Setting Up the Repeater

Configure node 1 as a repeater over the serial console - name, location, password and adverts

Node 1 has repeater firmware on it. Now we give it an identity, a location, a password, and a sensible advertising schedule. This is all done through the command line.

Getting a console

Plug node 1 in (antenna fitted!) and connect to it using any of these:

• The console on flasher.meshcore.io - easiest, no install
• config.meshcore.io - a form-based UI over the same commands
• A serial terminal at 115200 baud - screen /dev/cu.usbserial-0001 115200 on macOS, PuTTY on Windows

Test it:

ver

You should get a firmware version back. If you get nothing, check the Common Issues at the bottom.

Step 1 - give it a name

set name Kev-Repeater-01

Why this matters: Your repeater’s name is what everyone in radio range sees when it adverts. Make it useful. A good convention is <callsign-or-nickname>-<location>-<number>, for example Kev-Liverpool-01. Avoid spaces and keep it short - it goes out over the air on every advert.

Step 2 - set the clock

time <unix-epoch-seconds>

If you are using the flasher console or the config web UI, there is usually a button that syncs the clock from your computer for you. From a plain serial terminal you can also use:

clock sync

Why this matters: MeshCore uses timestamps to detect and discard duplicate packets. A repeater with a wildly wrong clock will behave strangely in ways that are very hard to debug.

Step 3 - set the location

set lat 53.4084
set lon -2.9916

Use your own coordinates - right click on your location in any online map to copy them.

Why this matters: Coordinates let your repeater appear on map.meshcore.io and let other users work out whether it is worth trying to route through you. If you do not want your exact address public, round to three decimal places (roughly 100 metres) or use a nearby landmark.

Step 4 - change the admin password

Do this. Do not skip it.

password <your-new-password>

Why this matters: Every MeshCore repeater ships with the admin password set to password. That is fine for the five minutes before you change it, and a genuinely bad idea afterwards - anyone within radio range can otherwise log in over the air and reconfigure your node.

Write it down somewhere. Recovering a repeater with a forgotten password on a rooftop means fetching a ladder and a laptop.

Step 5 - set the advert intervals

An advert is how a node announces “I exist, here is my name and public key”. There are two kinds:

• A zero-hop advert is heard only by nodes in direct radio range
• A flood advert is repeated across the whole mesh

set advert.interval 60
set flood.advert.interval 12

advert.interval is in minutes and accepts 60 to 240. flood.advert.interval is in hours and accepts 3 to 168. The values above - a local advert hourly and a flood advert twice a day - are sensible defaults for a fixed repeater.

The units catch people out constantly. set flood.advert.interval 12 means twelve hours, not twelve minutes.

Why this matters: Flood adverts are expensive. Every repeater in the region rebroadcasts them. Setting flood.advert.interval to something aggressive like 1 hour is one of the classic ways to annoy your local mesh community.

You can also cap how far floods travel:

set flood.max 3

Step 6 - confirm and advertise

Check your work:

get name
get radio
get freq
get tx
get lat
get lon
stats-core

Then announce yourself:

advert

Note that plain advert sends a flood advert, which travels across the whole mesh. To announce only to nodes in direct radio range, use:

advert.zerohop

The commands worth remembering

Try it Yourself

1. Run stats-radio and note the noise floor. Now switch on a microwave or a smart meter nearby and run it again.
2. Set a deliberately silly name, run advert, then set it back. Watch the client pick up the change in lesson 10.
3. Challenge: run log start, leave the repeater for an hour, then log to dump what it heard. Anything out there?

Common Issues

Problem: The console shows garbage characters.

Solution: Set the baud rate to 115200.

Why: Any other rate will decode the serial stream as noise.

Problem: set lat accepts my value but the node does not appear on the map.

Solution: Check get lat and get lon came back correctly, run advert, and be patient.

Why: The map is populated by adverts heard by internet-connected nodes. If nobody near you is bridging to the internet, you will not appear - which is not a fault.

Problem: I forgot the admin password.

Solution: Connect over USB and run password <new-password>, or erase and start again.

Why: The serial console is always trusted - the password only gates access over the air.

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