Trying to Figure Out Where to Start

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I came across this project, thought it looked cool because of some stuff I’d like to do to have comms “in the boonies”.

  • I’ve purchased these boards and they’ve arrived (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001178678568.html)
  • I’ve got the screens soldered on and have the things booting
  • I’ve registered for the beta android app and have it installed (I think)
  • I’ve connected an android device to each board (each board has 1 android device)
  • I’ve figured out how to flash the boards from the command line on windows. I’ve done them up to 1.20
  • I can send messages between the two phones, but not reliably.

I know it probably isn’t best to ask all my questions in one thread, but I see this entire thing as a “how do I start using these things” set of questions.

Here’s my questions:

  1. I either don’t understand or don’t have the http server set up correctly. When I connect my boards to my home wifi and visit their IP address, I get one button showing that says “connect to meshtastic device”. I click it and I get an ok message that says something like “device already configured”. From what I’ve seen in the docs, I should get some type of config options.
  2. It feels like when the boards “go to sleep” my phones lose the connection to them. I have to restart everything to get messages to pass between them. What am I doing wrong? It “feels” like I’ve just not got something set up properly…it might be related to #3 below…
  3. I’ve got a pixel running Android 10. In the app, I get an error about “a required permission is missing. Meshtastic won’t be able to work properly. Please enable in android application settings.” There’s no mention about what permission this is. What permission is it wanting? The only thing I was prompted to grant was location permissions. I gave the app permission while open. What else does it need?

I’ve looked and not seen a “quick start” type guide to getting everything up and working. I’ve read the page at https://meshtastic.letstalkthis.com (that’s how I got this far). I think I just need a push in the right direction to get my thoughts in-line and then I’ll get the click with things working.

Thanks for the help.

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I fought with 1.1.20 for days too, there were a few bugs that have been fixed with 1.1.23 - I’d advise starting there.

I’m very new to this all too, but things got a bit easier after 1.1.23 was released.

Regarding sleeping, they do go to sleep for 5 minutes and this was very frustrating for me too.
If you can get the python command-line interface going there was a few settings i changed to make things better for testing…

This will update the GPS position more frequently,

meshtastic --set position_broadcast_secs 60

And this will keep the Bluetooth awake for 8 hours after the last connection.

“meshtastic --set wait_bluetooth_secs 28800”

Regarding permissions, in your Settings > Apps > Permissions > Location Set the location access to All the time or only while using the app, as you see fit.

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Thanks for helping by answering questions!

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