US CA Sac Valley & Foot Hills

[clear kestrel]

Was that elephant octopus at your shop?

[spare garden]

indeed

[clear kestrel]

That thing has a huge ac unit on it. Must be from Sac.

[fickle wedge]

https://ad6dm.net/log/2024/04/vara-fm-packet-dual-mode-winlink-gateway-in-linux/

[open nest]

you catch me around 4?

[mighty finch]

broadway is A lot closer, and the city wil give you a tent.

[clear kestrel]

Hold my beer......

[fiery heath]

Could hook him up with boxes form the shop and everything !

[clear kestrel]

Wait, but those are the hot yoga tents. I want the eco friendly, naturally cooled tents in Oakland.

[fiery heath]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[fiery heath]

Fair

Whatever gives ou the best node LOS

[mighty finch]

ah so what antenna do i put on my porch eh? i have good LOS to sacramento.

about 50km

[mighty finch]

https://www.amazon.com/Tupavco-TP514-Directional-800MHz-960MHz-1-7-2-5GHz/dp/B008Z5QB96/ref=sr_1_4?crid=38E61BQ0SKVDB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BkPo0duDU09reTM8dEd5317QY3SeRXwKBlcCY6XwYs_rkHeWnuy9FbSMIs0EdX0Cg6SJRdOOmn5qYyc0yUEr4Ri6vuB4MLm50OgeA4f6oVgeNJisGtGYqXel0XxDtw12JHTefdoYcAD9FnH8MYSlI326TRXv0Bi9WWUKpY1mrTrctPveyChU3iMqGJ4joLoisBh44CuvHDF3VPZKgIUZGb57z3a7LXJxDWJW-XYA0Ixer3x0sQEnEBiSswOiqqc6_-kEz8yNYLe_rJG3Zrs_FPxj8jJ_fG0-1DM9lvGKo7s.eKGUpS_5Jnt_v5pireNRNg44Jo9QR4TQLbsH-fmoSFA&dib_tag=se&keywords=915+mhz+yagi&qid=1712885478&s=electronics&sprefix=915+mhz+yagi%2Celectronics%2C198&sr=1-4

i think?

not sure if the emotrs are good or bad

i mean its amazon.

so it could be absolutly not as advertiseed

[clear kestrel]

He no likely that antenna

What do you recommend @spare garden

[mighty finch]

y tho

trying to bridge 50km

yagi kinda makes sense?

[spare garden]

moxon

or yagi

[mighty finch]

whats wrong with the yagi i posted eh?

is cheap asf.

but otherwise?

[spare garden]

not a yagi

it's possibly worse than a regular omni, even

[mighty finch]

what do you mean

its worse?

im so confused

[spare garden]

just because it has yagi in the title doesn't mean it's a yagi

[mighty finch]

ahhh i assumed the little metal bits were just covered in plastic.

[spare garden]

that's a log periodic antenna

[mighty finch]

oh i see

sneaky wordsin amazon title.

is the thing i should be lookin a

[spare garden]

that is yagi

[mighty finch]

at

gotcha

[spare garden]

is that like a 600mhz yagi

[mighty finch]

but will that hit 50km away?

https://www.amazon.com/SIGNALPLUS-Outdoor-Directional-Antenna-Sensecap/dp/B09SYJ91SJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SXWJBO23RZFP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NL7LRzf0OBmBFFZphxDsOBw9OVZ2ljTRijzNBHDYqjiC6H_I9uMxyZfkbibm3NEodIKEAhzRFzHt2Jp8BIsga-spDNSft4D4nbBDtf3jO2c-gewV3DutjZ9WpJkkta4qmKZZtQDntm9DONNt-kh1jOV9EYbIg7uh3c6ovnsjRhw63ujCJPbMdL690aUbCNhSpE4qGkMIPhpWAAh6GZUMAww8iUg9n9tpivzX_4SxjVmJ8EIo5EVvpc8BdhtRHuLM8hSi7v0jtOFCwtpDLrqygBXN5tXVFSi5NqZzReTssF4._8OzD7kfO-ZW4bFElwaQ2g9Yhu3exrRagktqMA1GS08&dib_tag=se&keywords=915+mhz+antenna+yagi&qid=1712885958&s=electronics&sprefix=915+mhz+antenna+yagi%2Celectronics%2C134&sr=1-1

[spare garden]

a stock Heltec antenna can probably do 50km

[mighty finch]

ahh then why cant i see my shop in sac?

i am way up on hill

los says theres nothing between

[spare garden]

LOS

[mighty finch]

i posted los the other night hold on.

[spare garden]

what antennas are on each end?

[mighty finch]

stock heltec

and also the nooelec ratlsnake one.

on my car

[spare garden]

elevation on each end? how do you know los isn't blocked by trees/buildings?

[mighty finch]

hmm i assumed we could go thru trees

and building a bit

[spare garden]

maybe a wall or 10, but not 100

[mighty finch]

the same way like my fm radio does.

yeah so im up like 1400 ft

[spare garden]

fm is like 100mhz

[mighty finch]

and its downa t 20ft

[spare garden]

with tens of thousands of watts transmit power

[mighty finch]

so i can literaly see it.

bt not sure how many actual buildings are in the way

[spare garden]

yeah that looks to be no good

[mighty finch]

so i just kinda assumed it could work

it do?

[spare garden]

blue needs to be like 20ft higher

[mighty finch]

i am moving up to a second story apartment

😉

[spare garden]

climb on the roof

[mighty finch]

with outdoor balcony.

i can strap pole to side

so thats another 40 ish ft.

so maybe?

idk

i cant get on roof, but i can stick pole up for sure.

[clear kestrel]

Something must be blocking you, because that line should be green if you have clear LOS.

[mighty finch]

ohh

[clear kestrel]

Random example

That is if you're using Scadacore.com

[mighty finch]

yep

that was a rough estimate and more accurate one shows a fucking hill in the way

ffs

like cant the city flatten it out a bit

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/arnold-schwarzenegger-sneaking-out-camouflage-serious-gif-5272373

[mighty finch]

but we're gonna put an antenna on the roof of 2 story shop

[clear kestrel]

Take the hill

[spare garden]

king of the hill

[mighty finch]

and i am moving up 40ft too

[spare garden]

40ft might not be enough

[mighty finch]

so maybe

worth trying!

[clear kestrel]

Sweet. Looking forward to hearing about your results.

[mighty finch]

we gotta figure out the right antenners tho

two yagis?

[spare garden]

stock heltec

[mighty finch]

lol

[clear kestrel]

He's not wrong

[spare garden]

make the connection first, then improve it

[mighty finch]

freal?

[spare garden]

if you start with yagis you might not even be able to make a connection, lol

[mighty finch]

right

[clear kestrel]

I made direct contact to Elk Grove from 39 miles away with a stock heltec

[mighty finch]

so ill start leaving the heltec in the window

at home

it gets so hot tho

:-s

[spare garden]

roof

[mighty finch]

gl batttery

i am on floor 1 atm

no roof or balconly till march 1st

[clear kestrel]

Not ideal at all, but I don't think going straight for a yagi is necessary

[spare garden]

remember led throwies?

[clear kestrel]

You can't escape LOS. If you don't have it, you have to build a bridge of nodes.

Maybe you'll get lucky and enough people will have jumped on the meshtastic bandwagon by the time you have all your gear and elevated positions for your nodes.

[mighty finch]

which is just one node on a hill in a sacramenoto park.

lol

well thats the other thing, is maybe i should just be leaving this node at home in the window.

[fiery heath]

Keaton is from the upside down

[spare garden]

you don't have to get over the hill; you can also sidestep it

[mighty finch]

yeah

[clear kestrel]

I got 1 of those gizont 17cm antennas from ali express for like $6

[fiery heath]

I picked up a rak and a antenna and a solar panel and we are getting that break filled in so auburn gets in

[clear kestrel]

It's much better than a stock antenna. Not a tier 1 antenna, but noticeably better and for $6, it's worth a try.

[mighty finch]

Put this on it and put it in the window eh?

[clear kestrel]

That looks like what I have on PGR 1&2

[spare garden]

did you tune that?

[mighty finch]

It measured pretty good on nanovnr

1:1.4

[clear kestrel]

If it's the same on the inside as mine, that's a good antenna

[spare garden]

it can measure better.

[mighty finch]

Do we wanna go one line at a time or just explain yourself at once?

Lol

[spare garden]

one
word
at
a
time

[mighty finch]

O

K

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/upisnotjump-measuring-measuring-tape-gif-21805734

You can measure better!

[mighty finch]

So what do I do to make It vetter?

[clear kestrel]

If he says sit on it, don't listen to him.

[spare garden]

shit on it

[mighty finch]

oh hes one of those?

calm down mcafee

nobody is shitting on anything here

[spare garden]

you can trim or extend the element

... which is just a wire

[mighty finch]

okay so instead of asking how, do you have a link explaining what youre talking about.

lol

[spare garden]

why does everything need a link or a YouTube tutorial

[mighty finch]

uh because you wont explain more then one sentence at a time

and i can move faster then this.

you are wildly cryptic and force me to pry the info from you.

but we can do it your way

what do i do to make the antenna better.

