Repeaters¶
tl,dr; if you want to setup an outdoor repeater, Seeed's Solar Node is the easiest to get working. When it is instock at The Pi Hut grab it for quick shipping also. The stock antenna is good enough without getting seriously into nerd stuff. There is a fork of the OTA update firmware you can flash on it, if you feel brave and don't want to climb back up the tree or wherever you placed it to update the firmware.
Almost everyone working on the LoraProject would install the Seeed P1 over a DIY one, unless there are particular circumstances where a Seeed wouldn't fit. But building something equivalent for less isn't really possibly unless you decide to scale your own production.
Setup Guide¶
Once you have your repeater in hand, install the latest repeater firmware on it (requires Google Chrome and the repeater to be connected via USB). Once it completes, you will be prompted to configure it. You can also return to the MeshCore Flasher page in the future if you skipped this step.
Naming Convention¶
Start with the province you're based in (bhd = Ulster, dub = Lienster, noc = Connacht, snn = Munster see regions as to why these names), add a geographic designation, such as collinhill if it's located on the top Collin Hill, or holywood if it's in the Holywood downtown area, and finally add your handle (optional) or number designation if there's a few of them (such as lisburn-01, lisburn-02).
If you want to provide more detail around these nodes, you can always add that in the Owner Information field users can retrieve as guests via the telemtry feed. Keeping the names concise and something that can be easily filtered by in the MeshCore client app will be something you appreciate in the future.
Radio¶
Use the UK Narrow Preset, which is now the default when a node is flashed, but always confirm that is the case.
Location¶
Pick a location on the map either directly where the repeater is, or within a 30m of it - similar altitude if possible. This helps others know when planning to put their repeaters if they will be able to reach you or not. You repeater will not be mapped on MeshMapper until you provide a location. If this is a house / attic repeater, you can use a nearby intersection or landmark.
Terminal Settings¶
There is one command you can only run via the terminal, and that is retrieving the private key of the repeater. Do this if you want to be able to replace this repeater or reformat it in the same location and keep the same identity and history when it comes to the Mesh Mapping results (and so you don't have to add a new repeater to your device to manage it).
The MeshCore Flasher page has a Console button you can use to open a terminal session to run these commands, you can also run them via the CLI section of the MeshCore app. If you have picocom installed and want to do this via the old school way, picocom -b 115200 /dev/tty.usb...(or device) --imap lfcrlf should be enough info for you to open a session that way.
# retrieve the private key to copy it
get prv.key
# set your custom key & reboot so it takes effect
set priv.key new_key
reboot
Required Settings for LoraProject¶
These are what we ask people to enable to help grow the Mesh here in Ireland, these based off of the Sydney Mesh advice, but tweaked for Ireland.
# Broadcast locally every 4 hours about the repeater
set advert.interval 240
# Tell the whold mesh every 24 hours
set flood.advert.interval 24
# prevent repeating old messages by accident
set loop.detect minimal
# use 4 letter prefixes instead of two, reduces path conflicts
set path.hash.mode 1
# configure at minimum the Island of Ireland region
# without this your repeater will not be mapped
region put ioi
region allowf ioi
# put the region the repeat is in
region put bhd ioi
region allowf bhd # Ulster repeater
region put snn ioi
region allowf snn # Munster repeater
region put dub ioi
region allowf dub # Leinster repeater
region put noc ioi
region allowf noc # Connacht repeater
# save the region settings
region save
Optional Repeater Settings¶
You should probably do this also, but has less impact on others, and just your experience
# make sure the radio rechecks the RF landscape every 8 minutes
set agc.reset.interval 500
# send multiple acknowledgements, makes remote admin of a node easier
set multi.acks 1
# let others get info on the device, including any notes you put in owner info
set guest.password
# keep your node from draining its battery if using it
powersaving on
Other useful CLI commands:¶
# see what regions you've allowed on the repeater
region list allowed
# manually push the RF settings for Ireland
set radio 869.6179809,62.5,8,8
# set the transmit power to 22 dbi
set tx 22
# set coordinates
set lat 53.48
set lon -7.73
# check if you have gps
gps on
# set the clock from gps - now done automatically every 30 minte
gps sync
# have the node advertise it's GPS coordinates as its location
gps advert share
# use the location set in preferences - default
gps advert prefs
# set the location in preferences from the GPS coords (useful if you power off GPS later)
gps setloc
Remote Updates¶
OTA Fix for the nRF52 based boards, however you still need to get pretty close to the device in order to flash it successfully.
If you want to put the repeater in a really hard to get to spot and aren't as concerned about battery life, the ESP32 based boards allow for update WiFi - trigger an OTA update, and then connect to SSID device type and go to http://192.168.4.1/update to upload their firmware. Doesn't require special apps and these boards are more likely to have support for an external 2.4ghz antenna. Like this £9 one from Seeed.