New User (sigh..) No MSGs Sent? MQTT and Other Qs

1

I have one 2021 T-beam V1.1 915MHz with latest beta firmware as of 1/2/2024, fresh install.

Here is my local setup. The highest part of my property with the best cell reception does not have power. I have an existing box with solar, battery, network gear, and such for my local network and internet. I have added the t-beam to this box.
FIGURE 1

I am able to:
Talk to device on serial via pc (worked for web flash), over BT to android, and now wifi over network (static IP).
see map with users (and myself now). see peer list with ~80 devices
I saw one message come though the primary channel.
(im not that far away, its just the mercator projection)
FIGURE 2

I am not able to:
send messages. Looks like an error: a small (!) mark by message, precede by (…) for half a minute. I also got this icon when sending messages via phone app, even prior to network connection.
FIGURE 3 (new users can apparently only post one image, this is the most important one).
image

I have done:

  1. config device: set to router client (as per a youtube video) but also tried the default (client).
  2. config network: set ssid and password, visible from router DHCP table and connected via Meshtastic Web
  3. config lora: nothing to default lora settings except set region (US, hop 3, ch nu 0, use preset: true, preset: long fast)
  4. config bluetooth: bluetooth set to off
  5. Configured it for MQTT by checking enable and leaving default settings.
  6. channel settings: ch1-7 are set to disabled
    FIGURE 4

Questions:
Q1: Can I send messages to the MQTT network from the SAME device that is connected to the network? Or do I need another meshtastic device? (maybe its not showing its sending because its not part of a mesh?)
Q2: Do other devices have to be nearby on the default channel to confirm to my device the message was sent?
Q3: I dont seem to have any message history on the Meshtastic Web after refreshing or loading the page. Can I see messages previously received on the MQTT channel (or otherwise, on a local mesh), on my computer, even when its not on or connected to the T beam?
Q4: Can I see battery voltage, gps, tx/rx, or any other status item viewable on the screen and the android app, from the web interface?

Q5: RF interference. My 4G LTE modem is on verizon band 13, 700MHz. Will having it in proximity to the T Beam raise the nose floor? Should the be maximally separated? I understand 200MHz is a big difference but there are harmonics. The same question goes for the 2.4GHz on the T beam board itself. Are the long range record holders turning off their BT and WiFi for those records?

thank you for coming to my long, overloaded question.

2

figure 1

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figure 2

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figure 4

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5

unk cant hear me.

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6

  1. Yes.

  2. The latest alpha firmware (2.2.17) has a fix for the acknowledgment when using purely MQTT (no other LoRa devices in range). However, the default channel (LongFast) usually has a lot of traffic and your device might not be able to keep up with it. You could try another channel, e.g. LongSlow.

  3. I don’t think that’s possible with the Web UI.

  4. I don’t think that will be shown in the Web UI. I think the desktop client has it.

  5. The 4G LTE modem is probably not an issue. The record holders used Bluetooth to send the message.

1 Like
7

Thank you!

Will try the alpha.

Re 2. I did not see much message traffic there, nor was i able to get a response. I did see that my chutil and airtime were high. Im assuming this is forwarding all the background traffic even when no one was talking.

I switched to long slow and users dropped from like 96 to 12. So, seems like thats working.

3, 4, 5 :+1:

8

Yes, it’s forwarding all the traffic.
The reason you didn’t see any text messages might also be because the device wasn’t able to forward it to the web interface since it was overloaded.