[spare garden]

step 1: remove the cover

[mighty finch]

sure

is plastic and glue eh?

[spare garden]

no glue

[mighty finch]

just friction?

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/jon-stewart-eat-eating-popcorn-watching-gif-3094746547306242594

[spare garden]

see where the seam is? use both hands to hold near it, then bend like you're trying to snap it. a gap will appear

[mighty finch]

Okay now what.

[spare garden]

stick fingernail in gap, bend other direction while pulling

[mighty finch]

...

[spare garden]

pop!

[mighty finch]

damn photo lagging.

i am done.

with this step 1.

what is step 2

[spare garden]

and hopefully your fingernail still intact

lol

step two, trim or extend center wire accordingly.

[mighty finch]

see

this is why i requested literature

rathern then being spoon fed from pika

[spare garden]

put cover back on loosely before re-measuring with vna

[mighty finch]

is that like 10 accordinglys?

[spare garden]

... perhaps this is too difficult for you

[mighty finch]

error no raparameters

according to what?

trim it in relation to what?

according to who?

[spare garden]

measured center frequency

[mighty finch]

ffs

[spare garden]

trim to make it higher, extend to make it lower 👀

[mighty finch]

so if its working and i cut some off it will work less?

lol

[clear kestrel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE0ZrNij-Ws

[mighty finch]

center freq is 915?

or 900?

jesus

thank you

[spare garden]

906.875

[mighty finch]

save me from this pika hell

❤️

[fiery heath]

Hahaha yeah don’t tune to 915 .. Jesus I had to fight people basically to telll them that

[mighty finch]

Ya know I'm just kidding around and appreciate any guidance.

[spare garden]

all paths eventually lead to death

whoa you have the fancy one

almost as fancy as them Rak antennas

those are a bit harder to shorten (use a file or grinder) but extending is as easy as stuffing in a bent copper wire

did anyone see an August (Agst)?

[fiery heath]

Yup

We calling indirect on the location?

🤣🤣🤣 intruder

[spare garden]

was wondering if that node was still blasting range test every 30 seconds 😆

... at 7 hops

[boreal creek]

1.4:1 = don’t touch it IMO

[spare garden]

but at what frequency

[boreal creek]

It’s tricky to measure a small partial antenna like this on a NanoVNA or antenna analyzer anyway. The device (and user holding it) typically forms the ground plane… so put your hand nearby and the tuning can change drastically.

OTOH, if they are cheap and one has spares, I’m all for experimenting.

[spare garden]

but it's a dipole

[boreal creek]

I couldn’t tell that from the picture. That helps, but I bet it’ll still be prone to things and people nearby

[spare garden]

not if I'm prone too! \o/

https://tenor.com/view/korbin-korbin-miles-worm-crawl-gif-14975019

[boreal creek]

Heck, even my 40m inverted-v shifts tuning a bit if a person is close to one of the elements

[spare garden]

oh hey I have one of them too

cq cq cw bbq

I can only pick up Hawaii

[clear kestrel]

Who ever August is must have a delivery job. They went everywhere.

[spare garden]

trucker, most likely

[boreal creek]

Mine is actually a 20/40m inverted V, and it’s done all over the US, Aus and NZ, and all over Europe. The sun helped too though.

[clear kestrel]

I was waiting for @spare garden to tell him to cut it up in 3 pieces and solder i back together.

It was going south fast

Anyone pick up 9C74 in Suisun City?

78 miles

[fickle wedge]

JB you have a prime location to pick up the long distance pings

[clear kestrel]

But wouldn't my node relay those pings to your nodes? I'm pretty sure I have nodes in my node list from Turlock that I received via your nodes

[fiery heath]

So I ordered up that wisblock , will be my first one . Anything crazy special that I have to do with this one compared to others? Or just like the t echo ? Nrf file to update ?

[clear kestrel]

You have to wait a long time for it to arrive if you ordered it from rak. Flashing it is just dragging a file over to it and it’s fast, or you can update firmware over Bluetooth, which is also really fast and easy. You can get away with charging it on a weekly or longer basis. There are some cheap modules you can easily add to it.

[fiery heath]

Oh that’s badass!! Oh man Amazon had them and it’s getting here Saturday!

They should still be there

https://a.co/d/17Fu5uF

Says 18th now is you order but I locked in the 13th

[clear kestrel]

I have 4 of them with 2 on the way

They also have a built in solar charger

[spare garden]

that's sold by someone here in this discord, lol

[boreal creek]

Lucky! Right now there’s a slight premium there compared to direct, but they won’t get here till Thursday so possibly a different seller and price than what you got.

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/star-wars-yoda-patience-sw3-gif-21070142

"A man who is a master of patience, is a master of everything else."

[fickle wedge]

What's new folks

too much scrollback

Congrats on the wisblocks @fiery heath

They are fine little DIY nodes

I need places to put mine up

[fiery heath]

Thanks I’m looking forward to it !

https://youtu.be/40llxjrIG3w?si=YWvhJuEXdxT9mJJI

A guy I watch for small tech stuff just did a mesh vid , it’s getting bigger and bigger

Heltec and lilygo made a fortune 🤣🤣

[fickle wedge]

It's a cool concept. I thought GoTenna was going to take over this realm, but that one died a silent death

It's good to see another hackable thing take its place.

Pretty soon we'll have more rak wisblocks than we know what to do with

just drop them in random places like disposable nodes

[clear kestrel]

@fickle wedge @boreal creek I'm determined to make this work

[boreal creek]

Me too.

Did we lose it again?

[clear kestrel]

I don't think of mine as disposable, but every time I don't get an acknowledgment from my nodes, I assume they've been found/stolen. Probably not something most are thinking about.

[fickle wedge]

I wouldn't think to steal or mess with something like that. But with my hamradio eyes 👀 I definitely notice such boxes now.

[clear kestrel]

While I have your both here. Within telemetry config, there is a device metrics interval. Default is 15min. Is that congesting the mesh?

[fickle wedge]

I bet you most people don't even see them

Mine are set to 3 hours, but for whatever reason i get device metrics every minute from one of my nodes

[clear kestrel]

Most people are zombies

[boreal creek]

Channel utilization on my nodes is low, so I doubt it

[boreal creek]

I do for the one I’m connected to via Bluetooth

[clear kestrel]

All of my nodes are on 3 hour for location and node info, and 15min for telemetry

[fickle wedge]

ah, wait, yes that's what you meant. Yeah I have it the same JB, 3 hours for location and nodeinfo, 15 min for telemetry

[clear kestrel]

You can change that in the module settings

It's under telemetry

[fickle wedge]

I don't think I'll change telemetry unless there's a strong reason to

The list won't be considered "online" if it takes too long to say hi

I use the Online filter because there are too many nodes now

[clear kestrel]

On the facebook group a guy asked about standards. 3,3,15 is pretty much what I said

[fickle wedge]

hard to believe I am saying that but there are 78 nodes in my list now

[boreal creek]

I moved jfred2 to long-slow just for fun. I wonder how much it may increase reliability

[clear kestrel]

I'm at 62

[fickle wedge]

I bet you a lot of mine are name-changed ones that duplicated themselves

[clear kestrel]

Won't you only see people that also have that setting?

[boreal creek]

Yes, but you and I talked about testing for fun

[clear kestrel]

Should we start standardizing settings now? These are questions that are asked often.

The mesh is growing exponentially

[clear kestrel]

But I didn't know you were doing it!

[boreal creek]

I know, but this is a device I don’t really use. So it’s ready whenever

[clear kestrel]

Isn't it getting late for you? I can try it tomorrow. I was going straight to very long range slow, but I'll meet you where ever

[boreal creek]

I didn’t see that as a preset. Did I miss it?

And yes, it is late for me

Oh, yup, I missed it

I’m reconfigured now

[boreal creek]

Hiding in plain sight!

[clear kestrel]

sneeky fucker

Ok, I'll hit you up tomorrow

[fickle wedge]

But I want Very Long Range - Fast

[clear kestrel]

Don't we all

[boreal creek]

If I recall from the Meshtastic page, some of these presets offer 2-3db gain every step

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/chris-pratt-rubbing-hands-smile-happy-plan-mischief-gif-11789692

[boreal creek]

Sounding like the ”what radio” posts on some of the preparedness groups…

[fickle wedge]

exactly

[boreal creek]

“I don’t want to talk far… just 509 miles, and I want a handheld, and it has to run for days between charges. And I don’t want to read a book or study anything.”

[clear kestrel]

Cannon fodder

[boreal creek]

Loot drops. 🤣

[fickle wedge]

btw not to sound like a prepper nut but I got a Behrens mini galvanized trash can to put some spare ham radios into to protect from EMP/CME damage. There's a buncha apocalypse stories I've read recently about frying the world's electronics.

