I've been messing around with Meshtastic recently:

https://meshtastic.org/

It's been fun to explore. Lots of cheap hardware out there to get started with. Documentation slightly lacking but not terrible, and so far where the docs fall short I can turn to the code for answers. Good community.

Reserving comment on how the network / protocol might be improved. It's interesting to think about, but I knew little about the topic going in.

I've created a library for use by Synchronet JavaScript modules:

https://gitlab.synchro.net/sota/meshtastic

Which opens the door to hooking a BBS up to this network and doing ... whatever. On the shoulders of that I've made the ugly beginnings of a service:

https://gitlab.synchro.net/sota/synctastic

With the idea being that it would listen for certain messages and respond to them in some way. Boring (but working) proof of concept for this is an "echo" module for said service, which when triggered sends your text back at you.

Contemplating what actual use this might be put to and wondering if anyone has ideas. Message networking is on my mind, but with reservations; has the potential to be very slow and occupy too much time on the air.

Not strictly ham radio related, but not *not* ham related either, since there is a "licensed mode" you can use to participate in this network.

Anyhow, just thought I'd pop in and mention what I've been working on this past week and see what the DOVE-Net ham (and non-ham) brain trust has to say.

VE3XEC
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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I've been messing around with Meshtastic recently:
https://meshtastic.org/

It's been fun to explore. Lots of cheap hardware out there to get
started with. Documentation slightly lacking but not terrible, and so
far where the docs fall short I can turn to the code for answers. Good community.

Me t00 - I have two more module arriving on Saturday and I'm getting into all of the things that are 'meshtastic'.

I've created a library for use by Synchronet JavaScript modules:

https://gitlab.synchro.net/sota/meshtastic

Super cool - you move quicker than I; thanks for sharing code like you always do....


What have you created so far? I have 4 meshtastic devices and quickly moving into... more. I'm thinking of putting a larger antenna up but haven't thought of how I can connect to my beloved BBS. Yer moving faster than I... :P



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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: paulie420 to echicken on Tue Apr 23 2024 22:24:00

What have you created so far? I have 4 meshtastic devices and quickly

Quite a lot but also not very much. :)

There's the library, so we can write scripts to let a BBS interface with Meshtastic devices to send packets and process incoming packets. Also gather information about the device, its channels, node DB, stuff like that. And configure the device, which may be useful later for applying common settings.

The device can be TCP or serial. As long as the BBS can talk to the device over the network they don't need to be in the same place. You could on the other hand put a BBS on an RPi and just do serial, eg. for a fully integrated outdoor node.

On top of that there's a service script that's vaguely reminiscent of an IRC bot. It loads various "modules" and will route incoming messages to them depending on the destination port number, and the module can respond to the message if it likes.

That's about as far as I've gone so far. I wrote an "echo" module which looks for a TEXT_MESSAGE_APP mesh packet where the message like "!echo <text goes here>" and then responds with "You sent: <text goes here>". Useless except for proving that the library works and the service script is doing the routing properly. (And it works; I trigger it from the Meshtastic app on my phone connected to one device, and my BBS connected to another device responds as expected.)

Now I'm thinking about information services. I might make it respond to a !weather command and spit out weather data in response. Not really a BBS thing except that the BBS is making this possible. Stuff like that.

Later ... full on message networking? Could be a real bandwidth hog so I'm not sure. A protocol would need to be devised that makes best use of broadcasting and systems only pulling new messages they haven't seen before. Curious to know if the "fido web" has done anything along these lines or if that thing is still a huge dupefest.
echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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What have you created so far? I have 4 meshtastic devices and quickly

Quite a lot but also not very much. :)

Understood - so far I just have 2 lilygo modules that can send/recieve but I want to build a couple more... I want to 2d print one of the iPhone magsafe ones that sticks to your phone, and the blackberry one w/ the keyboard.

I'd also like to mount an antenna on my house, hopefully to link Portland to my city about 15 miles away... I'm gonna see if I can get nodes down there.

Maybe one day we'll be able to hop to eachother!



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Re: Meshtastic
By: echicken to All on Mon Apr 22 2024 06:26 pm

I've been messing around with Meshtastic recently:

For the longest time I've been meaning to play with Meshtastic and just never got around to it. This sounds awesome and will be good motivation to try it out. I just have an old WRT54G, but maybe I can put an antenna on it or something. Not sure if there's anyone close enough to mesh with otherwise. Did you have to use any kind of external antenna? And are you using Ubiquity or something?

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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: paulie420 to echicken on Wed Apr 24 2024 19:39:00

Understood - so far I just have 2 lilygo modules that can send/recieve but I want to build a couple more... I want to 2d print one of the iPhone magsafe ones that sticks to your phone, and the blackberry one w/ the keyboard.

I grabbed a couple of Heltec v3 modules since they were the right combination of price, features, and fast delivery. I've got a Lilygo T-Deck on the way (the blackberry one) just for the novelty of it, even if I don't think that's the direction these devices should move toward. I imagine I'll reevaluate my hardware choices once I become more familiar with all of this.

Progress for today was the start of a weather module:

https://gitlab.synchro.net/sota/synctastic/-/raw/main/img/screenshot.png

where green is me using one Heltec module from my phone, and ec00 is a script running on my BBS and responding after fetching data from openweathermap.

Whatever you can imagine doing here with the Synchronet JS environment and all BBS data is on the table. And it doesn't have to just be text messages, this is just an example of a simple user-facing application.

Sending a message like the one I'm typing now, however, would take several packets. I'm not sure if that kind of traffic is welcome on the network, so I'm still pondering what exactly to do with this.

echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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Re: Meshtastic
By: phigan to echicken on Wed Apr 24 2024 22:19:47

try it out. I just have an old WRT54G, but maybe I can put an antenna on it or something. Not sure if there's anyone close enough to mesh with

There are network maps on the web; you might get an idea of who's nearby, but they aren't comprehensive. There are stations near me that don't show up on these maps, but I can reach them over the air.

