https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/issues/734
* age out pendingrequests in the python API
* DONE stress test channel download from python, sometimes it seems like we don't get all replies, bug was due to simultaneous android connection
* DONE combine acks and responses in a single message if possible (do routing plugin LAST and drop ACK if someone else has already replied)
* DONE don't send packets we received from the phone BACK TOWARDS THE PHONE (possibly use fromnode 0 for packets the phone sends?)
* fix 1.1.50 android debug panel display
* DONE test android channel setting
* DONE release to users
* DONE warn in android app about unset regions
* DONE use set-channel from android
* DONE add gui in android app for setting region
* DONE clean up python channel usage
* DONE use bindToChannel to limit admin access for remote nodes
* DONE move channels and radio config out of device settings
* test remote info and remote settings changes
* make python tests more exhaustive
* pick default random admin key
* exclude admin channels from URL?
* make a way to share just secondary channels via URL
* use single byte 'well known' channel names for the four default channel names (longslow etc), and for admin, gpio, etc...
* use presence of gpio channel to enable gpio ops, same for serial etc...
* restrict gpio & serial & settings operations to the admin channel (unless local to the current node)
* add channel restrictions for plugins (and restrict routing plugin to the "control" channel)
* stress test multi channel
* investigate @mc-hamster report of heap corruption
* DONE use set-user from android
* generalize the concept of "shortstrings" use it for both PSKs and well known channel names. Possibly use a ShortString class.
* use portuino TCP connection to debug with python API
* document the relationship between want_response (indicating remote node received it) and want_ack (indicating that this message should be sent reliably - and also get acks from the first rx node and naks if it is never delivered)
* DONE android should stop fetching channels once we've reached our first empty channel definition (hasSettings == true)
* DONE warn in python api if we are too new to talk to the device code
* DONE make a post warning about 1.2, telling how to stay on old android & python clients. link to this from the android dialog message and python version warning.
* DONE "FIXME - move the radioconfig/user/channel READ operations into SettingsMessage as well"
* DONE scrub protobufs to make sure they are absoloute minimum wiresize (in particular Data, ChannelSets and positions)
* DONE change syncword (now ox2b)
* allow chaning packets in single transmission - to increase airtime efficiency and amortize packet overhead
* DONE move most parts of meshpacket into the Data packet, so that we can chain multiple Data for sending when they all have a common destination and key.
* when selecting a MeshPacket for transmit, scan the TX queue for any Data packets we can merge together as a WirePayload. In the low level send/rx code expand that into multiple MeshPackets as needed (thus 'hiding' from MeshPacket that over the wire we send multiple datapackets
* confirm we are still calling the plugins for messages inbound from the phone (or generated locally)
* confirm we are still multi hop routing flood broadcasts
* confirm we are still doing resends on unicast reliable packets
* add history to routed packets: https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/packet-source-tracking/2764/2
* add support for full DSR unicast delivery
* DONE move acks into routing
* DONE make all subpackets different versions of data
* DONE move routing control into a data packet
* have phoneapi done via plugin (will allow multiple simultaneous API clients - stop disabling BLE while using phone API)
* DONE figure out how to add micro_delta to position, make it so that phone apps don't need to understand it?
* only send battery updates a max of once a minute
* add python channel selection for sending
* DONE record recevied channel in meshpacket
* test remote settings operations (confirm it works 3 hops away)
* DONE make a primaryChannel global and properly maintain it when the phone sends setChannel
* DONE move setCrypto call into packet send and packet decode code
* implement 'small location diffs' change
* move battery level out of position?
* consider "A special exception (FIXME, not sure if this is a good idea) - packets that arrive on the local interface
are allowed on any channel (this lets the local user do anything)." Probably by adding a "secure_local_interface" settings bool.
* DOUBLE CHECK android app can still upgrade 1.1 and 1.0 loads
eink:
* DONE check email of reported issues
* DONE turn off vbus driving (in bootloader)
* new battery level sensing
* current draw no good
* DONE: fix backlight
* DONE - USB is busted because of power enable mode?
