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HOW TO SWITCH FROM MESHTASTIC TO MESHCORE EASY!!! | andy kirby | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: HOW TO SWITCH FROM MESHTASTIC TO MESHCORE EASY!!!
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Summary
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This content provides a comprehensive guide on migrating from Meshtastic to Meshcore, highlighting Meshcore's advanced features and ease of use for both companion devices and repeaters.
Key Points
Welcome back to the channel, guys. Today
is a highly requested video. It's
something I get asked all the time, and
that is how do you switch from
Meshtastic to Meshcore. With the growing
improvements in Meshcore, it is light
years ahead of Meshtastic. And yeah, you
don't want to miss out on what's been
happening lately. It is just insanely
good. So, to start with, I'm going to
take probably one of the most popular
devices for use with mesh radio stuff,
and that is the Helletech V3. So, if we
just fire this one up, we can see this
one is currently a meshtastic node. So,
we're going to change that. We're going
to convert this into a Meshcore node.
So, I've already plugged it into the
computer there. And the next thing I'm
going to do is head over to the Meshcore
flasher. So, this is flasher.meshcore.co.uk.
flasher.meshcore.co.uk.
You can see that in the toggle bar up
the top. And you're going to want to
scroll down to Heltech V3. You can
search for it in this little section
here as well. whatever node you're going
to convert. So you want to hit HTTE v3.
Now the first big difference between
Meshtastic and Meshcore is that there
are individual firmwares for the type of
RO. So basically if you want to set up a
repeater you flash the repeater
firmware. If you want to use a USB
client, you flash this one. If you want
to connect to your phone by Bluetooth,
you use this firmware here, companion
radio Bluetooth. So just click on that
and it will automatically go to the top
firmware which is the most latest. I
would advise doing that. Click on the
arrays button here. Only use this arrays
for the first ever time you're doing it.
And then just simply click on flash. And
you can use the dialogue that pops up in
Chrome browser to select your node. If
you don't know what which one it is,
just literally unplug it and plug it
back in and you'll see it pop up. So,
this is the one we want for the for the
Helltech. Click on connect. And that's
all you got to do. Just wait it out.
Shouldn't take too long. The erase
process takes a little bit of time.
Depending on your device, it might take
a bit longer. This one is looking like
it's taking a little bit longer than
normal. Sometimes it goes quick, but
don't worry about that. Wait till that's
finished. While that's doing that, we
can open up our smartphone. I've got an
Android smartphone here. Go to the Play
Store. It's the quickest way to get the
app. And you can install the app very
very simply there. Just search for
Meshcore. It will come up. And you can
also do this on iOS. Obviously, it's
exactly the same app on iOS. It looks
the same, feels the same. There's no
difference between the apps or anything
like that like there is on on
Meshtastic. So, our flashing is
complete. You can see that here. And you
should see the device, the Heltech
device is booting up. It might say
loading for a little while. This is the
device generating its keys and setting
the system up behind the scene. So, just
wait it out and then the logo will
appear and that's it. You're basically
done. And there's the Bluetooth pairing
pin on the screen. So, we're going to
open up our Mescore app for the first
time. Allow it to send you
notifications. You can do that if you
want. And then we're going to hit
connect. We'll hit on allow on that. And
then it will scan for devices. And
you'll see other devices that you've
got. I've got this other one here as
well. So, this is the one we're
interested in. I'm going to tap on that
and we should get a Bluetooth pairing
dialogue come up. That's the Bluetooth
code we're going to want to put in. So
67 6 4 0 5. Hit pair. And then it's
going to connect up and sync basically
with the device. Now at this point, this
is where you're going to want to
configure the device. It's really
simple. It's only a couple of settings.
Hit the little cog item up the top here.
First thing we're going to do is put in
a name. So, I'm just going to put in
Andy here. Don't worry about any of the
other other settings at the moment. You
can do this later on. And then we're
going to hit choose preset. Now, this is
the radio preset that you're going to
want to use. So, this is quite important
going forward. The UK has switched to EU
UK narrow. So, you want to use that.
