Both my 868MHz and 433MHz nodes are being odd today. I had been looking into the data that arrives when ‘–noproto’ is sent to the node and, typically there is a fairly constant stream of data. But today, despite both being power cycled there is no data at all. Odd, because when I ask the 868Mhz node for its nodelist it is being updated. Maybe it’s something in the new firmware but for now I’ve been fiddling enough and it’s time to take a step back. I have not had any successful traceroutes today, I responded to a couple of requests and got no reply. It’s made worse by the fact that, having moved the nodes in the loft they are now out of BLE range. Both are connected to a Raspberry Pi via USB so I can access the nodes that way but for client use I use my mobile node assuming that the node in the loft will relay everything – maybe not. And for 433MHz I only have the one node anyway.

Mind you, it is raining and I suspect that is making a fairly decent shield for 868MHz, and I have yet to see any activity on 433MHz. So maybe it’s just the wrong time…

The other issue, at least around here is the popularity with over 120 nodes in the list, many sending telemetry and position updates all the time.

Getting the antennas outside will help but that will take a while yet unless I mount them low down on the workshop – actually that may not be that daft an idea. If it stops raining…

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 says where it is etc. But it will probably never go mobile. With this powered over USB from the Mac Mini I can also access the data stream via the CLI. One issue with this setup is that the shack node reports all nodes seen as having an excellent signal strength as it only sees data from the loft node. In reality only a couple of local nodes have anything approaching a ‘good’ signal strength.

Both 868MHz nodes are Lily T3S3 units with no GPS.

And there is a 433MHz node, this time a T-Beam with GPS on board, directly connected to a 2m/70cm collinear which is hanging from the window blinds in the shack with some bungee cord. This is of course temporary. I have yet to see any other nodes on 433MHz and I suspect I will quietly give up with that.

868MHz-wise there is a lot of local activity. Currently the loft node sees 180 other nodes, although not all will be active. They do tend to stick and clearing the node database then starts afresh, slowly building up a list as data is seen.

And the use? So far, mainly people asking if they can be heard. There are some private channels, no idea what as they are encrypted, pus there are at least two very well sited nodes acting as routers for the area and beyond. One of those is extremely well made.

The 868MHz node has gained a collinear and both nodes are now in the loft powered over a long USB extension that was already routed up there. I was surprised to see numerous peer messages appearing in the web app and after some fiddling these decoded into names etc. and the web app plotted them on the UK map. At present there are 50 nodes, some as far south as Sheffield, one in and two to the east of York, one in Knaresborough, and a cluster nearby and out to the west as far as Hebden Bridge. Some of these are named after callsigns but of course this is not an amateur radio thing so anything goes. The web app recorded a bunch of messages too between people. Sadly, no-one can hear my node so there is work to do yet, not least putting the antenna outside. I have another 868MHz device on order so I can check that the node in the loft is actually transmitting and if so, do some basic range tests.

Another day… I ordered another T3S3 unit which arrived this morning, less than a day since I ordered it! Anyway, on powering it up it immediately saw nodes and messages. It appears that the node in the loft was just passing messages to it, which is after all what these things do. So I have removed the loft node, brought the collinear down and connected to this new node leaving the other powered off. After resetting the Node database it can see nodes but all with ‘bad’ signals (I did not enable the receive boost). I am using Bluetooth to connect to this, not wifi, so it is a virgin setup. At least this proves as far as I can that it is just this node receiving these others. Perhaps the few local nodes will pipe up later on and I’ll see something other than bad signal strengths. The antenna, with the node directly connected is currently hanging in the window so putting it outside is the next step.

Actually the next step is to re-flash the now-disconnected node and start from scratch because I am convinced I messed something up while fiddling! Then I can use that one for a range test.