* test CPU voltage? something is bad with RAM (removing eink module does not help)
* DONE have python tool check max packet size before sending to device
* DONE if request was sent reliably, send reply reliably
* DONE require a recent python api to talk to these new device loads
* DONE require a recent android app to talk to these new device loads
* DONE fix handleIncomingPosition
* DONE move want_replies handling into plugins
* DONE on android for received positions handle either old or new positions / user messages
* DONE on android side send old or new positions as needed / user messages
* DONE test python side handle new position/user messages
* DONE make a gpio example. --gpiowrb 4 1, --gpiord 0x444, --gpiowatch 0x3ff
* DONE fix position sending to use new plugin
* DONE Add SinglePortNumPlugin - as the new most useful baseclass
* DONE move positions into regular data packets (use new app framework)
* DONE move user info into regular data packets (use new app framework)
* DONE test that positions, text messages and user info still work
* DONE test that position, text messages and user info work properly with new android app and old device code
* DONE do UDP tunnel
* DONE fix the RTC drift bug
* move python ping functionality into device, reply with rxsnr info
* use channels for gpio security https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/issues/104
* MeshPackets for sending should be reference counted so that API clients would have the option of checking sent status (would allow removing the nasty 30 sec timer in gpio watch sending)
For high speed/lots of devices/short range tasks:
- When guessing numhops for sending: if I've heard from many local (0 hop neighbors) decrease hopcount by 2 rather than 1.
This should nicely help 'router' nodes do the right thing when long range, or if there are many local nodes for short range.
- fix timeouts/delays to be based on packet length at current radio settings
* update faq with antennas https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/range-test-ideas-requested/738/2
* update faq on recommended android version and phones
* add help link inside the app, reference a page on the wiki
* turn on amazon reviews support
* add a tablet layout (with map next to messages) in the android app
# Old docs to merge
MESH RADIO PROTOCOL
Old TODO notes on the mesh radio protocol, merge into real docs someday...
for each named group we have a pre-shared key known by all group members and
wrapped around the device. you can only be in one group at a time (FIXME?!) To
join the group we read a qr code with the preshared key and ParamsCodeEnum. that
gets sent via bluetooth to the device. ParamsCodeEnum maps to a set of various
radio params (regulatory region, center freq, SF, bandwidth, bitrate, power
etc...) so all members of the mesh can have their radios set the same way.
once in that group, we can talk between 254 node numbers.
to get our node number (and announce our presence in the channel) we pick a
random node number and broadcast as that node with WANT-NODENUM(my globally
unique name). If anyone on the channel has seen someone _else_ using that name
within the last 24 hrs(?) they reply with DENY-NODENUM. Note: we might receive
multiple denies. Note: this allows others to speak up for some other node that
might be saving battery right now. Any time we hear from another node (for any
message type), we add that node number to the unpickable list. To dramatically
decrease the odds a node number we request is already used by someone. If no one
denies within TBD seconds, we assume that we have that node number. As long as
we keep talking to folks at least once every 24 hrs, others should remember we
have it.
Once we have a node number we can broadcast POSITION-UPDATE(my globally unique
name, lat, lon, alt, amt battery remaining). All receivers will use this to a)
update the mapping of who is at what node nums, b) the time of last rx, c)
position. If we haven't heard from that node in a while we reply to that node
(only) with our current POSITION_UPDATE state - so that node (presumably just
rejoined the network) can build a map of all participants.
We will periodically broadcast POSITION-UPDATE as needed based on distance moved
or a periodic minimum heartbeat.
If user wants to send a text they can SEND_TEXT(dest user, short text message).
Dest user is a node number, or 0xff for broadcast.
# Medium priority
Items to complete before 1.0.
# Post 1.0 ideas
- finish DSR for unicast
- check fcc rules on duty cycle. we might not need to freq hop. https://www.sunfiretesting.com/LoRa-FCC-Certification-Guide/ . Might need to add enforcement for europe though.