[boreal creek]

To me it seems like to some that “preparedness” is something you buy and stick on a shelf for when you need it

[clear kestrel]

I think that's the same can I used to empty the ashes from my fire place 😉

[fickle wedge]

Home Depot, $22.97

6-gal can

😄

[clear kestrel]

LOL

Not that big

[boreal creek]

I have a friend who’s a smart dude that’s convinced me that EMP’s aren’t the boogie man some people think they are. He cited govt tests showing uV/m2 and everything

[fickle wedge]

Just a mobile rig, and small laptop so far in there

[clear kestrel]

Better safe than sorry

[fickle wedge]

It's an all-mode mobile HF/VHF/UHF rig though

[clear kestrel]

More power to you. I'm not to that stage yet

[boreal creek]

Maybe. My preparedness plan, besides basic first aid and trauma, is civil disturbances and supply chain disruptions… both of which we saw a couple years ago

[clear kestrel]

If you're really concerned Dennis, talk to a real estate agent and start looking for property outside of city centers.

[boreal creek]

I try not to prepare for nuclear holocaust, cuz if that happens I hope to be at ground zero. I also don’t think it’s super likely.

[fickle wedge]

I wanna be that guy who's all "CQ RTTY CONTEST" after the earth gets a good dusting of solar EM disruption.

[boreal creek]

My friend is doing something similar. He’s making a Google Maps/Earth with all kinds of selectable points depending on what a person wants to be near or away from… hydro power, jails/prisons, nuke silos, etc .

The locations are public, so get all the locations and pop them into a big Google map/Earth and let people select what they wanna see

[clear kestrel]

#1 Get away from hungry people.

[boreal creek]

Maybe, but I have 3 younger kids… bugging out on foot is not a very likely option for me

But maybe bugging in is.

[clear kestrel]

bingo

Good luck convincing your ex wife

[boreal creek]

That’s all I’m gonna say about that. LOL

[clear kestrel]

Is that the guy swith the stick?

[boreal creek]

He’s a character in a TV show. You guys might like ‘Jericho’ if you haven’t seen it.

[clear kestrel]

He had to de-zombie her in the beginning

[clear kestrel]

Your neighbors who you probably barley know are going to eat you

[boreal creek]

https://youtu.be/sJ1JDxD2ZY4

[clear kestrel]

but you're faraday cage is gonna keep your electronics safe and sound 😉

[fickle wedge]

I think we're pretty much screwed if there's a bugout situation.

Doesn't mean i won't take out as many of them as I can before I get eaten tho

[clear kestrel]

If you live in a city you are

[fickle wedge]

I live in a city. And I know my neighbors, I'm on Nextdoor 😂

They are some of the weirdest most irate people

And this is during times of peace

can't imagine what it'll be like when the next covid grocery store cleanout happens

[clear kestrel]

The complexity of logistics that brings food to our cities is a delicate system.

[boreal creek]

Exactly. I know enough about most of them to know I don’t wanna be near them.

[boreal creek]

It is. Stockpiling shelf stable food is easy though… but storing/generating enough energy to cook it if utilities are down is tougher though.

[fickle wedge]

That's one area I need to work on. My food preps are abysmal. A bunch of expired Mountain House packs from past camping trips, and a pantry that'll last us a week.

[boreal creek]

The Mormons can help you. Jk, but also serious.

[fickle wedge]

We have a pool so I'm sure we could figure out something regarding water, even if I need to fashion myself a solar still.

[boreal creek]

I joke too about my 15k gal water reserve in the backyard

[fickle wedge]

Energy and solar is my schtick though. I'm heavy into that.

I chortle at power outages.

[boreal creek]

Short term , yes. But I’m finding it more difficult to plan for longer term

Maybe some day the 3 of us can get coffee and pick each others brains

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/tigger-sad-bye-leaving-gif-3502848287792602482

[boreal creek]

You can meet up for coffee too, JB.

Don’t want you to feel excluded, Tigger

[fickle wedge]

I'm down to meet up some time

[clear kestrel]

Let's do it

This is a red pill blue pill thing

[boreal creek]

https://tenor.com/view/huh-rabbit-cute-gif-15676652

Pills? I’m not following. LOL

[clear kestrel]

Matrix analogy

[boreal creek]

Matrix, I know…

I wish I could learn Kung Fu like that

[clear kestrel]

Weekdays or weekends better?

And which nodes will you be bringing 😉

[boreal creek]

I do standard M-F working hours, just that every other Friday-Friday I have my kids, so a week when they are with their mom would work. Her week starts tomorrow afternoon.

So maybe too short notice, but most times this coming week are good. Or their next visit to their moms

[clear kestrel]

Yes, don't bring kids to meet strangers from the internet. Noted by future dad.

[mighty finch]

lol, just pull out the glizzy and most people will hand over their shit in that situation. at least in california, i wouldnt try it in texas.

when the second coming of covid happens

i mean

also, isnt fire free? why would anyone struggle to cook if you know how to make fire?

yall are crazy.

😄

[fiery heath]

Smart though the sun has been getting angry lately , the cycles back to that spot again where we gonna get blasted a bunch and radios don’t like when they get turned into Aurora borealis🤣

[open nest]

Ne1 seeing me on grantline?

[tropic matrix]

Hey everyone. I'm seeing JB Actual and my local neighbor AB0 regulary but can't contact JB. My router (EDH) died for some reason? maybe the heat? I'll replace it this weekend and add some more vents.

[bitter iron]

some of the heltec's have real heat problems, especially when charging LiPo batteries.

[spare garden]

turn wifi on too. feel the burn

[bitter iron]

I have an HTIT-Traker that fried its own OLED display with the power management chip.

[tropic matrix]

no battery just a POE adapter in a 2.5 inch pvc pipe.

[bitter iron]

bad design, IMHO, to put a high-heat dissipating component on the opposite side of the board from the display

[tropic matrix]

I have a wisblock, maybe I'll use that.

[bitter iron]

those seem to be much better designed.

I have some Rak wireless LoraWAN gear (RAK5146 boards) that I fiddled wity a little for Meshtastic, but they're REALLY finicky. Still, they have 8 parallel receivers, so you can monitor LongFast, LongSlow, etc all at the same time.

I think I failed because I wasn't giving them the right sync word. Meshtastic uses 0x2b, and the LoraWAN/TTN specific software they come with uses .. something else.

[tropic matrix]

Nice I have a bunch of Rak2287 from helium nodes, too bad nobody has done anything with those.

[fiery heath]

Antennas don’t like fireplace when fireplace has the fire stuff in it 🫡 rip nooelec . Atleast I know it’s not fireproof🤣🤣🤣🤣

[bitter iron]

I think those were the predecessor to the 5146. My Raspi with the Adafruit LORA bonnet has heard 213 distinct Meshtastic nodes over the last 2 weeks. It's pretty sensitive. A lot of those were probably tropo ducting and aircraft reflection

picked up this one this morning:
da65598c | jtM2-SMRN | 2024-04-12 09:18:40-0

[tropic matrix]

You running any special software on the raspi or is it the meshtastic client?

[bitter iron]

It's a custom python script that does nothing but receive packets, decrypt them, and stuff them into a postgres db.

[tropic matrix]

cool

[bitter iron]

That adafruit bonnet is an sx1278 hooked up to the raspi SPI bus. There's a spi-lora python library that I did some unholy things to and got it working. about the only thing "smart" I did was some de-duping based on packet id in the python code. I'm also using python protobufs to decode portnum 3, 4, 67, and 71 packets, which are Position, NodeInfo, telemetry, and neighbor Info

if I was REaLLY cool (and someday I might be), I'd take the neighbor info packets and actually build a mesh map showing connections based on self-reporting. THAT would be pretty useful.

[spare garden]

do fun stuff and count dupe'd packets too

[bitter iron]

prior to that, I'm working on building up my testosterone levels enough to climb the 80 foot redwood tree in my backyard and put a node up there. Based on the WISP profiler, it would be... impressive.

https://www.heywhatsthat.com/?view=WJWGNTFM

[tropic matrix]

lol use a safety rope, redwoods are kind of scary to climb the damn limbs are unpredictable. I have to climb a tree to fix my EDH node but only about 20 feet just to secure the mast to the trunk.

[bitter iron]

Yeah, I've got a SALA harness from my tower climbing days. It's 15 years old, but it only needs to work once.

[fickle wedge]

hi @tropic matrix

[tropic matrix]

hey Dennis, I read your adventure of using Linux with vara. Nice writeup!

[bitter iron]

What's your "Secure the node to the tree and get the antenna away from the trunk" methodology?

[bitter iron]

link?

[fickle wedge]

waiting for another digirig to arrive then I will swap that in for the windows winlink gateway

@bitter iron https://ad6dm.net/log/2024/04/vara-fm-packet-dual-mode-winlink-gateway-in-linux/

[tropic matrix]

I use a chain link fence top rail, actually 3 of them and I push the poles up the tree alongside the trunk. I tie them to the trunk with rope and some garden hose as to not hurt the tree. I have to get up about 20 feet to make sure the pole is stable enough and has enough support.

[bitter iron]

ahh. I think I'm going with something direct mounted to the trunk. Not sure what, just yet. I've got one of those HarborBay solar light enclosures from Lowe's that I'm thinking of using.

[tropic matrix]

I got one of those as well. I need to put it outside and see how it works. Did you 3d print the mounting parts?

[bitter iron]

I have not. i've just gutted it and put in a TP-4056 charger in it

I'm torn over which lora board to put in there. The Heltec V3s are power hogs, even with wifi turned off. The CubeCell 6502s are much more efficient, but they don't offer any wifi/BLE, so I can't talk to it once it's up the tree.

