Please coordinate with the West Coast Mesh community
Before you decide to configure and maintain your
own repeater you should be willing coordinate with the West Coast Mesh community. This is
not absolutely required, but you don't want to cause technical problems with
this well-established community that we are part of. To coordinate with the
community you will need a Discord account.
1. Create a Discord account
If you don't have a Discord account go to
https://discord.com/app to create one
(follow the prompts there). Discord has a phone app if you prefer to use it on
your phone. Install the app and follow the prompts there to create an account.
2. Join the West Coast Mesh Discord server
On the Discord home page click the discord logo
in the upper left .
You should see an option to Add a Friend at the top of the
screen.
Type West Coast Mesh in the text box and click the
Send Friend Request button.
You should get an automated acceptance immediately.
Plug the ESP32 into your computer using a data-capable USB cable.
On the Meshcore flashing page, select Repeater.
Scroll down the page if necessary and tick the box next to Erase
Device.
Do not erase your device if you are upgrading the firmware on a
working unit.
Click the Flash button.
A popup will appear showing available serial ports.
Select the port labeled CP210x, USB to UART
Bridge Controller (COMx) - paired
If you don't see the above controller, it may appear with a
different name. It is likely that the CP210x is the only COM port on
your computer so try whatever appears in lieu of the above.
If no COM port appears:
Reinstall the CP210x driver
Try a different USB cable
Try a different USB port
Click Connect.
5. Flash the Firmware
After clicking Connect, the firmware will install, taking
about one minute
When complete, the process ends with the
message Hard resetting via RTS pin...
6. Configure your device for the West Coast Mesh
community.
Again, please voluntarily coordinate with the West Coast Mesh community
as follows to prevent your
repeater from conflicting with an existing community repeater
Go to https://flasher.meshcore.co.uk
Click Repeater Setup.
In the new window that pops up click Connect.
A popup will appear showing available serial ports.
Select the port labeled CP210x, USB to UART
Bridge Controller (COMx) - paired
If you don't see the above controller, it may appear with a
different name. It is likely that the CP210x is the only COM port on
your computer so try whatever appears in lieu of the above.
Click Connect.
Find an available repeater ID
Find the Public Key field on the
Repeater Setup screen
In the Meshcore software, repeaters are identified by the first byte of the repeater's public security key. As such, there are only 254 repeater identities available (00 and FF [0 and 255] are not
available). Repeaters will still work if there is an ID conflict, but conflicting IDs make route tracing problematic.
The public key is generated from the private key,
which is assigned at random when you install the Meshcore firmware. You will need
to check with the West Coast Mesh commonity to see if your
automatically-generated key, and thus your ID is available; not used by any
other repeater. To do this:
Go to the Discord website
Don't use the Discord phone app because
you will need to copy and paste a large number to your repeater
Click on the West Coast Mesh server icon
Scroll down in the second column and click the # repeater-control
channel
In the message box at the bottom of the 3rd
column type /open and press Enter.
A bot named MeshBuddy will return a list of
unused repeater IDs.
See if the first two characters of
your public key match any of the unused IDs.
If you find a match, you are good
to go. Continue with step 6
If you don't find a match, Continue
below
If you have a conflict with an existing
repeater you need to generate a public key that does not conflict
Go to the Discord website
on a computer and go to the West Coast Mesh channel
(you should already be there)
You can also generater a private key
at https://guessaman.com/mc-keygen,
but step-by-step instructions for that site are not given here.
Choose an available repeater ID. from the
list of available IDs generated above
Type /keygen and press
the space bar. The word "prefix" will
be automatically added to your command line
Type the chosen repeater ID
immediately after the word "prefix," (within in the surrounding box),
and press Enter.
The MeshBuddy bot will generate a
private key that in turn results in a public key with the chosen
repeater ID.
Highlight and copy the private key
generated by MeshBuddy.
Goto https://flasher.meshcore.co.uk
Click on the Console
button above the device list.
Click on the port as in previous steps and
click Connect
Scroll down and look for the command
prompt (>).
Click next to the command prompt and type set prv.key then
paste the previously copied private key and press
Enter
6. Set up the repeater
Go to https://flasher.meshcore.co.uk
Click Repeater Setup.
In the new window that pops up click Connect.
Click on the port as in previous steps and click Connect
Check the Public Key and be sure the first two characters match the
repeater ID chosen above.
If the characters don't match, repeat the procedure to generator and
configure a correct private key as above.
Choose a name for your repeater and type it in the Name
box.
Click the Map icon on the next row, choose the location of your repeater
on the map and click Set Location
You may want to give a location close but not exactly where your
repeater is for security reasons.
To to the box labeled New Admin password and type a suitable password
You will need this to administer your repeater remotely
In the Radio settings area, click in the Preset
box and choose USA/Canada
Change the Radio Settings to the following (press each number to change
it):
Currently, the only thing you need to change is the
frequency
Note that some users have reported improved
performance by setting the coding rate to a higher number. The coding rate does
not need to match the coding rate of other repeaters or companion units.
Set the power setting to 30 so that your repeater
will use its maximum power.
Click on the Save settings button
Send an Advert
Before you can remotely administer your repeater, it must be in the
contact list of your companion unit.
Be sure your companion unit is within range of the repeater
Click the Send Advert button
You can now disconnect your repeater from your computer and place it at
its permanent location
Operating your repeater
Place your repeater where it has line-of-sight access to one or more other repeaters.
Remote administration
Connect your phone to your companion unit
From your companion unit you can ping (send an echo request) to any
repeater. This will determine if your repeater is reachable from
your current location
You can only ping repeater that are in direct range of your companion.
Connect to your repeater
Select your repeater from the contact list
Click the gear icon (Manage)
You will have a 10-second countdown after which you can press the
continue button (you can eliminate the countdown by purchasing the
Meshcore app).
Type the Admin password into the provided box and click the login
button.
Long press the Log in button to change the way you connect to your
repeater
Direct -- your companion is in range of your repeater with no
hops
Flood -- you need to go through one or more other repeaters to reach
your repeater
Log in -- uses the last path used to log in
You have several options when connected to your repeater which will be
discussed at a later date. For now the most important functions are to:
Send an advert
-- send an advert from your repeater
View zero hop neighbors -- see which repeaters your repeater has seen adverts from (eight
maximum)
It may take several hours for this to be populated
Sync Clock -- synchronize the repeater clock with the phone clock.
Check status -- this includes the battery charge state,
which is useful for solar-powered repeaters.
.