- make a no bluetooth configured yet screen - include this screen in the loop if the user hasn't yet paired
- if radio params change fundamentally, discard the nodedb
- re-enable the bluetooth battery level service on the T-BEAM
- provide generalized (but slow) internet message forwarding service if one of our nodes has internet connectivity (MQTT) [ Not a requirement but a personal interest ]
# Low priority ideas
Items after the first final candidate release.
- implement nimble battery level service
- Nimble implement device info service remaining fields (hw version etc)
- Turn on RPA addresses for the device side in Nimble
- Try to teardown less of the Nimble protocol stack across sleep
- dynamic frequency scaling could save a lot of power on ESP32, but it seems to corrupt uart (even with ref_tick set correctly)
- Change back to using a fixed sized MemoryPool rather than MemoryDynamic (see bug #149)
- scan to find channels with low background noise? (Use CAD mode of the RF95 to automatically find low noise channels)
- If the phone doesn't read fromradio mailbox within X seconds, assume the phone is gone and we can stop queing location msgs
for it (because it will redownload the nodedb when it comes back)
- add frequency hopping, dependent on the gps time, make the switch moment far from the time anyone is going to be transmitting
- assign every "channel" a random shared 8 bit sync word (per 4.2.13.6 of datasheet) - use that word to filter packets before even checking CRC. This will ensure our CPU will only wake for packets on our "channel"
- the BLE stack is leaking about 200 bytes each time we go to light sleep
- use fuse bits to store the board type and region. So one load can be used on all boards
- Don't store position packets in the to phone fifo if we are disconnected. The phone will get that info for 'free' when it
fetches the fresh nodedb.
- Use the RFM95 sequencer to stay in idle mode most of the time, then automatically go to receive mode and automatically go from transmit to receive mode. See 4.2.8.2 of manual.
- Use fixed32 for node IDs, packetIDs, successid, failid, and lat/lon - will require all nodes to be updated, but make messages slightly smaller.
- add "store and forward" support for messages, or move to the DB sync model. This would allow messages to be eventually delivered even if nodes are out of contact at the moment.
- use variable length Strings in protobufs (instead of current fixed buffers). This would save lots of RAM
- use BLEDevice::setPower to lower our BLE transmit power - extra range doesn't help us, it costs amps and it increases snoopability
- make a HAM build: just a new frequency list, a bool to say 'never do encryption' and use hte callsign as that node's unique id. -from Girts
- don't forward redundant pings or ping responses to the phone, it just wastes phone battery
- don't send location packets if we haven't moved significantly
- scrub default radio config settings for bandwidth/range/speed
- show radio and gps signal strength as an image
- only BLE advertise for a short time after the screen is on and button pressed - to save power and prevent people for sniffing for our BT app.
- make mesh aware network timing state machine (sync wake windows to gps time) - this can save LOTS of battery
- split out the software update utility so other projects can use it. Have the appload specify the URL for downloads.
- read the PMU battery fault indicators and blink/led/warn user on screen
- discard very old nodedb records (> 1wk)
- handle millis() rollover in GPS.getTime - otherwise we will break after 50 days
- report esp32 device code bugs back to the mothership via android
- change BLE bonding to something more secure. see comment by pSecurity->setAuthenticationMode(ESP_LE_AUTH_BOND)
If you've landed here that means your android application is too old for the running device firmware. Usually our updates are backwards compatible, but in this special circumstance it is not. Sorry.
Probably, what this means is that you installed the **alpha test** version of the firmware from github. We really love people helping with development by running the alpha test binaries. But if you aren't ready to sign up for that right now, please go back to [github](https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/releases) and install the latest **not alpha** 1.1.x firmware.
If you **do** intend to run the alpha test please [opt-in](https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.geeksville.mesh) to receive the alpha test version of the android application.
If you are willing to be an alpha tester, please keep an eye on our forum where we post frequent release notes. We also will actively help you with any bugs you might encounter (along our shared journey of new feature goodness).
If you have problems/questions please post in our [forum](https://meshtastic.discourse.group) and some nice person will probably help.
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