(a teaser/portion of the MeshCore logo, which is coming soon)
Well, things have been going at a million miles an hour with MeshCore! It's been super exciting getting the initial firmwares out for testing. A lot of people have been jumping on board (and 'jumping ship' :-) ) and the testing outcomes have exceeded my expectations.
So, to give a broad overview of what has emerged so far. There are 3 main OS firmware types, targeting a handful of boards (which is growing rapidly). Firmware types:
Repeater
Terminal Chat
Room Server (can also be repeater)
The main LoRa boards currently supported: Heltec V3 (incl StickLite), RAK4631, XiaoS3 WIO, Xiao C3 (external sx1262 needed), Heltec T114, and Station G2.
The commercial firmwares are: Ripple Ultra v6.0, for T-Deck (orig and Plus), and T5 ePaper Pro. The 6.0 beta is available here, although I haven't been updating the download here as often as I should.
There is also an OS Companion Radio project in-development, which is for connecting to MeshCore chat apps, web or mobile. There are some early efforts underway at 3rd party chat apps, and if you want to have a go there is a Companion Radio Protocol spec already! The companion radio firmware will likely run on all the boards mentioned above.
For getting going quickly and with as little fuss as possible, Andy is in the process of putting together a website dedicated to everything MeshCore, and that includes a web flasher! Very early version here: https://flasher.meshcore.io/
You can also flash your gear using what I use: VS Code and PlatformIO. I don't have a guide for setup, so this is just for the experienced (or the brave!), but you just git clone the repo here: https://github.com/ripplebiz/MeshCore
Andy's Video Guides
Andy has been busy testing MeshCore out in the real world and also making very useful video guides for you all out there. Just go here and all the recent ones are MeshCore related:
https://www.youtube.com/@andykirby/videos
Affordable Setups
If you have some Heltecs or other boards sitting in a drawer, and you don't have a T-Deck, it doesn't cost anything to setup your own little mesh. Just flash two 'Terminal Chat' nodes, then you can do basic chat over a command line interface. Flash a repeater node, stick it in a Tupperware container, and throw it up a tree, and voila, huge range! I actually tested Terminal Chat with this setup:
I got the nifty 180-degree USB-OTG connector on AliExpress. The LoRa board is a Heltec V3 StickLite. With a 3D-printed enclosure, or antenna holder, it makes quite a nice setup! And, on the Android you just install the Serial USB Terminal app.
What Are 'Room Servers'?
The present state of group channel chat is a really hit-and-miss affair, and at the same time is also very inefficient (for the mesh). The 'Rooms' are my answer to the problem, and also of improving the user experience, ie. you know that your Posts get posted (what a novel idea!? :-) ), and when you jump into a Room, you get a catch up on the Posts you've missed. So, it's a light-weight BBS. The Room Server has it's own ID/name, and appears in the Discover list like other nodes. You just add it to home/favourites, then can jump in (but Room server owner can set a guest password).
Connecting to the Room server implicitly involves establishing a direct path to it, and for that session your device only does direct comms (not flood). As long as your connection is good, you will also get push notifications of new Posts! So, there's no polling. Apart from the connection phase, the Room server will only do direct comms.
I see this as becoming very important in the near future. The flood-mode packets will become more and more 'expensive' once the adoption curve explodes, and there will be a need to stick to direct paths as much as possible.
Future Stuff
When I get a few minutes to catch my breath, I hope to write an Android chat app, for use with a companion radio (as per the spec mentioned above). There will also be 3rd party chat app options, and they may arrive before my one.
Also, Andy's website is coming. I am looking forward to seeing that emerge, and for it to be the one-stop-shop for everything.
OK, that's it for now. I have a million things on my to-do list, and better get cracking.
--Scott Powell