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A venture into the world of Meshtastic

βœ‡M0AWS Amateur Radio
By: M0AWS
15 February 2024 at 15:04

Meshtastic is a relatively new thing in the internet of things (IOT) world and is gaining traction in the U.K. at the moment.

So what is Meshtastic?

Meshtastic is an open source, off-grid, decentralised mesh network built to run on affordable, low-power devices on the 868Mhz industrial, scientific, and medicalΒ (ISM) band. (Some devices can also run on the 433Mhz 70cm HAM band.)

The ISM band is licence free but, has limits on the RF power levels that can be used. The one plus over the HAM bands is that you can legally transfer encrypted messages over the ISM band making it secure.

The best way to think of Meshtastic is a radio version of the online decentralised Matrix chat system but, without the large server requirements and ever growing database!

Heltec ESP32 v3 Wifi, Bluetooth and 868Mhz device for Meshtastic
Heltec ESP32 v3 Wifi, Bluetooth and 868Mhz device for Meshtastic

There are quite a few Meshtastic compatible devices on the market today with many costing around the Β£20 mark whilst others like the LillyGo T-Echo costing over Β£100 in the U.K. even though they are less than half the price in the USA.

Since I’m just starting out on my Meshtastic adventure I thought I’d start with a pair of Heltec ESP32 v3 devices that are normally readily available on Amazon but, due to the current push to build a U.K. wide mesh, they are currently out of stock pretty much everywhere.

Loading the Meshtastic firmware onto the devices is fairly straight forward and can be done using the web installer via either the Edge or Chromium web browsers.
(Note: If using Windows O/S you will need to install some drivers from the Meshtastic website to be able to communicate with the devices)

Having neither of the two browsers and being a Linux command line junkie I decided to use the Python programme to load the firmware onto the two devices. It’s worth noting that you don’t need any drivers to be able to communicate with the devices if you’re using either Debian or one of the many Ubuntu flavours of Linux O/S.

Using the Python command line program sounds like a more complicated approach but, in reality it’s super simple, extremely reliable, quick and if like me you use a Linux PC in the radio shack then you most likely already have most of what you need to get the job done. Just follow the simple steps as laid out on the Meshtastic web site and you’ll have the firmware loaded in no time at all.

Installing the Meshtastic firmware onto my Heltec ESP32 v3 using the Python command line tool
Installing the Meshtastic firmware onto my Heltec ESP32 v3 using the Python command line tool

The firmware takes less than a minute to copy across to the Heltec device and is automatically rebooted ready for configuration once the transfer has completed.

It is possible to configure the device via the command line tool however, since there is a nice GUI app for both Apple iOS and Android devices I decided to install the Meshtastic app on my iPad and connect to the device via Bluetooth to configure it.

Once you’ve got the Meshtastic app installed on your device and have connected via Bluetooth you’ll be ready to start configuring the device to join the mesh. The first thing you want to do is set the region. This is different in each country but, in the UK we use the EU_868 region settings. This will set the device to use the 868Mhz ISM band which is the band being used to build the U.K. wide mesh.

View of the Meshtastic app on iOS showing the configuration options for the Heltec ESP32 v3
View of the Meshtastic app on iOS showing the configuration options for the Heltec ESP32 v3

There is a multitude of configuration options within the app which I will go into in greater detail in a series of articles at a later date.

Heltec ESP32 v3 running Meshtastic Firmware
Heltec ESP32 v3 running Meshtastic Firmware

For those of you that, like me aren’t near any other nodes you can connect the devices to the internet and use the Meshtastic MQTT server to communicate with other nodes. This of course isn’t off-grid but, it will get you started until the mesh grows into your local area at which point your device will automatically start communicating with the other nodes over radio.

Meshtastic MQTT connectivity
Meshtastic MQTT connectivity

Once you are connected to either the MQTT server or other nodes via radio you will see the other node details appear in the Meshtastic app. It’s interesting to look at the information and see signal strengths and traffic levels etc for each node.

View of the Meshtastic app on iOS showing Nodes in the Mesh and Device Metrics for the M0AWS-1 Node
View of the Meshtastic app on iOS showing Nodes in the Mesh and Device Metrics for the M0AWS-1 Node

There are a multitude of cases available for the Heltec v3 devices, especially if you have access to a 3D printer. One of the nicest cases I have seen is the Bender from IKB3D (I know, it’s a strange name!) but, it really is a super little case for the Heltec series of devices.