I don't have a wisblock. I want a sx1262 up there, not a 127x

[clear kestrel]

You could have this one is a couple days. https://a.co/d/83Tx12M

Or you can save a little money and buy them from RAK, but the wait is about 3 weeks or more. If you buy from Rak you can save $10 on an order larger than $50 I believe. Shipping is $8, so it pretty much covers that. “Welcomeback10”

Eventually I’ll make a pocket node with a RAK. I love the small form factor of the heltec case I have, that holds a 1200mah battery. I dislike the battery life of the heltec V3. That same battery will power a RAK for days between charges.

[spare garden]

apparently there are more power saving stuff being added/fixed, so soon your heltec may have better battery life

possibly double or triple of what it is now

[fiery heath]

Any word on those capsule nodes ?

[spare garden]

I think I may have seen a photo of one here somewhere

[fiery heath]

I know they had to redesign and pushed out shopping but one of those with a modded battery might be the ticket for small in between nodes

Probably a lot of modding though

[bitter iron]

I just flashed the current master firmware to the Heltec. We'll see how it does

looks like they pushed to new versions of RadioLib (all hail jgromes) and Tiny GPS++, so at least they're staying current with underpinning libraries

[open nest]

On sunrise

[boreal creek]

I recognize a few of those

[open nest]

😵

I got a happy hump day, no happy Friday text though 😔

[clear kestrel]

I see your node at a house north of diamond Springs, as of 1136 this morning.

[open nest]

Yeah, that's were I live

I work in sac

[clear kestrel]

Next time I stop at chipotle I’ll message you 😉

[open nest]

Nice, that's where I have it pointed out towards when I'm home

Im all over south east sac working

[clear kestrel]

I wonder what node/s you’re hopping through, that your home node popped up on my map. We don’t have clear LOS between us. Who shows up as “online” when you’re home?

[open nest]

Probably from being down near yours? I noticed it doesn't update my location...

[clear kestrel]

Oh, gotcha. I was gonna ask that. Are you android or iPhone?

[fiery heath]

@spare garden update on the log periodic . Tis le pew …. The nooelec is whooping it . It is now my hack rf antenna 🫡 good call

[open nest]

Android

Fixed my location

[fiery heath]

Anyone ever run into this problem yet? I haven’t gone searching yet but it’s all hooked up and nothings changed . No hard falls or crappy conditions . Just .. not present anymore lol

[open nest]

Only thing I know is enabling it in config

[fiery heath]

lol I thought that was enabling my phone gps with the echo🤣🤣 good call all is back to normal thank you

[fiery heath]

@clear kestrel

I donno why it’s showing up as a ? @clear kestrel

[clear kestrel]

Thanks for replying. I have most of your nodes in my node list. I don’t have B1-4 yet.

[fiery heath]

Ahhh it is bluffs echo but I just numbered them off again

[clear kestrel]

I had to go recover one of my nodes that isn’t water proof. It’s supposed to rain.

[clear kestrel]

Did you figure your location? Do you have fixed position enabled?

[fiery heath]

Oh yeah has to enable it I donno when it disabled but it’s all good now .. I hope 🤣

[open nest]

I had no position enabled. Ni forgot I turned it off. Don't know why it stuck to my home though...

[mighty finch]

neeed more elevation

[fiery heath]

You need a job as a fire watch tower national forest employee

Leave a node and then quit

[mighty finch]

mmm

im down to climb a tree and pop a node.

but i think im at the highest damn point here

[fiery heath]

I wonder if the trees are absorbing your signals , they are pretty dense from there down

Put a larger battery on a wisblock solar node on a talllllll spot at that grid and should help link a few people and you

[tropic matrix]

Posted this in the FB group but seems like more folks are on discord. Pulled the Heltec out of the tree and noticed the screen looks cooked. I guess the heat was too much for it. I will replace it with the wisblock and add some vents.

[fickle wedge]

🔥

[clear kestrel]

That’s a bummer!

I have one of these vents in my solar node. Got the idea from Dennis. I’ve never felt any heat from a rak device, with or without a vent. https://a.co/d/aqGznJA

[tropic matrix]

Nice, I should order some of those. I 3d printed some of these but the holes are kind of big, don't want any bugs to get in https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5262077

[clear kestrel]

That looks like it will provide better air flow for heat. I think the ones I linked are primarily for moisture and pressure.

[tropic matrix]

Yeah I'll probably go with them just to get the extra air flow. I've been putting moth balls in my outdoor stuff after I got some kind of ants living in my POE switch box. It seems to work well keeping the bugs out but it stinks lol

[spare garden]

looks like 3v3 regulator be toast too. no power at all, yeh?

it can probably be fixed, unless that regulator failed in a "shorted" state and sent 4v/5v downstream

[tropic matrix]

It started working after I cut the screen off. I just flashed it and its kind of working, no node info from the serial but it can pass messages. I'll keep it to experiment with.

[open nest]

Ok bought a solar powered case gonna build a repeater

[clear kestrel]

Cool! Did you get the one made by Rak?

Are you putting a Meshtastic starter kit in it?

[open nest]

Yes

[foggy vine]

You might be able use this with a small piece of screen to keep bugs out

[fickle wedge]

Hey nerds. Happy April showers before May flowers

[fiery heath]

For real ! This is killing my onewheeling🤣 I have been finding spots for repeater nodes . I think if we just adopt the Iranian drone swarms with some 18650 batteries and wisblocks we should be covered 🫡

[clear kestrel]

@tropic matrix put a node up in a drone awhile back. I was able to talk to him while it was up.

I’ve been doing map recce on and off. I have created some waypoints I need to check out irl. I think in an urban setting it would be much easier to blend a solar node into existing infrastructure. Like on top of a parking garage. Most people would ignore it and those that saw it would think it’s just an other electrical box you see everywhere. Some of the geocaches I’ve found have been so creatively hidden in plain sight, in urban environments. Im not suggesting it, just saying it could probably be done. 😉

[bitter iron]

@tropic matrix Are you running power to your nodes over POE?

[fickle wedge]

I should try a drone test one time.

[fiery heath]

I think if anything ever did happen crazy where we had to use the mesh to talk a drone at certain times twice a day going up to get comms would be a good plan

[clear kestrel]

Like the wilderness protocol.

[fiery heath]

Exactly

Would be a good way in time to update firmware to nodes on property and stuff too . I’m working on a little sdr scanner I can put on a drone and while it’s up get a recording of a few bands so I can listen or decode when it gets back down

Sometimes I need the world to end just for a weekend to test stuff🤣🤣

[boreal creek]

@tropic matrix , I’m getting a couple of your messages down here now, I think for the first time. Not sure you’re getting my replies though.

[clear kestrel]

I saw he took down the EDHR node that burned up. Did he replace it already? I’m going to check on my node up the hill in a few minutes. I’m guessing the wind knocked the antenna out of alignment.

[bitter iron]

I was thinking of an extension to the protocol that switched channels on a scheduled basis. I.e. at the 13th minute of every hour, all the nodes in the network that aren't in "active use" (whatever that's defined as) switch to LONG-SLOW and then transmit based on some algorithm based on their MAC address. i.e. divide 256 possible last-byte-of-the-mac-addr into the 60 seconds, and everyone transmits in their window. at 14 minutes after the hour, everyone goes back to their primary channel

[fiery heath]

That’s a badass idea

[bitter iron]

maybe do that 4 or 6 times a day. Doesn't even really need a frequency change, but since we have so much available bandwidth in the US, might as well use it.

another thought is to use the nice helium/TTN radios with multiple receivers, and monitor multiple channels at a time, and provide that info as a "neighbor info" packet. They have frequency agile transmitters, so they could forward packets from one modulation scheme/channel to another.

[boreal creek]

Yeah, I received a message on the Primary channel of him testing. I don’t think my reply got back though.

A couple overcast rainy days put my solar test node of commission. LOL. Not surprised…. That battery only lasts ALMOST a day with no charge.

[tropic matrix]

Yep I have a POE switch in the backyard so I just run a cat5 up to the node.

[tropic matrix]

jfred I didn't get any replies 😦

New router is in place btw

I know this was brought up before but we should all try long slow sometime for a test.

[boreal creek]

I had one on long-slow for a week, but just put it back to default. I can reconfigure it when I get home this evening

[tropic matrix]

I just got a Hi from unknown !da638dd4

[clear kestrel]

That’s me

[tropic matrix]

awesome, that's a first contact for us without the drone. You get my reply?

[clear kestrel]

No, and I had to resend that like 5 times to get an acknowledgment.

I got “1”

[tropic matrix]

just got your "its JB" message, its pretty intermittent.

[clear kestrel]

Same here.

Do you have a node back up the tree?

What hardware?

[tropic matrix]

if John gets his node up in the tree I think we may be able to have reliable communication.

Its a wisblock with a 5dbi antenna up about 30 feet.

[clear kestrel]

That would be cool. I did an elevation plot between you and I and we’re barely scraping over some hills on the opposite side of 50, from you.

[tropic matrix]

I half assed it but wanted to get the node up asap

lots of tape and spray paint to keep the heat off lol

[clear kestrel]

Which wisblock?

