Channel settings for router with nrf52

I would like to use an Wisblock RAK 4630 (nrf52) as router.

Is it necessary to set on the nrf52 device the same channel as on the mobile t-beam devices (our individual channel), or can I keep the default channel settings #LongSlow-V?

Or asked otherwise, is there a specific router setting for the nrf52 that would allow that we can change the channel settings on our mobile t-beam devices, while the messages are still routed by the nrf52 device?

until 1.3 is released, router mode is just a power setting. there is no difference on how a router handles packets compared to other nodes.

nodes must use the same LoRa settings (part of the primary channel code) to be able to receive and transmit packets.

Thanks for this information. Could you shortly comment on the meaning of “primary channel code”? I heard, that in next versions it will be possible to have additional channels, and also the capability to direct messages to single users. Does this mean, that the primary channel needs to be set for all reachable users in my network and that there might be additional channels under this primary channel? And the router would only need the primary channel setup, right?

DM’s are available now, as are secondary channels, there is nothing on the roadmap as far as secondary channels being used for messaging, all discussion and theory.

the primary channel includes the LoRa settings (frequency, bandwidth, coding rate, spread factor) and the Meshtastic channel name, PSK, etc…

it is unlikely anyone generates a channel URL with the same LoRa settings from a different URL, unless they really know what they are doing.

multi-channel support was introduced some time ago, but never made it to the apps and only had some light testing. DMs were added to android 1.2.61 release and now available on all clients/apps.

Thanks all, that’s very helpful information. If a router device gets stolen, third person might be able to read all messages, right? Is there a way to protect for this?

correct. in theory changing only the PSK allows a node to rebroadcast packets without being able to decode them, but I did some testing and this isn’t working.

I filed a bug but this is likely to get fixed only when 1.3 is released.

there is also an effort to build a simple router-only firmware at GitHub - meshtastic/Repeater: Small repeater node for the meshtastic project.

FYI … Changing the PSK will also likely change the frequency. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the response, that was very useful