MeshCore is firmware voor goedkope LoRa-bordjes, zoals Heltec, RAK, SenseCAP en dergelijke, waarmee een meshnetwerk voor tekstberichten kan worden gevormd, volledig los van internet, wifi of het mobiele netwerk. LoRa zit in de vrije 868 MHz-band en levert weinig bandbreedte maar veel bereik, zodat je met een paar honderd milliwatt kilometers overbrugt en een node op zonne-energie jarenlang kan blijven staan. Je telefoon koppelt via bluetooth aan een node en van daaruit lopen berichten end-to-end versleuteld over repeaters naar de ontvanger, waarbij MeshCore met vaste paden werkt in plaats van alles overal te herhalen zoals het bekendere Meshtastic doet. Het kan worden ingezet voor chat tijdens evenementen en tochten, als noodnetwerk, of puur als hobby om te zien hoe ver ze komen.
De firmware kan met de webflasher op het bord worden geplaatst, waarna deze als een companion, repeater of roomserver kan worden ingezet. In versie 1.17.0 is vooral het listen-before-talkmechanisme herschreven, wat op drukke meshes flink minder botsende pakketjes oplevert. Daarnaast zijn er nieuwe borden ondersteund, waaronder SenseCAP MeshTracker X1 en Thinknode M7/M9, is de config naar JSON gegaan en verbruiken slapende nodes minder stroom.
New FeaturesEnhancements
- #2987 companion, MCU temperature added to sensor telemetry
- #3115 LR2021 radio support added. (Also Meshnology W12 added)
- #2688 new room server ‘room.post’ CLI command (for server orig posts)
- #2883 repeater power off on long button press
- #1727 new ‘set cad on/off’ CLI command
- #2765 ESP targets now support the ‘get pwrmgt.bootreason’ CLI command
- #2140 new ‘get/set radio.fem.rxgain’ CLI command (some Heltec boards)
New device support
- #3036 fix for missing preamble detect IRQ bit
- #2977 preamble and header IRQ rx timeout logic
- #2824 nrf52 targets now use CC310 hardware crypto functions
- #2982 config now stored in JSON format (all firmwares)
- #3034 new color scheme on companion UI
- #3023 room server now supports rx boosted gain
- #2951 Fast ST7735 disply driver (Heltec T096, Wireless Tracker, etc)
- #2895 hibernate/poweroff power draw savings
Bug fixes and Other
- #3139 Sensecap X1, QSPI Flash support
- #3122 Sensecap X1, LED and haptic feedback
- #3112 added Sensecap MeshTracker X1 support
- #3049 Thinknode M7 support, plus architecture for universal companion
- #2966 added Heltec RC32 board support
- #2560 added Heltec V4 R8 board support
- #1983 support for RAK ethernet modules
- #2942 added Elecrow Thinknode M9 support
- #2839 added Elecrow Thinknode M7 support
- #1194 added Nibble Zero Connect support
- #2752 added Heltec tower V2 support
Packet Collision Improvements
- #3121 companion, hardware CAD disabled
- #3107 ANON_REQ reply path_len check
- #2863 Thinknode M6 GPS re-init fix
- #3048 ‘start ota’ failure now reported on nRF devices
- #2819 kiss modem fixes for stalls under USB backpressure
- #3005 ESP32, BLE bonded reconnects fix
- #3007 ESP32, BLE receive queue synchronization
- #3006 Heltec V4 hardware USB serial
- #2815 T-Beam Supreme OLED fixes
- #2887 Thinknode M3, GPS LED fixes
- #2990 Xiao nrf52 repeater build fix
- #2899 T-Echo Lite DC-DC regulator fix
- #2905 Heltec T114 DC-DC regulator fix
- #2937 fix for GPS time sync stall on long uptime nodes
- #2936 external watchdog timer for Heltec Tower V2
- #2867 sx1262 LDO support fix
- #2844 fixed rx boosted gain on LR1110
- GPS time sync fix for Heltec T114
- #2763 companion fix when anon contacts full
- bad path_len now rejected, in PAYLOAD_TYPE_PATH and ANON_REQ
The ‘listen-before-talk’ code has had some pretty big changes, thanks to Taco. He has spent weeks doing diagnostics, and even simulations, testing an improved scheme which involves handling cases where the LoRa radio’s IRQ flags get ‘stuck’, and also the big one being proper preamble detection. This one could be the most significant performance improvement for all meshes.
Also, he found that the new scheme performs on par with hardware CAD, but without the 4 second lock-up glitches that CAD still suffers from. So, we are still leaving hardware CAD off by default.
Companion UIVarious color displays will now sport a new look, and be much more responsive.
JSON ConfigThe node config should be automatically migrated to a new JSON format upon upgrading to v1.17.0. The old binary-blob config is left intact, however, in case some people need to revert to old firmware.
Steps Toward Universal CompanionWith #3049 Liam has paved the way for companions to support multiple serial interfaces, eg. BLE + USB. Up to 4 can now be supported. There are no official multi-interface companion builds yet, but all the ‘plumbing’ for this is now there.
/i/2008301494.webp?f=imagegallery)
:strip_exif()/i/2008301494.webp?f=thumbmedium)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/140051/BSOD.jpg?f=community)
/u/283313/Windows8_Tweakers_transparant.png?f=community){kind=spacer}
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/480597/crop68b03d247d9ac_cropped.jpg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/216854/crop5c1bbcb02dcee_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
/u/665878/crop65d35dac89800_cropped.png?f=community)