Meshtastic in The Villages.

​Welcome Meshtastic users, both new and experienced!

​This section provides a comprehensive resource for utilizing Meshtastic within The Villages community.

To see an overview of Meshtastic activity in our area,  there is a lot of detailed information on our dashboard at ​http://villagesmesh.com

Meshtastic Etiquette

​Learning and experimenting with Meshtastic is fun!  However, being aggravated by your fellow mesh users is not.  Here are some tips to be a good mesh neighbor.  Please read them over carefully.
  1. Rename your radio's long and short name for better identification, as the default names are not practical.  Use name, initials, ham call, etc.
  2. Turn on location reporting so you appear correctly on mesh maps to aid network planning.  If your node is a fixed station without GPS, manually enter your fixed Long/Lat/Altitude coordinates and disable Smart Position.
  3. Set your Device Role to CLIENT for fixed stations or CLIENT_MUTE for mobile.  Other roles are reserved for special functions in the mesh.  Setting your device to another role can interfere with message routing.
  4. Do not turn on MQTT unless you are an isolated node that is out of radio signal range from the rest of the mesh network.  Turning on MQTT repeats all traffic to the network.  More than one MQTT node within RF range of each other is a good way to kill the network via flooding.  If you must enable MQTT for another channel, be sure Uplink and Downlink for LongFast are turned OFF.
  5. Range testing transmits an automated repeating beacon that creates spam.  No one else wants to see/hear your transmission every few seconds on the shared channels.  See the Resources section below for how to do range tests without spamming.
  6. Keep the Licensed Amateur Radio toggle disabled even if you have a Amateur Radio license.  Enabling will automatically turn off encryption and you will not be able to communicate with others using the default (or any) encryption key.​​


Resources

The links below have been thoughtfully chosen from a wide range of web articles, offering you a quick and straightforward way to understand Meshtastic without feeling overwhelmed.

Radio Settings

Fixed Location and Handheld Devices

  • Channel 0 (primary) is LongFast, PSK is AQ==
  • Channel 1 is TheVillages, PSK is CQ==  (use 1 byte setting for IOS)
  • Frequency Slot (Lora Settings) is 20 (default)
  • For those needing MQTT (again, do not use MQTT unless you cannot communicate via RF!),
    • MQTT server is mqtt.villagesmesh.com
    • Username/password are meshdev/large4cats
    • The MQTT Root Topic is msh/US/FL/thevillages  (yes, the topic uses thevillages lower case & the channel is TheVillages mixed case)
To make it easy, you can scan the QR code below using the Meshtastic App.  This will replace your primary and secondary channels to the new settings.  If you have an existing channel that you need to preserve, you will have to enter the new settings manually.  Scanning the QR Code will erase your existing channels. 

​Whether you use the QR Code or not, be sure your Frequency Slot in Lora Settings is set to 20.

Golf Cart Devices

Only in The Villages are there settings for Golf Carts!
If you have built the Golf Cart Computer Project as part of the Hands-On Tech Small Computers group or if you wish to receive periodic entertainment, weather broadcasts, and other golf cart destined data, add the GolfCart channel to your radio.  If you wish to know the location of your golf cart, you must add this channel as Channel 0.  Meshtastic only transmits location telemetry on the Primary channel.
  • Channel 0 (Primary) is GolfCart, The 128bit PSK is handsontechclubtelemeg==
  • Channel 1 is TheVillages, PSK is CQ==  (use 1 byte setting for IOS)
  • Channel 2 is LongFast, PSK is AQ==
  • Be sure Frequency Slot (Lora Settings) is 20 (default)
Re-check your settings if you do not regularly receive traffic on the Golf Cart channel.
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