ESP-WIFI-MESH with meshtastic

Non Meshtastic Ideas
1

Hello,

when running meshtastic and not using the wifi at all, would it be possible to use the esp-idf functions for the ESP-WIFI-MESH?

This way it would be possible to use meshtastic for spontaneos wifi mesh autoconfiguration to get access to the internet or fast p2p data transfer. when uplinked via esp-wifi-mesh devices could even become passive or repeater only on lora to save lora bandwith.

using IPv6 based on hardware mac only there wouldn’t ever be address conflicts to worry about. this way it would be possible to create a high bandwith infrastructure from the same stuff meshtstic uses anyway. it would even be possible to use drones to improve coverage :slight_smile:

i did some reading of the sources and i think the beginning would be defining a portnum for creating the “app”. then create enums and message types. is it possible to define a channel type for wifi-autoconfiguration? so after primary channel user can select AutoWifi and use a default key to participate in wifi configuration.

what do you think about that?

EDIT: There is even painlessMesh which from its principle sounds like meshtastic. i guess meshtastic packages could be sent via painlessMesh to have an additional very fast transport layer.

regards,
Verlusti

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the current ESP32 chips can only do BT or WIFI but not both at the same time so depending on if you need it connected to a BT client then this wouldn’t work.

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okay i just forgot about that, thats sad.

but i dont think it would make it impossible. even if bluetooth is not available it might be possible to connect an external bluetooth to the second uart of the esp32. and then there is can bus which could be used to couple two esp32 together. one esp32 for mesh lora+wifi and one for UI via bluetooth/wifi

esp32 are so damn cheap its not a problem just to use more of them in a single device.

i tried the painlessMesh a few days ago and have to say its rather straigt forward to setup a wifi mesh. and its really just putting messages onto the ether like with lora. so maybe its really possible to just send the lora packages of meshtastic over painlessMesh.