agessaman
fcd92e985f
Replace the sparse Heltec V4 R8 observer home screen with a padded dark analytics dashboard, add manual display control, and make blanking a runtime setting. Dashboard (DISPLAY_ACTIVITY_DASHBOARD, the four R8 TFT observer envs): - RadioActivityWindow: 20 one-minute buckets of valid RX packets, no heap. The caller's 32-bit millis() is extended to a monotonic 64-bit clock, so nothing downstream has a rollover case; an always-on node passes 2^32 ms after ~49.7 days, which would otherwise re-enter warm-up and divide 20 minutes of traffic by seconds. Rates use 19 whole minutes plus the elapsed part of the current one rather than a fixed 1200 s. - ObserverDashboard: header, radio strip, headline totals, a 20-bar packets-per-minute graph and RF/status footers, with separate portrait and landscape layouts. A text row is a fixed 16 px, which is 3.2 logical units in portrait but 4.27 in landscape, so one shared grid would overlap. Text is trimmed by character budget, not measured width: getTextWidth() reports an over-long string at the portrait driver's fallback scale, so DisplayDriver::drawTextEllipsized() under-trims and the row renders at half height. - Six per-row signatures computed from what is actually drawn, so only the rows whose pixels changed repaint. No startFrame(), no whole-screen clear. Link state moved out of the full-frame signature, so a DHCP renewal or WiFi flap repaints one footer row instead of the panel. - Dark theme by retuning the UIColor statics at runtime, which needs no display-driver edit and carries boot, setup, reboot and power-off with it. Touch and button (DISPLAY_TOUCH_TOGGLE): - CHSC6X at I2C 0x2E, polled; TP_INT is unusable (optional R13, and GPIO 43 is U0TXD). The point-count byte is tested against a valid count, never against non-zero: an idle read returns 0xFF, which reads as a finger held down forever and latches the tap detector after one event. - turnOff() no longer parks PIN_TFT_RST low on this board. GPIO 21 is a shared LCD_RST/TP_RST net, so doing that held the touch controller in reset for as long as the display was off. Verified against Heltec's expansion-board and mainboard schematics and the V4-R8 datasheet pinout, which also correct the pin comment in HeltecV4R8Board.cpp. - The USER button click now toggles the display too; it previously did nothing whenever the display was already on. display.timeout: - `set display.timeout <secs>` / `get display.timeout`, 0 = stay on, 60 s default, 3600 max. Read live, so a change applies without a reboot and restarts the countdown rather than firing on the old deadline. - Stored in MQTTPrefs (/mqtt.json), keeping NodePrefs aligned with upstream. Runtime-only: LegacyV1MQTTPrefs and the four frozen binary payload sizes are unchanged. No JSON format-version bump - the loader skips keys no def() claims, so older firmware reads newer files and this firmware reads older ones with the default applied. Both directions are covered by tests. - Joins the observer atomic-setter contract, so a failed save rolls the live value back instead of only claiming to. New periodic work uses a wrap-safe deadline check; `millis() >= deadline` fires every loop for a whole interval before each rollover. Adds test_radio_activity_window, test_observer_dashboard (driving the real renderer against a recording DisplayDriver in both orientation profiles) and test_touch_tap_detector. 440 native cases pass.
About MeshCore
MeshCore is a lightweight, portable C++ library that enables multi-hop packet routing for embedded projects using LoRa and other packet radios. It is designed for developers who want to create resilient, decentralized communication networks that work without the internet.
🔍 What is MeshCore?
MeshCore now supports a range of LoRa devices, allowing for easy flashing without the need to compile firmware manually. Users can flash a pre-built binary using tools like Adafruit ESPTool and interact with the network through a serial console. MeshCore provides the ability to create wireless mesh networks, similar to Meshtastic and Reticulum but with a focus on lightweight multi-hop packet routing for embedded projects. Unlike Meshtastic, which is tailored for casual LoRa communication, or Reticulum, which offers advanced networking, MeshCore balances simplicity with scalability, making it ideal for custom embedded solutions, where devices (nodes) can communicate over long distances by relaying messages through intermediate nodes. This is especially useful in off-grid, emergency, or tactical situations where traditional communication infrastructure is unavailable.
MQTT Observer Setup — Prebuilt observer firmware, docs, and a changelog are at observer.gessaman.com. See the MQTT Implementation Guide for configuration, CLI commands, and troubleshooting.
⚡ Key Features
- Multi-Hop Packet Routing
- Devices can forward messages across multiple nodes, extending range beyond a single radio's reach.
- Supports up to a configurable number of hops to balance network efficiency and prevent excessive traffic.
- Nodes use fixed roles where "Companion" nodes are not repeating messages at all to prevent adverse routing paths from being used.
