It will be recalled that at the July 1 ham radio meeting (blog article), extra-class radio amateur Ed Bassett KF0KXE won one of the door prizes, a Seeed Studio LoRa mesh starter kit, shown below. It will also be recalled that on July 8, a new Meshcore repeater (named “CO-SUM-R08”) got deployed that, it was hoped, would provide new coverage in parts of Breckenridge, as marked in red in the map at right. On July 9, Ed used his new starter kit to create a Meshcore companion device, and carried out tests that established that indeed there is now Meshcore coverage in parts of Breckenridge. In this blog article I describe Ed’s work.
The Seeed Studio LoRa mesh starter kit may be seen at right. As explained here, there are many things one could do with the kit, including creating a Meshcore companion device or a Meshcore solar repeater.
Ed realized that as of July 9, it was not yet known whether the new repeater deployed on July 8 actually did extend Meshcore coverage to Breckenridge. So he figured he would build a Meshcore companion device and test the coverage.
Ed started by noting that the kit includes a patch LoRa antenna that comes already connected to the Seed radio. (It is important to avoid powering up the radio with no antenna attached.) He then used a USB-C cable to connect the Seed radio to a USB port of his computer. This USB cable thus provided both power and a data connection to the radio.
He then used Google Chrome (not IE or Edge) to visit https://meshcore.io/. He used the “flasher” link to reach the “flasher” area of the web site, and he flashed “companion” firmware to the Seed radio.
Still at the Meshcore web site, Ed (seen at right, see LinkedIn page) used the “launch app” link to reach the “app” area of the web site. He clicked the “connect” button, and clicked “scan now”, and connected via USB to the device. He clicked on the gear in the upper right corner to open “settings” and gave the device a “name”. Then (and this is perhaps the most important part) under “radio settings” he selected “USA/Canada” for frequency and LoRa settings.
He then clicked on “contacts” and eventually reached the new repeater. He viewed guest telemetry using “hello” as the guest password. This permitted him to check the state-of-charge of the repeater’s battery and see its temperature. He then asked the repeater to provide a list of its “one-hop neighbors” and for each, the signal-to-noise ratio of the connection.
I have my own Meshcore companion device. At this point, Ed worked with me to set up an encrypted private channel between his new Meshcore companion device and mine. We sent each other some encrypted messages through the Meshcore network.
This provided strong confirmation that the R08 repeater is indeed providing Meshcore connectivity to part of Breckenridge. It seems likely that the R08 repeater is providing coverage to much of Breckenridge that is east of the Blue River.
I am thankful to Ed, whose work on July 9 validated the deployment on July 8 of the new Meshcore repeater.
As you can see from the map above, it is likely, due to the terrain, that the R08 repeater does not provide meaningful coverage on the part of Breckenridge that is west of the Blue River. Ed tells me that he plans to repurpose his device to make it into a Meshcore repeater. At Ed’s location, such a repeater is likely to provide substantial coverage to the part of Breckenridge that is west of the Blue River.
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