Click on that and it will basically do
the settings. And then you can hit tick
up there. And that is basically it. So,
now it's just a waiting game to see what
this actually picks up. Meshcore is very
quiet on the airwaves. It won't transmit
a lot of the time. So, it will take
quite a long time for you to see any
activity in the area. That's one of the
reasons why it's so efficient with
bandwidth. It works very, very well
because there's not lots of stuff flying
around in the airwaves. But what you can
do is you can hit this little button
here and this will announce your
presence. So, it advertises your pre
presence on the network. You want to use
flood rooted. Hit that and basically
this is announcing you on the network.
Now if there isn't anyone around then
they're obviously not going to pick you
up. But the next best thing to do is to
head on over to the public channel. So
on Meshkore you have channels. The
public channel is already configured.
This is for everyone to use. It's like a
global channel. And I would half expect
in a minute we'll probably see some
messages come through because it's quite
a busy mesh here. So hit public. And
you'll see no messages in there. And
what I'm going to do is I'm gonna
basically fire out a message. So I'm
gonna say, "Hi, testing for YouTube." If
I can type it right. Testing for YouTube.
YouTube.
Oh, I really am useless. Um, so do that.
And then I'm going to hit the send. So
what you should hear is, look, there's
all my notes going off in the
background. So ideally what you want to
be looking for is this heard three
repeats or heard one repeat. and I'll
come on to that in a minute, but
basically that means you've been heard
by something and it's forwarded it on to
the network. And as you can see here,
um, Tuck has come back replying to my
message. So, all is well and good. We
are getting out.
So, yeah, I don't think that's going to
happen. Um, we don't really have enough
bandwidth for that. Um, but I'm just
going to say, hi guys, or thanks guys.
Send that out. So, as you can see here,
we're getting two repeats. So that
effectively means that two things in the
area have heard my message and then they
forwarded forwarded them on and those
are repeaters basically and I'll come on
to how you would set a repeater up next.
So at this point it's worth mentioning
another big difference between Meshcore
and Meshtastic is that your node or your
companion radio like this which is
connected to your phone does not repeat
any packets. So it's effectively like
running in client mute mode in
Meshtastic. Your client device will not
repeat any packets. So when we see the
repeats here, they are coming from
repeaters and repeaters run on a
completely separate firmware. Very
streamlined, very power efficient. All
they do is repeat data packets. So to
set a Meshcore repeater up, we take
another HTTech V3. There's so many
devices supported now, guys. So, the
chances are whatever Meshtastic device
you're using will be supported by
Meshcore. Anyway, so we're going to head
back over to the Flasher and we're going
to scroll down to Heltech V3 again.
Click on that and this time we're going
to use the repeater firmware. So, click
on the repeater firmware. So, again,
we're going to hit arrays device on this
one, then flash. Then, we are going to
select the CP2102, which is the Heltech
V3. Connect, and then flash. So, this is
going to go about its business, do its
stuff. Right. So, that's done and it is
restarting. Now, this will look slightly
different on the screen to the
companion. Um, we got to please wait
there and it when it finally boots up.
So, there we go. It says Heltech
repeater. Now, don't disconnect it from
the computer because you can see now
what's appeared up here is a configure
via USB button. This is so useful. So,
this allows you to configure your
repeater um using USB. So, as soon as
you've hit that, a window will pop up.
It was slightly out of view. So, click
on connect. Then click on your device
again, and you should see the repeater
configurator. So, here you can set
things like the repeater name. So, I'm
just going to stick a a test in front of
that so we can identify it clearly. Test
Heltech repeater. Um, and then you want
to save settings. So, that will save the
settings to the device. You can also put
in the repeater location. You can even
use a visual map to basically place your
point for your repeater and do that.
We're not going to do that in this
particular one. You can set an admin
password and a guest password. I'd
advise just doing the admin password
because guest access is quite handy for
users. You just leave that blank and
then anyone will be able to just log
into the repeater. They won't be able to
change any settings, but they can get
useful kind of signal information from
that repeater. Um, which is quite useful
for people. So, if you leave that blank,
that's kind of helping everybody out.
Um, and basically set an admin password.