[tropic matrix]

I didn't know there was more than one? its just the basic starter kit, not extra modules. Let me get a link.

https://store.rakwireless.com/products/wisblock-meshtastic-starter-kit?variant=41433735725254

[clear kestrel]

There is only one Meshtastic starter kit, but they make a few different base boards.

I thought I remembered you saying you had some older rak gear

[tropic matrix]

ahh ok, yeah this one is not usb c but I think everything else is the same.

I've got 2 of those Ebyte modules on order that are 1 watt. I will try and make a node with that.

[clear kestrel]

Gotcha. Is your new pole node renamed?

[tropic matrix]

EDHR is the short name but has my call this time in the long name

I'm going to take a 360 from the top of the antenna with the drone when I get a sec so we can have a visual of what it sees.

I shuld prob update the long name with sacvalleymesh.com?

[clear kestrel]

The more the merrier 🙂

[boreal creek]

Sure! It’s just like a business card to drive people to here and the FB page (since that’s literally all the page has are those links).

[fiery heath]

Now my old gun case is useful🤣🤣

Am I missing anything or is this all gravy? The wis has a charging mod on it right ?

Or am I am out to be sad panda?

[spare garden]

you will be sad panda when rak drains your battery to the point of derp

[fiery heath]

One 18650 is just too little ?

I’m trying to find something that will charge and then drain and kinda exercise the cell .

[spare garden]

gps probably eats as much as rak

[fiery heath]

Ahhh good call there

[spare garden]

it'll be fine though, methinks

[fiery heath]

So just naked rak might be ok

🫡 into the fire we go

[spare garden]

just know you'll probably need a new cell if it ever does drain fully

[fiery heath]

Yeah I got some backups . Hopefully the alert goes off

[spare garden]

the audiovisualthermal alert? 😆

[fiery heath]

Yeah that’s the one !

[spare garden]

also, monitor your voltage for a while to make sure rak doesn't overcharge the cell

[fiery heath]

Good call . Yeah I’m gonna be watching this like I’m hiding illegals on my roof and there are choppers flying over

[spare garden]

also, move gps antenna closer to edge. solar panels block gps signal

unless you got one of them super fancy solar panel gps antennas

[fiery heath]

Literally did that as you’re message came in

[spare garden]

right side up may still be better than sideways though. test to be sure

[fiery heath]

I took it out of the sun to watch the voltage and it says it almost dead now

That’s the right one ?

Never mind got it figured out

[mighty finch]

ahhh does it just take the tbeam forever to connect to wifi?

[fiery heath]

Sometimes , t beams are funky sometimes , I got the supreme and I haven’t had any problems

This rak through is tits 😎

No pun intended

[bitter iron]

the Tbeams for me randomly drop the WiFi connection. They need to be power cycled to come back.

[fiery heath]

Uhhggg that’s stressful just reading it lol bad times

[bitter iron]

I see it with other ESP32-based products as well. Something about my Omada access points they just don't do well with.

I'm considering upgrading to the newer Omadas. I've been seeing throughput problems on them, anyway.

[fiery heath]

If I’m getting this is it even registering my 18650 battery?

[spare garden]

your battery is "dead"

got an external charger?

[fiery heath]

I have the solar with the usb . I think that cell was garbage

Had them charged up too

[spare garden]

disfiguring fire

[mighty finch]

I have reset it a few times but nothing coming up on the network

[clear kestrel]

That message looks familiar

[mighty finch]

Ded

[fiery heath]

I bridged mine and added external antenna and it helped just a little bit but I gave mine away 🤣🫡

Changed the battery out and the same

The voltage went up

[spare garden]

solar input to USB will always report "101%"

[fiery heath]

Gotcha , once the sun goes away will it then change to battery power and cycle to charge when it comes back?

[spare garden]

yep

if you can wire up to the solar port, it will only ever display battery %

[fiery heath]

Ahhhhhhh ok

I was wondering about that

[spare garden]

I wire all mine up to USB so the node will boot at next sunup if I ever turn it off remotely

[fiery heath]

That’s smart .

Will my battery over charge with usb plugged in ?

Or is it smarter than me 🤣

[spare garden]

same as using solar port... so the answer is "maybe"

only you will know, if you check.

mine overcharged when I left the node off in the sun for a week or two

[fiery heath]

Well if all the bluff nodes go away , it didn’t work and my roof is gone

[fiery heath]

I will definitely keep an eye on it

@mighty finch this is going on the roof at the shop

@mighty finch she lives

My roof is being analyzed by military drone imagery as we speak 🤣🤣👹

[spare garden]

but what's with the wet noodle for coax

[fiery heath]

The only other one I had is like 50 foot , got a rg8 shortie coming

[bitter iron]

Anyone else see the message from Mount Diablo?

[fiery heath]

Yeah I got it

It has a ? As a name

[bitter iron]

"Mt. Diable Summit. Anyone read?"

[bitter iron]

yeah, no node info packet transmitted (or received, I guess)

[clear kestrel]

That’s weird. I didn’t get the message but I got his node info. He’s on my map on Mt. Diablo.

[trim veldt]

I can hit mt Diablo repeater with a Baofeng so doesn’t surprise me you can hear a mesh node if he has a good antenna

[fiery heath]

That’s wild

Just had the right conditions

[spare garden]

i too see B-BM

[clear kestrel]

Not “ just right”

[trim veldt]

Mount Diablo is line of sight for me

[fiery heath]

So did he just bleed through to our mesh for a blip ?

Probably hiking ?

[spare garden]

First Seen an hour ago
Last Seen 6 minutes ago

[clear kestrel]

I’ve talked to a repeater on mt. Diablo with my hand held on 250mW and was told I my signal was strong and full quiet.

[fiery heath]

Is that a unit crest on your pic?

Everytime I see it I think signal🤣

[trim veldt]

I have been too busy with work and other stuff to even play with the mesh

[clear kestrel]

I’m gonna buy you a battery and walk your node up the hill. 🤪

[trim veldt]

I went camping this weekend at 5000ft despite the weather

I brought my Starlink but not a mesh

[clear kestrel]

Surprised you didn’t get more snow.

[bitter iron]

Ohh, good question. The Orange lightning bolt does make one wonder....

[fiery heath]

Oh I know exactly what that is . I have seen it a bunch

[spare garden]

mt diablo node has suspiciously low chutil

[fiery heath]

We about to red dawn this mountain!?

[spare garden]

bring out the yagi antennas!

[bitter iron]

Ohhh, I should have known that.

[fiery heath]

https://tenor.com/view/get-up-private-allen-rangers-lead-the-way-wake-up-alarm-move-gif-18304939316299395597

[bitter iron]

I was engaged to the 3rd BN Commander's daughter for a while. Ragin' Cajun.

[fiery heath]

That’s jb putting up nodes🤣🤣🤣🤣

[fiery heath]

That’s some shit right there🤣🤣

You got them balls

[bitter iron]

And I jilted her. I sure as hell wasn't going to her parent's house to get the ring back.

[fiery heath]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[bitter iron]

I have a double stack, but I decided I had no need for a tab. It wouldn't have saved my career, anyway. I had a problem taking orders. Not what they really look for. I was cool with "Duty, Honor, Country", but I stopped at "take orders from idiots."

[spare garden]

le gasp. mt diablo node is coming down

to the south

trying to get a traceroute off that b... beam

[clear kestrel]

I didn’t realize that was directed at me. It’s not our unit’s patch. It’s the units DUI (designated unit insignia).

[fiery heath]

lol I don’t know why I didn’t notice it before lol I was an 11b 🤣🤣

[clear kestrel]

No shit?

[boreal creek]

I also have 8538 to the south off Hwy 130. I sure as hell can't see that directly, so must be from you @clear kestrel or someone else with some elevations.

I'm a keyboard commando... high ranking member of Meal Team 6.

[clear kestrel]

@fiery heath @bitter iron you’re both prior service?

[bitter iron]

As soon as Amazon gets here with my POE splitter, I hope to have a node with some elevation.

yes, 25C. USMA. Exited as O-3. My big adventure was Bosnia.

[fiery heath]

Had my fun for a bit

Atleast I know you got thrown from planes too🤣🤣 @clear kestrel

[bitter iron]

I was wedged between end of Desert Adventures 1 and 2, and 9/11. Not much going on, so I went to where the paychecks were greener. At least I'm not a leg.

[clear kestrel]

I joined a month before 9/11

[bitter iron]

Oof. There's some timing.

[fiery heath]

I did 04-14

[clear kestrel]

Damn!

[fiery heath]

Well I know where your ass went

[clear kestrel]

Same as you.

What unit?

[fiery heath]

2-504 with the 82nd for a while and then went to Italy with 2 -503 with 173rd

[clear kestrel]

Nice. Did you Enjoy Italy?

[fiery heath]

2 Iraq and one afghan

Italy was great! I was my last duty station . I lived it upppp

[clear kestrel]

I got out in 05

[fiery heath]

Aww damn we just switched spots🤣

[clear kestrel]

I had 3 deployments to Iraq and 2 to afghan

[fiery heath]

The Wild West days

[clear kestrel]

I worked in Iraq for 2 years after I got out.

[clear kestrel]

You better believe it.