Bender case for Heltec ESP32 v3 devices
Bender case for Heltec ESP32 v3 devices
Bender case for Heltec ESP32 v3 devices

You can either buy the 3D print files for Β£8.99 and print it yourself or just order a pre-printed and assembled case directly from the website although, due to demand there is a long lead time currently.

More soon …

KENWOOD TH-D75 – User Manual und Software verfΓΌgbar

βœ‡DL-NORDWEST 2.0
By: Stephan 9V1LH
20 January 2024 at 09:41
KENWOOD hat mittlerweile das Benutzerhandbuch in englischer Sprache sowie Software-Downloads fΓΌr das KENWOOD TH-D75 online gestellt. Mehr darΓΌber erfahrt ihr hier in diesem Beitrag. Jetzt dauert es nicht mehr lange, bis das KENWOOD TH-D75 auch hierzulande verfΓΌgbar sein wird. Wer schon jetzt einen Blick in das, wie von KENWOOD gewohnt, sehr umfangreiche und bebilderte Benutzerhandbuch … KENWOOD TH-D75 – User Manual und Software verfΓΌgbar weiterlesen

PEANUT Anbindung DL-Nordwest

βœ‡DL-NORDWEST 2.0
By: Stephan 9V1LH
11 January 2024 at 07:30
PEANUT von David PA7LIM ist eine App fΓΌr Android oder Windows, die es einem erlaubt, direkt mit seinem Smartphone oder eben PC qrv zu werden. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Systemen wie Zello ist PEANUT aber Funkamateuren vorbehalten und bietet zudem eine Schnittstelle in andere digitale Netze. DL-Nordwest war seit Beginn angebunden, seit dem 10.01.2024 erfolgt … PEANUT Anbindung DL-Nordwest weiterlesen

Android Satellite Tracking Applications

βœ‡2M0SQL
By: Peter， 2M0SQL
23 July 2018 at 15:39

Satellite tracking applications play an important part in using the transponders available to radio amateurs, of course, experiences of them all vary and are very subjective however we are going to explore what is available on the Android platform.

AMSATDroid Free

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.me.g4dpz.HamSatDroid

AMSATDroid Free has been the staple choice for most keen AMSAT operators, created by David G4DPZ and provided free to the community it allows you to see the next passes for individual satellites for a period of time when you select a pass Β it gives you a graphical display of the pass on a compass style view or a map view which includes the track of where it’s going to be.

The application hasn’t received many updates but recently got made open source and is available on Github https://github.com/g4dpz/AmsatDroidFree

Heavens-Above Pro

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.heavens_above.viewer_pro

Heavens-Above Pro has been my favourite satellite tracking app when on the move, its amateur radio features allow you to search for an amateur satellite you’re after, it then gives you passes for the next couple of days along with pass times and a rough guide for the uplink and downlink.

On selecting the pass of interest you get a compass view which updates in real time showing where the satellite is, it also gives a detailed break down of a pass from the start (AOS) to the end (LOS) including the time the satellite is at its maximum elevation.

A useful function in Heavens-Above is that it allows you to create calendar entries for the pass, thus helping you plan your trip. Within the settings, you can also define some of the options like the minimum elevation so if you can’t work below 10 degrees elevation you can set that.

ISS Detector

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.runar.issdetector

ISS Detector has become the most popular application for satellite tracking in recent months with its huge range of features it offers, although you have to buy the Amateur Radio Extensions which cost around Β£1.09 via an in-app purchase it’s well worth it.

Once you have purchased the addon you can create a filter to include the active ham radio satellites that you are interested in and set a minimum elevation plus whether you want ISS Detector to popup a notification when the pass is due within 5 minutes which is useful.

Returning to the main screen you a full list of next passes based on your filters these are in chronological order. When you select the pass you get a wealth of information displayed in the RADAR tab you get a compass view of the pass you help you with antenna pointing, selecting the details tab gives you a finer display of the pass times and its elevations along with a live Google Map of the satellites current position.

The interesting part of this tab is when you scroll down it gives you doppler information, for a linear satellite you get doppler corrections for the top and bottom edges of the transponder, on FM passes you get the uplink and downlink, this can be a useful guide on where you should be listening and transmitting.

Within the satellite view, you also have the option to create a calendar entry if you’re planning a day trip or even share the pass with friends.

As with any application, there’s a huge selection of settings options to go through and adjust to your liking but once you have it set up it’s straightforward to use.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, this gave an insight into some of the options available, I’ve not been paid to recommend any of them and paid apps were bought with my own money, I will say that ISS Detector is my main go-to application for planning passes whether at home or even portable the notifications, calendar and filters just make it simple.

The post Android Satellite Tracking Applications appeared first on 2M0SQL.

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