- Supports LoRa Radios – Works with Heltec, RAK Wireless, and other LoRa-based hardware.
- Decentralized & Resilient – No central server or internet required; the network is self-healing.
- Low Power Consumption – Ideal for battery-powered or solar-powered devices.
- Simple to Deploy – Pre-built example applications make it easy to get started.
🎯 What Can You Use MeshCore For?
- Off-Grid Communication: Stay connected even in remote areas.
- Emergency Response & Disaster Recovery: Set up instant networks where infrastructure is down.
- Outdoor Activities: Hiking, camping, and adventure racing communication.
- Tactical & Security Applications: Military, law enforcement, and private security use cases.
- IoT & Sensor Networks: Collect data from remote sensors and relay it back to a central location.
🚀 How to Get Started
- Watch the MeshCore QuickStart Playlist by The Comms Channel
- Watch the MeshCore Technical Presentation by Liam Cottle.
- Read through our Frequently Asked Questions and Documentation.
- Flash the MeshCore firmware on a supported device.
- Connect with a supported client.
For developers:
- Install PlatformIO in Visual Studio Code.
- Clone and open the MeshCore repository in Visual Studio Code.
- See the example applications you can modify and run:
- Companion Radio - For use with an external chat app, over BLE, USB or Wi-Fi.
- KISS Modem - Serial KISS protocol bridge for host applications. (protocol docs)
- Simple Repeater - Extends network coverage by relaying messages.
- Simple Room Server - A simple BBS server for shared Posts.
- Simple Secure Chat - Secure terminal based text communication between devices.
- Simple Sensor - Remote sensor node with telemetry and alerting.
The Simple Secure Chat example can be interacted with through the Serial Monitor in Visual Studio Code, or with a Serial USB Terminal on Android.
⚡️ MeshCore Flasher
We have prebuilt firmware ready to flash on supported devices.
- Launch https://meshcore.io/flasher
- Select a supported device
- Flash one of the firmware types:
- Companion, Repeater or Room Server
- Once flashing is complete, you can connect with one of the MeshCore clients below.
📱 MeshCore Clients
Companion Firmware
The companion firmware can be connected to via BLE, USB or Wi-Fi depending on the firmware type you flashed.
- Web: https://app.meshcore.nz
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.liamcottle.meshcore.android
- iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meshcore/id6742354151?platform=iphone
- NodeJS: https://github.com/liamcottle/meshcore.js
- Python: https://github.com/fdlamotte/meshcore-cli
Repeater and Room Server Firmware
The repeater and room server firmware can be set up via USB in the web config tool.
They can also be managed via LoRa in the mobile app by using the Remote Management feature.
🛠 Hardware Compatibility
MeshCore is designed for devices listed in the MeshCore Flasher
📜 License
MeshCore is open-source software released under the MIT License. You are free to use, modify, and distribute it for personal and commercial projects.
Contributing
Please submit PR's using 'dev' as the base branch! For minor changes just submit your PR and we'll try to review it, but for anything more 'impactful' please open an Issue first and start a discussion. It is better to sound out what it is you want to achieve first, and try to come to a consensus on what the best approach is, especially when it impacts the structure or architecture of this codebase.
Here are some general principles you should try to adhere to:
- Keep it simple. Please, don't think like a high-level lang programmer. Think embedded, and keep code concise, without any unnecessary layers.
- No dynamic memory allocation, except during setup/begin functions.
- Use the same brace and indenting style that's in the core source modules. (A .clang-format is probably going to be added soon, but please do NOT retroactively re-format existing code. This just creates unnecessary diffs that make finding problems harder)
Help us prioritize! Please react with thumbs-up to issues/PRs you care about most. We look at reaction counts when planning work.
Running unit tests
To run unit tests, run the following command:
pio test --environment native --verbose
Road-Map / To-Do
There are a number of fairly major features in the pipeline, with no particular time-frames attached yet. In very rough chronological order:
- Companion radio: UI redesign
- Repeater + Room Server: add ACL's (like Sensor Node has)
- Standardise Bridge mode for repeaters
- Repeater/Bridge: Standardise the Transport Codes for zoning/filtering
- Core + Repeater: enhanced zero-hop neighbour discovery
- Core: round-trip manual path support
- Companion + Apps: support for multiple sub-meshes (and 'off-grid' client repeat mode)
- Core + Apps: support for LZW message compression
- Core: dynamic CR (Coding Rate) for weak vs strong hops
- Core: new framework for hosting multiple virtual nodes on one physical device
- V2 protocol spec: discussion and consensus around V2 packet protocol, including path hashes, new encryption specs, etc
📞 Get Support
- Report bugs and request features on the GitHub Issues page.
- Find additional guides and components on my site.
- Join MeshCore Discord to chat with the developers and get help from the community.