Hi, I’m in a rural area of Ohio and I’m interested in starting a network here. I received my two 4631 and baseboards last week. I THINK I have the latest firmware installed, using the Drag and Drop method. My devices fire up and I see them on the Meshtastic app on my iPhone. My problem is, how can I tell if they’re working? I’m seeing a red LED that stays on but flickers faintly at times. The green LED blinks at a rate of a little less than once per second. I have seen no RF signal on my SDR receiver at or about 915 mHz. Am I correct so far? Sorry but I’m a total newbie here.
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On the RAK’s, the Red light is charging and the faint Green flash is normal operation.
All Meshtastic Radios use a packet approach. When they transmit it is only for a fraction of a second, so difficult to see on a scanner.
The best way to know they are working is to see them updated in the App. Every time the send out a heart beat you know they are working.
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Thank you! I’m seeing and connecting via Bluetooth. But, does it ever actually send any RF thar can be seen? I know this is simple but I’m starting at square 1.
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Did you select the country “US” instead of “UNSET”? In Radio Config under the LoRa tab, you set the country and I would probably set the output power from 30dBm to 10dBm to go easy on the batteries, assuming UR running on batteries.
I have a TinySA Ultra and I can see packets about 907Mhz!
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I have a transmitter output tester left over from building FPV aircraft and it connects directly to the SMA connector. When I sent a message, for less than a second I see 134mw of power on the meter.
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Oh yes. That was the very first thing that I did. But one item is bothering me, I’ve still not received my batteries and I’m leaving the units connected to my PC USB port - could that be a problem?
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Yes I did select the correct area, then I save the changes I make, but upon making changes, should I reboot the device?
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Your nodes will run just fine on usb power.
When you get your batteries be very careful that the polarity is correct. Most batteries are reversed out of the box to what the RAK board requires.
Most RAK boards have a little bit of Red paint on the side of the battery connection to positive power, the inboard side.
There is no reverse polarity protection and if you connect power with reverse polarity for even a second you will fry the core…don’t ask me how I know this 
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Good. I was suspicious that having them still connected was somehow not allowing a full close out of the flashing process. Once I receive my batteries I’ll pay close attention to polarity.
I’ve been watching ‘The Comms Channel’ on YouTube and learned a lot from there.
Thanks to all for the help so far. Gonna go do some more testing and reading about these.
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What I have noticed is that after you have drag n drop the firmware, the USB connection closes and the device reboots. I almost always have to unplg from the USB and then plug back in to get the USB working again. This applies to ESP32 devices as well as the nRF52840 devices such as the T-Echo, and RAK4631 (RAK 4630) devices.
I don’t know why that is and find it rather annoying.
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A press of the reset button will reboot the node with out unplugging.
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Oh no! Sorry for your loss.
I tried that too, but for some reason, it does not seem to work reliably.
Well, thanks to everyone here. I have made a few observations and I believe that my RAK4631 is working correctly. I have another of these units and I’m gonna start it up very soon. I think this Meshtastic idea is a great one, so I will gradually continue to build a network in my area, albeit slowly. Right now I’m thinking about how I will get unit number 1 to communicate with unit number 2.
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Hey thanks to all of you who replied to my question. To update, I have both my nodes talking and yesterday I sent back and forth using the small tag antennas, for a three quarter mile contact. This told me all I needed to know to continue my net build.
Thanks for that tip. I did have my battery plugged in reverse polarity for a minute or so upon unplugging the USB cable and notice the power dropped out. Figured something was wrong. Managed to release the red and black wires from the plug and reverse them. All good now. Thanks again!
they don’t transmit 30dBm. these boards would light on fire if they tried.
Per a calibrated Keysight power meter, the best i’ve seen is 64.022 mW, or just over 18 dBm. And regardless of what the client app is telling you, the firmware limits them to 20 dBm. 64 mW is a far cry from 30 dBm, which is 1000 mW.