[fiery heath]

Shit I was at Al Assad my first round . Advise and assist in the surge

You ever know a Ferrussi?

He got out the csm type

[clear kestrel]

Your deployment were pretty long I assume.

[fiery heath]

Yeah . 3 deployments and 39 months deployed

[clear kestrel]

Sounds familiar. I’ve data dumped so much from that time. It’s cool talking to guys I was in with because they remind me of so much stuff I’ve forgotten.

[fiery heath]

The first was was reaaaaal long , got stuck with dust storms , but we got paid aloooot extra everyday we stayed extra after the first 15 months . stop loss days .. army changed that real fast , they lost a lot of $$

[fiery heath]

Yeah meshtastic is way easier 🤣🤣🤣

[spare garden]

make mesh, not war. deploy nodes

[boreal creek]

Make mesh, for war?

[fiery heath]

Yeah I just wanna jam drones

[fiery heath]

They tried that already for clandestine ops . Nodes kept resetting🤣🤣🤣🤣

[spare garden]

https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/pull/3630 hopefully this one fixes it

[fiery heath]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[boreal creek]

Merged 6 minutes? You just sit on those PR's and F5 all day? j/k

[spare garden]

https://discord.com/channels/867578229534359593/874491274395283486 is a thing

[boreal creek]

TIL

[fiery heath]

I just read that last part I didn’t see it at first 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[bitter iron]

I was in long enough to know to sit down and shut up when someone with an MOS that starts with "1" starts talking. I spent my last year as a SIGO for a 155 SP Paladin Battalion. I do like the artillery guys. Why walk when you can ride, why fight when you can hide...

[clear kestrel]

Queen of battle

[fiery heath]

I want a paladin …..

Could put my antenna right at the tip 🤣

[bitter iron]

I'd love to drop that batallion in Ukraine for 30 days with a full loadout and solid resupply. They were counter-couterbattery, and the only unit I ever went to NTC with that came home with nothing but victory streamers.

I got to do a danger-close call with them. That solidly conviniced me to NEVER be an 11B. They know where you are, and they WILL kill you with fires.

[fiery heath]

The Ukraine is on a different level , my buddy said imagine ww1 but with t1000 tech and angry ass drones .

[clear kestrel]

Artillery is the king of battle and infantry is the queen according to some dumb cadence we used to sing in basic.

[bitter iron]

yeah, I think I marched to that...

[fiery heath]

In 2004 they made all the sand hill cadre rangers and sf dudes from the initial pushes to give them a break … they didn’t my ass a break🤣 it was cool , I wish I could have learned more technical stuff with radios than I did but got a lot of tech knowledge from the stuff they had us use . Cancer as well but the tech was cool🫡🤣🤣

Like those things , they are like back rf on alllllllll the crack

I want to make a backpack antenna node system kinda like that

Less cancer for suuure .

[bitter iron]

My SIL is a DAT (Dumb Ass Tanker) but I will concede that the IVIS in the M1A2 is everything I ever wanted APRS/ATAK to be. No excuse for shooting your buddy's tank anymore. I meanm if he's banging your side chick, by all means, shoot him, but at least IVIS makes sure you hit the right friendly.

[clear kestrel]

Seriously?

In regards to cancer

Did they change ft benning to ft morre while you were in?

I just heard about it.

[fiery heath]

Yeah they were prepping for the surge days . By 07 they were all changed out . They needed rangers and green berets bigtime . They pushed it . I was in an entire class of 18x and was the only non xray.

[fiery heath]

Shit fort bragg is liberty now and all is strange . Nahhh the empire crumbled after I got out

[clear kestrel]

I remember sitting next to the jammer thinking I’ll never have kids.

I don’t have kids 🤨

[fiery heath]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 they jam alright

There was a lot of shady things going on , especially back then . Shit .. you were in during the Tillman times .. I just got in . That was wild

[tropic matrix]

anyone know who Rak2 is? solid connection here

[clear kestrel]

I think he’s in Elk Grove if I remember correctly. Does not share his location.

Dennis and I have both messaged back and forth with him.

[clear kestrel]

That was at 2nd batt. It sucks.

[clear kestrel]

3/75 Bn commander? Where did you meet her? Benning?

[boreal creek]

Just went to flash a device and see that 2.3.4 is now "stable".

[bitter iron]

Ft Gordon. Her dad retired there.

AB0OO_R (ABOR) now up and running at ~55 feet AGL. I'm seeting more of you guys, finally.

[boreal creek]

I just pulled mine down to swap hardware, but I’ll put it back up in a bit and test. The LOS plots looked promising.

[boreal creek]

Just holding my T-Echo in my hand just over the fence line I got a traceroute direct.

[boreal creek]

@bitter iron @tropic matrix , I swapped hardware and remounted it in it's temporary but elevated position (same place as my previous test), but now I can DM you both and get ack's back.

[bitter iron]

how about that. I just pulled the power on AB0OO_B. I might still his antenna and put it up the tree. It's another 2 or 3 DB.

[boreal creek]

I think the permanent location on my end will be even better. It's a bit higher and away from trees.

@tropic matrix , my traceroute showed my T-Echo hitting the RAK outside on the pole, to KI6SSI Router Client, to you.

@bitter iron , which device do you get messages on? _B?

[bitter iron]

good question. 🙂 I pulled the plug on B. Let me see what's on my desk.

I might rename it to just AB0OO

[boreal creek]

I got an ack on a DM to _R, so making the final hop should be a breeze.

[bitter iron]

so, _R is 55 feet up a tree, but it's connected to a Raspberry PI. I'm powering the PI over POE, and the Heltec V3 via USB from the PI.

BUT... somewhere in the LONG ethernet run, I think I nicked one of the data wires, so I'm not getting an ethernet connection to the PI. It's obviously powered up, because the Heltec has power, but I can't talk to the Pi. I'm a little frustrated by that.

What device should I DM for you, @boreal creek ?

[boreal creek]

jf1 / "jfred1 (SacValleyMesh.com)"

[bitter iron]

this is a new log message:
WARN | 17:12:00 566 [PositionModule] Channel utilization is >25 percent. Skipping this opportunity to send.

[boreal creek]

hm, interesting. So it seems won't send position data unless things are relatively idle?

[bitter iron]

I think that's one of the critical differences between meshtastic and APRS, for example. Meshtastic is designed around texting. sharing free-form text messages. APRS is designed for tactical situational awareness. Thus, it has more emphasis on location and telemetry data.

[boreal creek]

I still haven't tried APRS.

[bitter iron]

I've been a peripheral contributor for about 20 years. I have multiple git projects supporting it, I've spoken at DCC on it, and was on pretty good terms with Bob (the original author). For a while, I was the Georgia APRS state coordinator, and the Digipeater I set up there is one of the 5 busiest in the country.

30 day coverage map for N4NE-2: https://aprs.fi/#!v=heard&call=a%2FN4NE-2&timerange=3600&tail=3600

I could go on and on about how much more mature/robust/routable/etc it is then meshtastic. I think I've done that with Pete, and he just started ignoring me. 🙂

[boreal creek]

I’m interested! Was talking with @fickle wedge about it a bit yesterday.

and now I think the testing node is down for some reason. Time to lower it and see what's going on.

It didn’t fall into the pool, so that’s good at least.

[bitter iron]

I ran APRS-over-LORA on playa at Burning Man last year, and got pretty good results. I was happy with the results. Solid bike tracking out to about 6000 feet, with a 20' mast and a 3db Antenna, tracking Heltect AB-02s trackers (they have Lora/GPS but no wifi or BLE)

I never carry a phone out there, so mushtastic didn't seem like a good solution

[tropic matrix]

I should setup some aprs gear. I was hoping meshtastic would be a way to get the family involved. I've got a lot more nodes in my list now.

John what's your antenna on the tree node?

[bitter iron]

AB0OO_R

[tropic matrix]

yep

Nice I just got a traceroute to EGS1 which is about 20 miles away.

[bitter iron]

cool. It's a little lower than what I used for the propagation map. I was aiming for about 70 feet, but going another 15 feet up that tree would have been inadvisable.

[clear kestrel]

For you guys that are in trees, how are you getting your antenna away from the tree?

[spare garden]

get the tree away from the antenna

https://tenor.com/view/log-log-tricks-timber-tricks-amazing-timber-gif-13064622

[clear kestrel]

My node is strapped to the trunk and there is about 2” between the antenna and trunk. I think it would better to hang it from a branch.

[spare garden]

horizontal extension pole

use one of them antenna/satellite mounts

[tropic matrix]

My node antenna is just above the tree top. I mounted it to a pole and pushed it up, then tied it to the trunk. Depending on the tree you could probably screw it to the trunk.

WTF I just got a traceroute like 20 minutes after I did it. The route is c320 -> SacvalleyMesh Testing -> AB0OO ->jfred1.

[spare garden]

check chUtil and airtxutil of all nodes in path

[tropic matrix]

I'll have to figure out how to do that when I get a sec.

[boreal creek]

@magic plume and I were DM'ing (he's in my neighborhood) and his traceroute to one of my secondary nodes was "CON0 -> sacvalleymesh.com testing -> AB00_R -> jf2".... so a 25 mile round trip to go 1/3-1/2 a mile. (I'm not sure why it didn't hit my testing node and back down at the most.)

