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Companion guide

This guide should help you configure a Meshcore "companion", which you need to communicate with other people on the mesh.

Companions must be able to talk with a repeater connected to the mesh to talk with other companions, unless companions are within range. If there's no repeater in your area, you should consider setting one up following the repeater guide!

Hardware

Pick a device in our hardware review notes or the Meshtastic hardware list1.

It's cheap! Expect to pay 50$CAD for a starter kit or 100$CAD for a good companion.

Tip

If the device you picked comes with a removable antenna, make sure you connect the antenna before powering up the device. A radio that transmits without an antenna can damage itself!

Software

Now you own a LoRa transceiver, congratulations! The next step is to make sure it runs Meshcore by installing firmware on it, and that you can talk to the device, typically by installing an app on your phone.

Flash the firmware on the device

First you need to flash your device, which essentially means connecting to the following website.

https://flasher.meshcore.io

Your web browser must support the Web Serial API, which includes Chrome (and derivatives) and Firefox 151 or later.

You may skip this step if it comes flashed with Meshcore already.

Connect your device to your computer using a USB cable. Note that for some USB-C cables, you might need to flip the cable over for the connection to work. A good hint is whether the device is charging or not from your laptop: if it isn't, it means it likely isn't connected correctly.

On many devices, you need to enter some special mode for flashing to work. Here are examples:

  • Heltec: hold the "program" (PRG) button while connecting the USB cable. For the Heltec v4, it will show up as a JTAG device. On the Heltec v3, it will show up as a CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller.

  • RAK: double-click the reset button will bring it in "DFU" mode, but the web flasher should also be able to do that automatically.

Important

You will have the option to flash a "Bluetooth" of "Serial" companion. You should typically choose "Bluetooth" unless you want to connect to the device over the USB cable. Those are exclusive: a Bluetooth device cannot be accessed over serial and vice-versa.

Proprietary software warning

While most Meshcore firmware is free software (the meshcore-dev/MeshCore repository, the T-Deck firmware is proprietary. Awesome MeshCore lists a few alternatives.

During first boot, the device will display the message:

Loading...

... for a solid minute, that is normal.

Backing up before flashing

If you're flashing an already configured device, you should backup before flashing it.

On the Meshcore you want to:

  1. go into Settings (the "gear" icon)
  2. go into Export Config
  3. hit Select All
  4. hit the check mark
  5. save the file somewhere safe

Normally, flashing a Meshcore device with a newer version should be safe and your settings should be kept, but it's always good to backup your configuration anyways, and this can be used to copy your configuration to another device as well.

If you're flashing over a Meshtastic device, backups can be done by exporting the configuration in the Meshtastic app settings, or with the Meshtastic command line tool:

meshtastic --export-config > devicename.yaml

Install an app

Unless you picked a standalone device, now you'll need something to talk with people on the mesh. Unless you use a standalone device, this means installing software on your phone.

You can try that from your computer with a web browser by using Liam Cottle's web app. There are also iOS and Android versions and a pretty good Linux desktop app called Meshy.

Proprietary software warning

The official Meshcore app is proprietary software that do not publish their source code and require a subscription or a 10 second wait time for certain features.

You can work around some of those problems by installin the open app which requires going through Obtainium on Android or test flight. It's a little complicated, so don't venture there unless you get frustrated with the official apps. The open app also lacks a few features from the official one, namely:

To connect your phone to the device, you need to find the right device in your list, which can be challenging if you are in an environment with lots of Bluetooth devices.

Pick the device name that looks like the alphanumeric identifier displayed at the top left of the display.

The Bluetooth PIN should also be displayed, bigger, and in the center, as a string of 6 digits. That is different from the device name, which will have letters in it, and is only used in pairing.

The device name on the top left, however, identifies the device over the airwaves, both on the Mesh and Bluetooth.

Configuration

The main configuration you need to do on the device is set the preset, but you should also pick a display name.

  • Radio settings: "recommended USA / Canada", see the frequencies question for details
  • Display name: your name, YUL-Area for a repeater, for example YUL-Villeray, YUL-Parc-Extension, etc
  • Region: do not set a region, as we currently do not use one, and it will interfere with routing

Warning

Some Meshcore configurations exposes your location by default on devices which have a GPS device! To work around this problem, you can disable the GPS or reduce the coordinates precision, we recommend two digits (~1km) for clients and 3 digits (~100m) for repeaters.

You made it! Say hi!

At this point, your companion should be properly configured.

Introduce yourself! Say "hi!" on the "Public" channel.

Explain what device did you setup, where's your general area, what's the weather like, etc. Be kind, reply to people, participate!

If no one answers, try the #bots channel and send ping or test. See also the channels list.

  1. Meshtastic-supported device are often (but not always!) also working under Meshcore. ↩