FAQs

More Coming Soon!

A quick start guide to setting up your first Meshtastic Node

Step 1 - !! Make sure you have an antenna on your node - if you don't you can burn out your radio !! Never power up your node (radio) without these antennas!!

• Depending on your node you may need multiple antennas, one for the LoRa radio & one for the Bluetooth radio

• If you have GPS this will need an antenna also

Step 2 - Power up your node

Step 3 - Open up the Meshtastic App on your iOS or Android device - Note: this guide was created using the Android App. The Android & iOS app ARE different. Will hopefully have an iOS specific guide available soon.

Step 4 - Connect to the Node via Bluetooth - Use the + symbol towards the bottom of the Tab with the gear in a box and look for the node, typically only Meshtastic Nodes will show as available

Step 5 - You will need to enter a connection code

  - On a Meshtastic device with a screen a 6 digit code will appear on the screen, enter this code

  - On a Meshtastic device without a screen enter the code "123456"

Step 6 - The node should connect - it may take a minute for the node to swap information with the app, be patient

Step 7 - Set the region (to side of node name towards the top) to "US"

Step 8 - Select the three dots at the top of the App - this will open a menu

Step 9 - Select "Radio Configuration"

Step 10 - Select "User"

Step 11: Under "Long name" enter the name you would like for the node

Step 12: Under "Short name" enter the 4 digit (or less) short name for the node

Step 13: Select "Send" at the bottom - the node may disconnect or restart

Step 14: Select "Channels"

Step 15 - Verify that "LongFast" is Channel 0 (There should be no other Channels)

Step 16 - Select Channel 0 "LongFast"

Step 17 - Verify Channel Name is "LongFast" & PSK is "AQ==" - this must match to communicate with the other nodes in our Mesh

Step 18: Select "Save" at the bottom - the node may disconnect or restart

Step 19: Select Lora

Step 20: Verify "Use mode preset" is enabled

Step 21: Verify that Modem preset is set to "LONG_FAST"

Step 22: Verify that Frequency Offset is set to 0.0

Step 23: Verify that Region is set to United States and Hop Limit is set to 5

Step 24: Verify that "Override frequency is set to 906.875

Step 25: Select "Send" at bottom of page - the node may disconnect or restart

Congrats! Your node should now be setup to be found by our mesh! Once your node comes within range of another node with the same settings they will automatically mesh and begin exchanging information. Generally I like to leave the node alone for roughly 24hrs and just see what it can connect to. If you don't see anything within that time frame take your node on a trip and see if you can find a connection somewhere close by. Currently there are good pockets of nodes that can be found in Evans Town Center and Grovetown off of Exit 190.