[magic plume]

@open nest 😂

[boreal creek]

I can't see him directly, but my traceroute was "jf1 -> SacValleyMesh.com Testing -> AB0OO_R -> KI6SSI Router Client -> Elk Grove South Router - AD6DM". Quite a path, but it worked. Now to see if we can pass messages.

[open nest]

🤔

[magic plume]

Oh whoops, meant to send this as a reply to the other message ha, my baf

[open nest]

🤔🤔

[boreal creek]

And now we know what's going on... as we're all tracerouting the hell out of each other with the newly found coverage.

[boreal creek]

I’m starting to think 2.3.4 is a no-go on T-Echo’s. Earlier I thought it was the new RAK, but just had another issue that was cleared up by resetting the T-Echo itself.

[spare garden]

what sort of reset? 👀

(and what issue)

[boreal creek]

Effectively a reboot by pressing the reset button on the side of the device.

I'm just trying to narrow in on possible causes, but observation was Bluetooth connectivity but basically no radio actions within the app seeming to work. For example, a traceroute to a device just feet away (or any device for that matter) show no response. Immediately after reboot it works again. Also, no updated node information appearing in the Nodes list while in this state.

I did also enable MQTT map upload today too, so there's another change done on top of the update to 2.3.4

[clear kestrel]

I just installed 2.3.5 on everything at my house. Headed up the hill to replace battery, install new firmware, and get node away from the tree.

[tropic matrix]

just got a message from someone in the Tracy hills. That's a long haul, no reply yet.

[boreal creek]

a lot of us replied saying we got that... you, me, CON0, JB, DM7...

That is a pretty good trek for sure!

I remember talking to them once... don't recall if it was in this Discord or on one of the FB groups.

Hey 0HLT, a bunch of us up here heard your "Test from tracy Hills site". I didn't get node info, but some replied with 0HLT.... not sure if you got any of our replies, but you were heard in Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove, El Dorado Hills, and out into Amador County.

Just to say, whatever you're doing keep it up! 👍

[open rivet]

@fickle wedge

Did net hear replies. Node is up and renamed Tracy Hills Router 1

Oops jfred1 was the intended for that last

[tropic matrix]

Do you have a seismograph?

[open rivet]

Yes, I do. TRACY seismograph on youtube.

[boreal creek]

I have a Spirograph... not quite the same though. Hmm..

[worn violet]

nooby question but how do I join this Channel.
I have a helcat v3 and the app on my iphone and connected them to it.

just dont know how to connect it to this channel?

any help would be apreciated.

[tropic matrix]

Cool I got one as well, its in a noisy environment on my garage floor http://seis.petefleming.com/

[fickle wedge]

I was replying @open rivet

[tropic matrix]

Miggy, this channel is not tied to the meshtastic radios. Its just a chat room about it.

[fickle wedge]

I saw your messages

[boreal creek]

Hey @worn violet, I'm not aware of bridging Discord to Meshtastic.

But you're here, so maybe we can get you connected to some of the rest of us. What hardware do you have? Approximately where are you located?

Maybe you're already one of the nodes in my list even. What is your device named?

[worn violet]

gotcha i got confused then. I need to read up on how this works more. Thanks.

[worn violet]

Heltec v3 and I am located in south sacramento area close to elkgrove laguna

[worn violet]

my node is Meshtastic 32c0

[boreal creek]

I don't see that one in my list yet.

What I'm finding is to expect relatively local communication unless you're close to a device that has some elevation, like mounted on a tree, or the top of someone's house or something.

[worn violet]

I am not close to a device with elavation lol its just in my room gotta test it out some time later with high evaluation then.

[boreal creek]

Antennas help too. I don't have a Heltec, but I can say the antenna that came with my T-Beam was pretty lame.

[boreal creek]

For example, this device sitting on my desk reaches a neighbor almost 1/2 mile away directly most of the time (sometimes it will bounce through a higher device).

But if you get something up on the roof or even a pole, we've seen 15+ miles consistently.

but obviously those are elevated devices with clear line of sight.

[worn violet]

oh wow are u connected direclty to that device through wire or using bluetooth to connect to it.

[boreal creek]

Bluetooth to the device on my desk, then LoRa to the neighbor's device.

and for the elevated devices, my device is talking to it through LoRa and it's repeating the traffic which the other device 15+ miles away is hearing and also repeating there.

[worn violet]

gotcha how does one find other public channels through the mestastic app. Like are you able to send a ping out and comunicate with a random person with their own node?

[boreal creek]

You can connect to random people if you're in range, or if you are both connected to the same mesh within a handful of "hops" from each other. You should have a channel in the app by default and could try messaging to it if you found yourself in range of other devices.

[open rivet]

Ok, I will let it cook and we will see if it is good. It is at 1600+ ft msl with clear view of the valley

[worn violet]

got it thanks for the info and help sir.

[boreal creek]

np. I'm happy to help further... you can DM me here. There are also a ton of videos on YouTube that might help as well.

[pearl terrace]

@void hawk

[boreal creek]

Received your last test. Sent reply.

With that elevation you're bound to see a lot of nodes even if we're too far for two-way.

[fiery heath]

What up peeps . It’s kinda cool there’s more and more people in here every day

[clear kestrel]

Permanently? 😀

[fiery heath]

Finally feels like the 1000$ I spent since oct is working 🤣🤣🤣

[boreal creek]

What the heck did you get for that? lol

[open rivet]

JB yes, it is collated with the W6LLL repeater.

[fiery heath]

Just too many nodes🤣 and antennas

[boreal creek]

sounds about right

[bitter iron]

I've literally made THOUSANDS of RJ-45 crimp connectors in my life. Every one to EIA-568b standards. Damned if I didn't make the ones running up the tree bass-ackwards.

And, apparantly, the one at the TOP of the F'ing tree.

[spare garden]

at least it only takes one strong yank to bring it down?

[boreal creek]

Time to go A on the near side and call it a day. 🤣

[bitter iron]

The shit I do for a hobby

[clear kestrel]

All that West Point training paid off

[bitter iron]

I spent a lot of time with 31Limas

[clear kestrel]

That’s awesome! I think that’s the first Meshtastic node in our mesh that’s on a repeater tower!

[boreal creek]

Looks like an ER visit to me. LOL

[bitter iron]

Meh. I was wearing my tree-climbing sketchers.
And a full-body SALA harness.

[boreal creek]

At least you had your Sketchers. LOL

[clear kestrel]

Had to look that one up. I had very minimal exposure to the big army.

[open rivet]

I have a site at Diablo also... just sayin.

[clear kestrel]

Are you at all concerned with the distance of the antenna from the trunk? I had a similar set up until today and my signal improved getting away from the trunk.

[fiery heath]

The good old wire dog .

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/comedy-waynes-world-you-are-the-master-worship-bow-gif-17398753

[clear kestrel]

Are you getting a strong signal from your new Tracy hills node at your house?

[open rivet]

That's respectable...

[clear kestrel]

Are you fed? Where can I direct message you?

[tropic matrix]

Anyone see the Turlock Mesh #! router? Its about 80 miles from here.

[open rivet]

I'm on fed ht1 via ethernet

[clear kestrel]

This is so cool!

[spare garden]

let me know if/when any of your rak nodes go into infinite reboot on 2.3.5 so I can avoid it

[clear kestrel]

So far so good

[spare garden]

ever encountered an unintended factory reset?

there's some change that does a reboot instead of nuking flash.

[clear kestrel]

1 heltec and 4 raks running smooth for about 6 hours now.

I didn’t nuke, just flashed

[spare garden]

I'll let you test for a few more weeks before I flash mine 😆

[clear kestrel]

No problem

[fiery heath]

Those rak systems are badass

Mines been running great off one 18650 I’m waiting for sun to go down to see battery level today

[boreal creek]

I just put one up with a 10,000 mAh Li-Po. 🤣

[clear kestrel]

That was my first device based on the comms channel’s recommendation. I don’t know why anyone uses anything else.

[boreal creek]

It ain’t ever gonna budge from hi 90%

[boreal creek]

The T-echo is nice. Though I have next to no experience with the RAK. Maybe if I printed a case like yours.

[fiery heath]

It’s literally the last device I haven’t gotten haha I have them all or had and I can’t believe I never got them before 😅

[clear kestrel]

I forgot about the t echo. That is about as good as it gets for a ready to go option.

[pearl terrace]

I really want a t echo as my main daily device

[spare garden]

get the next best thing: a nano g2 ultra

[fiery heath]

Yeah I got one of those and I love it . Haven’t been able to snag another one up though. They are a perfect little go device

[pearl terrace]

I’m planning on it

It’s just not quite as good of a device

[spare garden]

the screen is better

and it has a buzzer (does t-echo have one?)

[fiery heath]

Nope

[pearl terrace]

Oh the buzzer is nice

[fiery heath]

Just a backlight

[pearl terrace]

Don’t care too much about the screen

[spare garden]

t-echo screen takes too much CPU to update. not sure if they fixed the lags due to that yet

[pearl terrace]

Oh really?