In North America, activity is concentrated on the 915 MHz ISM band. I imagine I could use other bands but would need to coordinate with someone else who was interested and near since I'm less likely to stumble on other stations there.

So it depends on where in the world you are and how densely populated your area is. The good news is that hardware is fairly cheap, so while you probably(?) won't be able to do much with the WRT54G it's not hard to get something that will work.

otherwise. Did you have to use any kind of external antenna? And are you using Ubiquity or something?

I'm using a pair of Heltec Lora32 v3 devices, and they're both in my office in my basement with their stubby little stock spring antennas. This suits me fine for the moment since I'm developing stuff and not trying to get a signal out of my house. I'm going to move one to an upstairs window soon, though.

There's a list of supported hardware on the Meshtastic website, and for the most part you're just flashing one of their firmware builds onto your device.

echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: echicken to paulie420 on Thu Apr 25 2024 01:45 am

packets. I'm not sure if that kind of traffic is welcome on the network, so still pondering what exactly to do with this.

How about just checking # of unread emails and messages in bases marked for scanning?

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Re: Meshtastic
By: echicken to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 02:03 am

There's a list of supported hardware on the Meshtastic website, and for the most part you're just flashing one of their firmware builds onto your device

Yeah I've noticed they've come up with a lot of new stuff! I have some Pico clones that might be cool to use with those LoRa modules...

At a hamfest last weekend someone had a meshtastic setup going under a tent and was actually using a WRT54G for one of the nodes, so it might still be supported, but like you said, definitely won't get me connected to the 915mhz network.. we'll see if there's anyone nearby that can be a gateway. I'd love to get some of the other radio modules, but still lookin' for a joerb atm so can't justify spending on random projects :).

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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: phigan to echicken on Thu Apr 25 2024 08:30:46

How about just checking # of unread emails and messages in bases marked for scanning?

I think the best solution would and should be more complex for the sake of efficient use of the network. It should take into account that stations are effectively broadcasting new messages (as they come in and on request) and that any other station might observe these packets. Your BBS might think it has 10 unread messages for me, but maybe I've already seen 8 of them go out over the air (broadcast, or directed at some other station).

Most likely it would involve requesting and sending lists of unique message IDs, and/or updating scan pointers based on acks, or I don't know what. Ultimately the goal would be to keep network traffic to the minimum possible, and conventional BBS network callouts just don't map that well to this environment.

echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: echicken to phigan on Thu Apr 25 2024 12:59 pm

any other station might observe these packets. Your BBS might think it has 1 unread messages for me, but maybe I've already seen 8 of them go out over th

Right, but I just meant for functionality of the one BBS. You as the user can maybe know if you've read some message on a certain base, if it was after the last time you logged into that BBS. This would be kind of like a pre-login check that some boards let you do without having to fully "log in". Like Image BBSes on Commodore.

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Re: Re: Meshtastic
By: phigan to echicken on Thu Apr 25 2024 13:19:14

can maybe know if you've read some message on a certain base, if it was after the last time you logged into that BBS. This would be kind of like a pre-login check that some boards let you do without having to fully "log

I see. It's easy enough to return unread message counts for a user, so maybe that's something to add if ever there's interactive message reading for users via this interface. Re: message bases, I'm mainly pondering data exchange between BBSs at the moment and not a user interface.

echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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I grabbed a couple of Heltec v3 modules since they were the right combination of price, features, and fast delivery.

LOL - I might have ordered the Heltec, too - I guess I have to wait to state exactly what I ordered, but know I have two modules to jump in and start w/ mesh.

Sending a message like the one I'm typing now, however, would take
several packets. I'm not sure if that kind of traffic is welcome on the network, so I'm still pondering what exactly to do with this.

For me its about two things; emergency texting and the meshtastic community. I want both.

I'm hoping to learn more and put up an antenna in the near future; so that I can meet a broader meshtastic community AND send messages for my own personal use. In a world of FISAA and an ever growing non-private w0rld, these projects are so important and needed IMO.



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I know I'm a bit late to this conversation, but give MeshCom a look as well. https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/
It may not have all the same features as Meshtastic, but it's the same sort of idea and is designed with ham radio in mind.
I've also been playing around with Reticulum - https://reticulum.network/ which is PHY agnostic (can be done over old packet!) and is a bit more fleshed out than the other two.

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Re: Meshtastic
By: aether to echicken on Mon Apr 29 2024 05:47 am

I know I'm a bit late to this conversation, but give MeshCom a look as well.

There's also broadband-hamnet.org which I may have been confusing with Meshtastic at first :D.

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Re: Meshtastic
By: phigan to aether on Tue Apr 30 2024 16:38:41

There's also broadband-hamnet.org which I may have been confusing with Meshtastic at first :D.

I had that suspicion but did not voice it.

I got the impression (from comments I read somewhere) that BBHN was defunct. Is it still operating? Looks like there hasn't been any news on their website for 8 years, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com
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I got the impression (from comments I read somewhere) that BBHN was defunct. Is it still operating? Looks like there hasn't been any news on their website for 8 years, though that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

IIRC, BBHN was unofficially replaced with AREDN. There was/is a post somewhere that said something along the lines of 'the BBHN developers have moved to AREDN'.

BBHN from what I can tell is old and is probably defunct. The BBHN firmware is only targeting the older WRT routers, whereas AREDN has support for more devices that are newer. Haven't really looked into it a whole lot myself, since the area I'm in has little to no desire or usage for WiFi. Meh, maybe I'll put up an antenna and see what happens.

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