So, so I'm just going to stick in 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8. Um, if you leave that blank,
the default is password just for for
reference. So, the other thing we're
going to want to do here is we are going
to want to change the preset to the UK
narrow mode as well. So, it matches our
companion radio and that's pre-filled
all those boxes. So, just hit save
settings and that will be applied. Now,
you can also hit send advert here as
well, which just announces your repeater
um on the network. Same way as it does
on the companions, and then you're good
to go. You can just disconnect that from
the computer or however you're going to
power this. That's obviously the next
thing you have to think about if you're
going to put this up as a repeater. Most
people stick these in the loft, run them
off of like a big power bank or mains
even if you've got it up there. Um and
you can then just connect, you know, a
decent antenna. That's not a decent
antenna. That's the bare minimum. And
that is a whole another subject
completely. Now, it's worth noting at
this point you are going to want to do a
power cycle or hit the reboot button in
the configurator just so that it applies
these new settings. Once that's
rebooted, you should see like a white
light come on probably on here any
second now. Um, and that will basically
be your repeater doing its advert. So,
that repeater has now appeared in our
contacts. And there it is. So the cool
thing about this now guys is you put
this repeater somewhere else um it
doesn't really matter where it is you
you are able to then manage it through
the mesh core management system. So if
you just tap on the repeater there go
manage this point you can just wait 10
seconds to basically get into the
repeater management uh system or you can
donate £5 to um the developer of this
app which is Liam Cotle who's done an
absolutely amazing job. So this just
helps to cover his work. You hit on
continue if you wait and then you'll get
into the repeater login. Then we can put
in our password. One um two 3 4 5 6 7 8
login and we should then get into the
the system. So now you can do everything
that you can do in that repeater
management um in the app which is really
cool. Set position, do an advert, all
these other things. It's a good idea at
this point to hit the sync clock button
because these things don't have clocks
built in. So that will actually send
your smartphone's time to the device and
every time you turn it off and reboot
it, it's going to reset that. So it's a
good idea to do that, but not super
essential. Now that you've got your
repeater set up, it will mesh with other
repeaters. So that's the mesh part of
it. These don't mesh, but the repeaters
do. So if there are other repeaters in
the area, your new repeater here will
mesh with those and expand the network.
That's how mesh core works. So and that
you don't have to do anything. It will
just do that completely automatically.
So guys, I hope this has helped. Maybe
you're in one of these areas where
everybody's moved over to Meshcore and
you feel abandoned and you just want to
get in on the action. Hopefully this
video will have helped you um get
started with that. It's really not a big
learning curve. You just got to get over
the initial hurdle. So Meshco is
absolutely booming at the moment.
There's huge numbers of nodes and
repeaters popping up everywhere and we
are nearly at the point where we're sort
of connecting north and south of the UK.
So it won't be long before this happens.
But we do need obviously more nodes out
there to more repeaters to help kind of
bridge that gap. This is something that
just we haven't been able to do before
um with Meshtastic. It just didn't work
because we just didn't have um the
ability to send messages reliably over
over many many hops. Um so this is
something quite exciting um that has
never ever really been done before. And
it's also going to help us learn how to
optimize meshes in this, you know, in
really, really busy environments because
we all know the theory doesn't always
work. You've got to try this stuff in
practice. So yeah, guys, if you haven't
already, give it a shot. Join our
Discord links below in the description.
Um, reach out in the comments if you've
got any questions, any if you need any
help. The community is brilliant. It's
so friendly and everybody's kind of just
loves to just get involved with this
stuff and just make the mesh better. And
what better time to be messing around
with this sort of stuff when you know
all this stuff's going on about privacy
and the government and they're, you
know, invading your phones with all
these crazy things. Also, another thing,
don't forget to subscribe to the
official Meshcore channel. Um, I've been
doing more stuff on this channel cuz
it's got a bit more reach, but I will be
doing some more content on the official
Meshcore channel once it starts sort of,
you know, really taking off. So, yeah,
follow that channel, get subscribed to
that, and you won't miss a beat. When it
comes to Meshcore, there are of course
so many other things with Meshcore that
I haven't covered in this video. DMs for
one, you know, tracing, all the cool
stuff you can do with Meshcore, but I
wanted to keep it simple, but it still
ended up like nearly 15 minutes long.
Anyway, guys, hope you enjoyed this one.
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