Getting started with Meshtastic

Getting started with running a Meshtastic relay is easy. You need to buy some hardware, install an app, and tweak some settings.

Question

We are currently reconsidering the use of Meshtastic across the Montreal mesh. Right now, there are dozens if not hundreds of devices, but no one can seem to speak with anyone. There's mostly noise, and some believe we have grown past the scalability of Meshtastic.

We are now focusing on building Meshcore infrastructure, see our Getting started with Meshcore guide instead.

You can expect to communicate through text with other relays within a few kilometres without even setting up a special antenna or location.

Warning

Meshtastic exposes your location by default on devices which have a GPS device! Make sure the Position precision is reduced or set the GPS Mode to DISABLED.

Tip

Also keep in mind that the hardware address of devices is used routing in Meshtastic. Every message from a device includes that address which is unique and cannot be changed, see this feature request for details. This is a bit like IMEI identifiers on phones. Meshcore and Reticulum do not suffer from this issue.

Hardware

Pick a device in our hardware review notes or the official hardware list.

It's cheap! Expect to pay 50$CAD for a starter kit, 150$CAD for a decent solar relay.

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

Once you have some hardware, you need to operate it. Typically, you download an app on your phone (Android, iOS) and control the device over Bluetooth or a USB cable. Some devices can also be controlled over WiFi or wired network. There is also a command line client, a web client, and lots more.

You might need to flash firmware on the device, which requires connecting the device to your computer (or phone?) and running a Chrome-derived web browser.

More projects are also documented in our software index.

Settings

This section describes various settings we advise in the Meshtastic app.

Info

The two settings below are crucial to connect to the mesh. If those are not configured properly, you will not be able to talk to anyone else.

Setting	Value	Note
Modem preset	LONG_FAST	default, don't change it (for now)
Region	US	even though we're in Canada, pick the US preset because those are the frequencies (902.0 - 928.0 MHz) that apply here as well

Optional

Those settings are optional, but recommended.

Setting	Value	Note
Bluetooth: PIN	(random)	change the default PIN to some random value and keep it in your password manager
Device: Role	CLIENT	consider CLIENT_BASE if you run a relay, don't change the role without reading the Choosing The Right Device Role guide
LoRa: Ignore MQTT	true	this keeps traffic from the wider mesh from entering the network and reduces overall noise.
LoRa: Max hops	3	default. you can raise this if you really think it might help you reach further, but we generally advise against it
Position: GPS Mode	DISABLE	or reduce the Position precision in the Channel configuration, otherwise you leak your position to the network by default1
User: "Short Name"	(arbitrary)	only 4 characters, set to something easy to remember, this is what's visible on the map and chats
User: "Long Name"	(arbitrary)	set to something useful, but not offensive, ham operators can set their call sign here

Advanced: batch configuration

If you feel adventurous and want to make the above configuration easier, you can use the following YAML file -- let's call it minimal.yaml -- for the minimal configuration:

config:
  lora:
    region: US
    modemPreset: LONG_FAST

This can be loaded with:

meshtastic --configure minimal.yaml

Then, the "recommended" settings (above) can be configured with the meshtastic command again:

meshtastic --set bluetooth.fixedPin 123456
meshtastic --set bluetooth.mode FIXED_PIN
meshtastic --set lora.hopLimit 3
meshtastic --set lora.ignoreMqtt true
meshtastic --set position.gpsMode NOT_PRESENT
meshtastic --set device.role CLIENT
meshtastic --set-owner "you only live once"
meshtastic --set-owner-short yolo

Bug

Note that the order of commands matter here. Some configuration, like device.role CLIENT will reboot the device, and will make further commands fail. That is why the setting is last here. Using a config file solves that problem entirely, as all settings are set at once.

Tip

You should really set a random PIN here, not 123456, because that is the stupidiest combination ever. You can generate such a "random" pin with:

shuf -i 100000-1000000 -n 1

Also please change away from the "yolo" user above, otherwise we'll get confused quick as yo who "yolo" is.

This can of course also be done in a configuration file that we'll call recommended.yaml:

config:
  bluetooth:
    fixedPin: 123456
    mode: FIXED_PIN
  device:
    role: CLIENT
  lora:
    hopLimit: 3
    ignoreMqtt: true
  position:
    gpsMode: NOT_PRESENT
owner: you only live once
owner_short: yolo

Tip

Note that you can set the CLIENT_BASE role as well but your meshtastic command might not know about it so you need to specify it as an magic number:

meshtastic --set device.role 12

Once you're done, you might want to backup your configuration with:

meshtastic --export-config > backup.yaml

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1. Note that setting it to NOT_PRESENT will also improve boot time on devices without GPS. ↩