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Raspberry PI & Meshtastic (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz
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Hey all,

I have a heltec v3 and a raspberry pi and im looking to see how i can use my rpi to interface with the heltec device via bluetooth. Anyone have experience doing this? Id like to potentially have a web gui but also interested in using the python package to send messages based on some events ill be creating.

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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Hijacking a bit... I'm on the hunt for a meshtastic device with Ethernet instead of WiFi. Having a hard time finding specifics about what options there are.

You seem like a person in the know. Any suggestions?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    EDIT: I looked more into the ethernet + RAK boards. I was surprised to find claims that the boards that make use of the Nordic nRF microcontroller do not expose an interface for receiving commands nor do they expose a Webserver. It seems they can push data to the MQTT broker, but it might not possible to control them over the network. Here is a short discussion I found about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1ebcnay/rak_board_ethernet_non_web_client_access

    I can't find evidence to support that it works today. I know that ESP32-based meshtastic devices do expose the webserver and the TCP interface. But I am not sure about how to add the ethernet interface.

    original commentSimplest option would probably be to make use of the RAK system. They provide modular boards for Meshtastic, and one of modules is an Ethernet interface: https://docs.rakwireless.com/product-categories/wisblock/rak13800/datasheet/

    The WisMesh Ethernet MQTT gateway is an example of an assembled module that uses the RAK19007 WisBlock Baseboard as the base that includes the power management and the slots for attaching the modules, the RAK4631 LoRa transciever module to provide the radio, and the RAK13800 Ethernet Module to provide Ethernet connectivity.

    The version that does not include an enclosure and has no Power-Over-Ethernet costs $43 through RAK. You can also get the versions with enclosure and with PoE. For PoE, you will need to have an ethernet modem/router capable of providing power over ethernet or a PoE ethernet switch.

    I don't know much about the other Ethernet options, but there is a good chance that a good amount of them will consist of a custom 3D-printed enclosure with the RAK system inside.

    Another option is to use a Raspberry Pi or a regular computer as a bridge. The computer/raspberry pi connects to the network over ethernet and interfaces with a standard Meshtastic device via USB or via a HAT using the PI's GPIO pins (example of the HAT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ULi9DWgds).

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