Pete, Have you looked through this list? https://github.com/samuk/awesome-meshcore There are several GUIs for repeaters and nodes. One example: https://github.com/Treehouse-00/pymc_console-dist
Mike On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 2:54 PM Pete Soper via TriEmbed < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Glen, > > I got as much config as I could up front and suffered with making > changes after hoisting the node. It blows my mind that there is no "help" > command in CLI mode. That's so 1960s astronaut in a world with megabytes of > available flash. > > I set an admin password and put a copy of the keys in a safe place. > > Putting latitude and longitude in place and making this available is > important too unless you aren't comfortable with folks knowing where you > are. I didn't bother to hook up a GPS but configuring this up front is also > on the check list. > > I swear I configured my repeater to allow folks to see my telemetry (DC > supply voltage and ESP32 chip temp), but it appears to require admin login > to access, even with a "blank" password. I obviously didn't understand what > I was doing and am left wondering how to fix this with some other > definition of "blank". I think I missed this step doing the initial > configuration and "fixed it" with a CLI session. But you can't put the set > command in with no characters after the resource name: it flags this as an > unknown command (IMO it's silly to call this "unknown"). I eventually found > the settings interface and was able to change the password without typing > anything into the text box but that didn't change anything. > > I set minutes between to "adverts" to 240 minutes (longest interval > allowed) and "flood advert" every 25 hours so the advert time of day would > wander around the clock over time. > > I set the radio to 50% transmit duty cycle: the default. This is a > regulatory issue, by the way and 50% is max in the US. The allowed duty > cycle is much less than 50 in Europe, for instance (10% I think). This is > to cap potential interference and give other stations a fair chance to use > the band. > > I set power to 22dbm. With the Heltec 32 V4 there is a 17db attenuater > between the radio and power amp but I was too lazy to look at specs and see > the most efficient way to get full power output. That's on my list. A > repeater that is inside your house should not need anywhere near the max. > My "companion-driven mode" is set to 10dbm but I suspect it could hit the > repeater with less than that. Note that vertical antennas with gain have > attenuated signal/receive capability "underneath". Picture a cone with a > varying angle to the "skirt". So my repeater's skirt encompasses some major > fraction of the house. It would have been better to have it further away > because of this. > > I temporarily set coding rate to 8. The default 5 gives "5-4 = 1" > correction bit per 4 payload bits, 6 gives 2, 7 gives 3, 8 (max) gives 4s > correction bits per 4 payload bits. My bias with this stuff is to give > myself maximum chance of success until the node is actually handling > traffic properly and needs optimization. But this extends "on the air time" > significantly and ties up other node's receivers, so that's not very > neighborly while you're gathering data for optimization. One of a gaggle of > changes I'd like to make to the firmware is per destination optimization of > the coding rate, TX power level, etc. If anybody is doing their own > firmware builds I'd love to hear about any relevant build tips. IMO there > shouldn't even be fixed parameters but instead for stations fixed in place > the system should adjust to every node it has "conversations" with over > time. Notice that our WiFi networks don't blast at full power all the time. > > I selected one byte hash mode without having a clue what this means for > the chances of joy or sorrow. The choices are one, two or three bytes and > this also affects "time on the air". > > > On 8/25/26 13:25, Glen Smith via TriEmbed wrote: > > Pete, > > Any thing specific that needs to be done with configuration re repeater vs > a companion node? I think I'm going to do the same - deploy a repeater and > see how things go. According to the map I have other repeaters closer to me > than you do. Some careful branch selection may allow me to put the trunk > shadow Mike mentions in an optimal position. > > On Tue, Aug 25, 2026 at 9:55 AM Pete Soper via TriEmbed < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I put a Heltec 32 V4 configured as a repeater near the top of a tree >> roughly 60-70ft above ground yesterday and initially the results were >> very discouraging: I could no longer hit the Carolina Backhaul in Chapel >> Hill I'd been clinging to earlier; by setting coding rate to 8 aka "max >> error correction bits" I could ping it and get an ack one time out of >> three. But I left everything running over night and this morning the >> contacts in the companion driven node connected to my repeater had maxed >> out. One of them jumped right off the screen of my phone: DH Hill >> library at NC State 14 miles away. I tried pinging it and had immediate >> and repeatable success! So I have at least one reliable path out of my >> "tree farm near Apex" with this setup and hopefully there will be others >> in the companion node's contact list and data structures inside the >> repeater. I'm fully expecting this link to break down on rainy days >> until I can get a node above most of my trees. Still, this success will >> keep me going. And this setup is a hack, running with a 10AH battery. >> I'll keep it up as much as I can after protecting the guts from rain and >> as time allows swap in solar power and hopefully get it near the top of >> a very tall Tulip Poplar here. The immediate priorities are to turn >> attention back to gathering info and publishing it on the TriEmbed web >> site and proposing some fun-oriented tutorial meetings. >> >> Pete >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Triangle, NC Embedded Interest Group mailing list >> >> To post message: [email protected] >> List info: >> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org >> TriEmbed web site: https://TriEmbed.org >> To unsubscribe, click link and send a blank message: mailto: >> [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe >> Searchable email archive available at >> https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Triangle, NC Embedded Interest Group mailing list > > To post message: [email protected] > List info: http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org > TriEmbed web site: https://TriEmbed.org > To unsubscribe, click link and send a blank message: > mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe > <[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > Searchable email archive available at > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > _______________________________________________ > Triangle, NC Embedded Interest Group mailing list > > To post message: [email protected] > List info: http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org > TriEmbed web site: https://TriEmbed.org > To unsubscribe, click link and send a blank message: mailto: > [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe > Searchable email archive available at > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > >
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