3.1 KiB
Info
This describes how to use this specific meshtastic app, because it differs from the official apps.
The main focus here is simple, basic usage, like in an emergency situation, where we don't need all the special features, just basic communication.
Currently you can only send direct messages to any device which is within the range of your mesh network.
Starting this app will automatically do a basic setup of your radio, so no additional setup is needed.
Initial setup
Every person which you want to communicate with will need to start the app once for the initial (automatic) setup. The radio device will then reboot, and is ready for communication with all the persons who also use this app (and which radios can be reached through the mesh network).
3 main views
Following there is a description of the 3 main views:
- Group
- Messages (initial view)
- Radios
Messages
The initial view shows the messages between you and a chosen person. You choose the desired person in the Group view (swipe to the left).
To copy a message to the clipboard, simply press-and-hold it.
The search function (icon on the right) should be intuitive. The search term (case insensitive) is highlighted in red. Tap again on the search icon to leave search mode.
Group
Swiping to the left (from Messages), you see the list of all persons. Every person is associated to a specific radio. This view is populated automatically.
You can set a name to every person associated to a radio, which defaults to 'Anonym': a press-and-hold on the name will enter edit mode.
Radios
Swiping to the right (from Messages), you see the list of all radios visible to your phone's bluetooth. You generally just choose 1 device, which will be remembered.
If you use more than 1 radio, just switch here to the radio you want to use.
Changing a radio will take several seconds, because the initial configuration needs to be repeated.
Initially, the list will contain gray items, so you can choose another radio if you experience that the connection didn't work, in case the selected radio is currently not available.
Unread messages
When you are in the Messages view, a red circle on the group icon will inform you of new, unread messages from another user.
Switching to Group, a red circle with the number of unread messages is shown on the right of every person.
GPS position
On mobile, and if the radio doesn't have a GPS module, the location of the phone is sent once (at startup) to the radio.
Tips
If (for some reason) you want to redo the bluetooth discovery of your radio(s), just press-and-hold on the Radios icon.
If (for some reason) you want to receive again the mesh node configuration from your radio, just press-and-hold on the Group icon.
Both of above is meant to avoid app restart.
Hacker tips
If it occurs that a RAK device goes into an undefined state and doesn't seem
to work anymore, you can try to reset the flash memory from an arduino IDE,
see the RAK github and file reset-flash.ino. I successfully recovered a
RAK device with corrupted memory using this method.