[spare garden]

there was some "partial update" patch, but I don't know if it's as good as OLED yet

[fiery heath]

The little s3 lilygo lors watch had a buzzer and vibrates . I took mine apart and I am gonna get a case made to put them in to have them placed to alert me when a message comes through

[spare garden]

thicc battery too, yeh?

[fiery heath]

Hahaha I resoldered one one 🤣 the others sucked bad unless you put it on always sleep like a mofo

[spare garden]

dürp

[fiery heath]

You use the pi to remote update it ??

[spare garden]

it can do

esptool.py ftw

[fiery heath]

Yeah I love that thing . Used it all the time when I was making flipper zero mods

[boreal creek]

That works since he’s got PoE. Can you imagine trying to run the pi on solar? I would need a bigger panel.

[fiery heath]

Haha yeah that would be wild . Have to hook up a big ol battery and a array of panels 🤣

[spare garden]

a pi02w can take less current than Meshtastic running on a helltec

[pearl terrace]

But does it use less than an NFR powered device?

[bitter iron]

That's the plan. Also, I can run the webserver on the PI and interact with it over the network.

running the webserver on the node sucks up a lot of compute cycles.

unfortunately, I still don't have ethernet link to the Pi. I need to start testing segments individually. I don't want to climb the tree again anytime soon

but my switch is telling me I'm delivering power, but no ethernet link.
Also, I might have nicked the ethernet cable when putting in the cable brackets to hold it to the eaves on the house.... Again, I need to test in segments

[spare garden]

y u no wifi

[bitter iron]

Up the tree to reconfigure... 🙂 I have a uSD card here that's ready to go with that. At least as a backup until I get the cable figured out.

climbing the tree is non-trivial

I didn't use WiFi originally because.. ethernet!

[spare garden]

even Ethernet needs backup/fallback

I've been saved by pi wifi a couple times in the past when Ethernet go derp or I needed to move it

I have wifi automagically turn on and connect when Ethernet can't get a connection

[clear kestrel]

https://tenor.com/view/ash-huh-hello-darkness-fancy-gif-25321650

I’m about to delete EDHR (b4c4) from my node list. I feel like we should have a funeral or something. 🤪

[boreal creek]

I hope @tropic matrix gave it a proper burial.

[fiery heath]

Uhhggg I see I see , well that’s badass though once it’s all working well

[boreal creek]

I gave “SacValleyMesh.com testing” another 24-30” elevation. It is at MAX now on the temp setup. That’s all she’s got till I get a tall ladder

[clear kestrel]

I’m can trace route @bitter iron now.

[boreal creek]

4 hops. Can you hit PGR direct? Or do you need the Solar Router in the middle?

[bitter iron]

Going via your ass to get to your elbow

[fiery heath]

How do you run these trace routes?

[boreal creek]

I don’t know who I may be jumping through, but I can DM OIMR now and get an ack back.

[clear kestrel]

Are you on iOS?

Anyone know EZPW?

[clear kestrel]

If so, hold down on a node in your node list. An option to trace route will pop up. Then click on the node and select “trace route log”

[fiery heath]

Ahhh ok and yes iOS and I have Android if needed

[boreal creek]

No, but I got a DM with an ack to our business card. 🤣

[clear kestrel]

Nice, maybe we’ll see them on here soon.

[fickle wedge]

looks like the mesh is getting busy. I'm back from class and all sorts o' sh** happening

People bouncing traceroutes all over the valley to get to next door neighbors

I was happy to hear Tracy but I guess he didn't hear my replies

@boreal creek seems like the rak is working well

[clear kestrel]

I can’t trace route the new Tracy Router, but it shows up as having a good signal.

[fickle wedge]

Yeah it says 1 hop for me but no traceroute

[clear kestrel]

I’m getting consistent device metrics every 15 min from it. Says it’s 3 hops away.

[boreal creek]

It is! And I put an extra couple feet elevation on it as well. But the temporary pole is maxed out now.

[clear kestrel]

I made contact with @fiery heath through you @boreal creek

[boreal creek]

Nice! That’s Bluffs, right?

[clear kestrel]

Bluffs 1-1 WIS

[fiery heath]

Got you both 🫡

[clear kestrel]

@worn violet This link is a great starting point. Welcome! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLshzThxhw4O5JTOACGHzYSSd3soDhoXKK&si=yTpf5eb9uhLdwocm

[worn violet]

thanks

[clear kestrel]

iOS update out.

[fiery heath]

On it 🤙🏽 good lookin out

Dang we got connected !

[clear kestrel]

That JJW node was a flight around 2130. I thought all those other nodes in the south west of your screen shot were from that flight, but I’ve been picking up telemetry from them through out the morning. That Tracy hills node must be “linking” us.

[fiery heath]

Ohhh dang maybe that flight gave aliiitle push hahah that’s awesome ! lol you’re literally holding the west part of the valley together I noticed in the map

[clear kestrel]

I went from like 72 nodes to 90 last night.

[fiery heath]

Damn

[boreal creek]

It's cool seeing this, but at the same time I'm finding it's cluttering things up with nodes I saw once and will never see again.

[clear kestrel]

Delete them or add a filter.

[boreal creek]

I have been filtering a lot lately based on "Online".

[fickle wedge]

I just received my own waypoint from Monday 😳 Good job Meshtastic app

[boreal creek]

If you go into Device Metrics on the new app, is the "Batt" column on the left cut off for you?

[boreal creek]

I did too!

[clear kestrel]

I just deleted the waypoint

[fickle wedge]

I also set it to expires next day, but I guess that waypoint is forever

So in 2036 when the mesh is a billion nodes, we will still see "Sala" on the map.

reminding us of its presence every one in a while 😆

[clear kestrel]

Weird you must have just deleted it for everyone.

I got a notice in the app

[fickle wedge]

This "for everyone" stuff could be problematic.

What's to stop a rando from filling our maps

[fickle wedge]

It's cut off for me.

[boreal creek]

Thanks for checking. Seems this version comes with this small annoyance.

It's probably an easy fix and they are probably already on it.

[clear kestrel]

Mine is not cut off, but I’m seeing other people complain about it with specific iPhone models.

[boreal creek]

Hmm, interesting. I'm just one of the lucky ones then.

If other people are mentioning it elsewhere, I'm sure there's probably already a bug report filed then.

[clear kestrel]

I do think they can omit seconds from uptime so that it’s not double spacing the log.

[boreal creek]

Who needs a fancy case when you can get an insert for an Altoids tin!

[spare garden]

metal blocks signals, ye know...

[boreal creek]

I do, If I were to do that, I'd mount an SMA on the top.

I just have a TON of empty Altoids tins so I like projects that make use of them.

[spare garden]

use one to store mints

[boreal creek]

That'd be too easy!

[clear kestrel]

I saw those. I like the size and form, but I know the case will block Lora and Bluetooth, and mounting external antennas takes away the reason I liked it in the first place.

[clear kestrel]

Glad to see I’m not the only hoarder of containers. 😉

[mighty finch]

yass

[spare garden]

solution: 3d print an altoids tin

[clear kestrel]

How about you 3d print me a 3d printer 😉

[spare garden]

https://tenor.com/view/amogus-among-us-imposter-3d-print-gif-20813168

[mighty finch]

lulzbot is that you>

o.0

[fiery heath]

That new 915 antenna rak just dropped …. Is for 916 it seems lol will work but there are better ones

https://store.rokland.com/products/meshtac-gooseneck-tactical-antenna-4-dbi-gain-sma-male-915-mhz-flexible-for-meshtastic-lora?mc_cid=75708f48f2&mc_eid=79602004b5

[pearl terrace]

It’d be nice if it was a 907 instead of 915 🤦‍♂️

[fiery heath]

lol you think someone would catch on my now lol

[bitter iron]

Nothing says we HAVE to run the mesh on 906.875. I run all my APRS LoRa stuff at 913.500, because it's closer to where the majority of antennas I buy are centered. It pretty trivial to change the freqs, it just means we wouldn't be "found" by people out of the box.

A lot of manufacturers tune their antennas for about 890, because it splits the middle between the 866 stuff in Europe and 902-928 stuff here. Just be thankful we have ALL that space at 900MHz here. The Euros got screwed on UHF ISM

most of what they do is at 433, which is part of the Amateur spectrum over here (as is 902-928)

Everything at 430MHz is basically double the size: antennas, filters, etc. It does get better penetration through trees, through. The average mature length of a pine needle in Georgia is exactly 1/4 wavelength of 900MHz, which means when they're wet, it's like a statewide anechoic chamber.

[clear kestrel]

Hmmmm. I’m going to go measure some pine needles. Maybe I should switch my tower from a pine to a cedar.

[boreal creek]

$35? That's a tough sell when there are some decently reviewed $5-10 Ali Express specials.

[fiery heath]

Yeah for real . But hey business is business and it seems to be booming

I’m seeing up a directional antenna from my location 201 degrees to Tracy area and see if I can catch it with a beam .

[fiery heath]

So with the trace route , mine keep saying no response , does that mean I don’t have a connection ?

[boreal creek]

It would mean that your node didn't get a response from the other end. So either they didn't get it or you didn't get their reply.

I've seen cases in my own testing where the traceroute's would show no response but a DM gets an ack from the end node, so it's not foolproof.