Radio, railways, stuff...

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 now been updated to fix the missing messages.

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: 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.

There is an issue I cannot put my finger on. I discovered now that I can send messages to the mesh. I know this because I sent a test and the node displayed an answer, but the app did not (neither iOS or MacOS). I just happened to notice the reply on the tiny screen by chance. After a lot more fiddling and getting nowhere fast I connected the newly flashed node to wifi. This disabled Bluetooth so the iOS and MacOS apps no longer function. The web app does, and this comes directly from the node itself via a browser. The web app can also successfully send messages, but not receive. However, using the Python API I can see all data coming in and the replies are all there. So there is some disconnect between the node and the higher level methods of access, but not the data coming from the node. Odd. Others have reported similar and the iOS app was updated yesterday so that is another thing to check but the issue above is rather odd. An update to the app does not update the web app, that needs another firmware update. For now, more fiddling... but at least I can see the data so I can always write something to handle it rather than relying on the inbuilt web app or client apps. So... Python... been meaning to learn it like forever! Update: running one node via Bluetooth and the phone I can send and receive messages via my other node. Nothing appears in the web app still, but at least I have it working. That leads me to blame the web app itself so I have reported it as an issue.