MeshPi

Setup a self hosted Meshtastic monitoring system on a Raspberry Pi with a Waveshare SX1262 LoRa Hat.

Upgrade System

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Download and Install meshtasticd

wget https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/releases/download/v2.5.4.8d288d5/meshtasticd_2.5.4.8d288d5_arm64.deb
sudo apt install ./meshtasticd_2.5.4.8d288d5_arm64.deb

Configure meshtasticd

sudo nano /etc/meshtasticd/config.yaml

Lora:
  Module: sx1262  # Waveshare SX126X XXXM
  DIO2_AS_RF_SWITCH: true
  CS: 21
  IRQ: 16
  Busy: 20
  Reset: 18

Webserver:
  Port: 443 # Port for Webserver & Webservices
  RootPath: /usr/share/doc/meshtasticd/web # Root Dir of WebServer

General:
  MaxNodes: 200
  MaxMessageQueue: 100

Enable SPI in boot config

You must reboot after configuring the following, otherwise the SPI LoRa hat will not be found in the next step.

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

# meshtasticd
dtparam=spi=on
dtoverlay=spi0-0cs

Enable and start meshtasticd service

sudo systemctl enable meshtasticd
sudo systemctl start meshtasticd

Install Meshtastic Python CLI

You will need to restart terminal afterwards, so the meshtastic command is found.

sudo apt-get install python3
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
pip3 install --upgrade meshtastic --break-system-packages

Set Fixed Position

meshtastic --host localhost --setlat x --setlon y

Install MQTT Server

sudo apt install mosquitto

sudo nano /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf

# configure local mqtt server
listener 1883
protocol mqtt
max_connections -1
log_dest syslog
allow_anonymous true

sudo service mosquitto restart

Install MySQL Server

sudo apt install mariadb-server
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create MySQL Database and User

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE `meshtastic-map`;
CREATE USER 'meshtastic-map'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `meshtastic-map`.* TO 'meshtastic-map'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Install Meshtastic Map

Install NodeJS 22.x

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x -o nodesource_setup.sh
sudo -E bash nodesource_setup.sh
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/liamcottle/meshtastic-map
cd meshtastic-map/
npm install

touch .env
nano .env

DATABASE_URL="mysql://meshtastic-map:password@localhost:3306/meshtastic-map?connection_limit=100"

npx prisma migrate deploy
npx prisma generate
node src/mqtt.js --mqtt-broker-url mqtt://localhost
node src/index.js

Configure MQTT Module in meshtasticd

Config -> Module Config -> MQTT:

Enabled: true
MQTT Server Address: localhost
MQTT Username: uplink
MQTT Password: uplink
Encryption Enabled: true
JSON Enabled: false
TLS Enabled: false
Root topic: msh/ANZ
Proxy to Client Enabled: false

Enable map reporting to show this node with firmware info etc on the map

Map Reporting Enabled: true
Map Report Publish Interval (s): 300

Enable channel uplink to allow packets from other nodes to be sent to MQTT and show on the map

Channels -> Primary:

Uplink Enabled: true

TODO: services

nano /etc/systemd/system/meshtastic-map.service

[Unit]
Description=meshtastic-map
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=liamcottle
WorkingDirectory=/home/liamcottle/meshtastic-map
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node /home/liamcottle/meshtastic-map/src/index.js

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable meshtastic-map.service
sudo systemctl start meshtastic-map.service

nano /etc/systemd/system/meshtastic-map-mqtt.service

[Unit]
Description=meshtastic-map-mqtt
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=liamcottle
WorkingDirectory=/home/liamcottle/meshtastic-map
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node /home/liamcottle/meshtastic-map/src/mqtt.js \
  --mqtt-broker-url mqtt://localhost \
  --mqtt-username uplink \
  --mqtt-password uplink \
  --mqtt-topic 'msh/#' \
  --collect-map-reports \
  --collect-neighbour-info \
  --collect-positions \
  --collect-text-messages \
  --collect-waypoints \
  --ignore-direct-messages \
  --purge-interval-seconds 60 \
  --purge-nodes-unheard-for-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-device-metrics-after-seconds 2592000 \
  --purge-environment-metrics-after-seconds 2592000 \
  --purge-map-reports-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-neighbour-infos-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-power-metrics-after-seconds 2592000 \
  --purge-positions-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-service-envelopes-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-text-messages-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-traceroutes-after-seconds 604800 \
  --purge-waypoints-after-seconds 604800 \
  --drop-packets-not-ok-to-mqtt \
  --old-firmware-position-precision 16

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable meshtastic-map-mqtt.service
sudo systemctl start meshtastic-map-mqtt.service

liamcottle/README.md