Configuration Guide

If you haven’t read our Introduction to Meshtastic page yet, check that out first because it will better prepare you to dive into this process.

So you just got your first device…

Protecting your privacy

There are a few things you be aware of right away to protect your privacy.

First, most devices come out of the box with a GPS enabled and will broadcast your precise location to the mesh network publicly as soon as they get a GPS fix – which takes about 2 minutes if you’re outside, probably much longer if you’re indoors. We’ll come back to how you can fix this.

Secondly, meshtastic uses something called channels which are essentially like having different group chats. These channels are loaded into “slots” on the device numbered from 0 to 7 (8 total available slots). Your new device already has a channel loaded into the first slot (the zero slot). It will either be named “Primary” or “LongFast” – both of these are the same. This pre-loaded channel in slot 0 is public meaning anything you send to it could be read by anyone else with a device.

Thirdly, the first slot (slot 0) where the Primary/LongFast public channel comes preloaded, is special. Slot 0 is the only channel slot that will receive automatic updates of your location. Meaning, without you doing anything, whatever channel is in that zero slot will get automatic updates. This can be very useful! But right now, the public channel is pre-loaded into that valuable first slot on your device. Most likely, you don’t want that. In fact, that first channel slot should probably be set to a channel that you create for your inner most circle of family where you would want those people to know where you are automatically.

Ok, so what now?

The easy way…

If you bought one of the three recommended personal devices found here, we’ve simplified the update and setup process for you significantly. Just click the link below that corresponds with the device you purchased:

The slightly harder way…

If you bought a different device, don’t despair! The rest of this guide will be for you. It may take a bit longer, but you’ll learn a lot along the way.

There are two options for the next step in the process:

Option 1: You can utilize the desktop software for OSX or Windows. This software is easier to use, but it is very new and may have bugs. Scroll to “Flashing your device – Option 1” for this option.

Option 2: You can use the officially supported Web Flasher. It is a little more complicated to understand, but probably more reliable. Scroll to “Flashing your device – Option 2” for this option.

Updating your device – Option 1

You’re going to need a USB cable to connect your device to your computer. Once connected, power on your device and let it boot up.

Head over to https://github.com/medentem/electron-flasher/releases to download the latest flasher software for your desktop/laptop computer. Because this is still an early preview release, you may run into security warnings when you install the software.

Once installed, open the software and click the Scan For Device button.

If your device is powered on, and connected via USB, it should be detected. If you can’t get this step working, go to the Option 2 method of updating for now.

At this point, your device should be detected and connected as pictured below.

Lastly, click the Update Device button and let it rip! If you see this success message, your device has been updated. If something goes wrong, you can always fall back to using the Option 2 method of updating.

Simply unplug and reboot your device and you should be good to go!

Updating your device – Option 2

Most likely your device arrived with software installed on it that is slightly outdated. You’re going to want to update it before you do anything else because updating could cause your settings to get reset. So why waste your time tweaking settings only to have to do it again?

The easiest way to update your device is to use a USB cable to connect it to your computer, and go to https://flasher.meshtastic.org.

As of writing this post, I’ve found that version 2.5.2 is stable enough that I’d install that. By the time you read this, there could be a newer version available. It’s up to you which version to install, but I would not install anything before 2.5.0.

If this is your first time updating, I recommend you erase the flash memory on the device during the update process. That option looks a little different depending on your device. See below for what you should look for at that last step.

The process of updating your device is not super hard, but it’s also not as easy or as polished as a consumer electronic device from a big company. Meshtastic is an open-source community-driven project so it has some rough edges. Stick with it though! The instructions will walk you through the process. Hint: the first step is to select the type of device you bought. Second step is to pick a version of the software, and that last step is to start the flash process.

Setting it up

Your tool of choice

Alright. Now that you’re running 2.5.0 or later software on your device, it’s time to start tweaking a few settings to address the privacy related items we reviewed earlier and other settings you’ll need.

You have two main options for configuring your device. Using an app on your phone, or using your computer. This is strictly a matter of preference, but eventually you’ll need to connect your device to your phone app to use it when you’re on the go. For configuration, my preference is to use my computer to configure settings just because I find it easier. Whichever approach you use, the concepts will be the same.

If you use the app, be aware that Android and Apple apps look different from each other. So if you find a guide elsewhere, make sure it’s for your mobile device type (Apple vs. Android).

For the rest of this guide, I’m going to reference the computer-based configuration process.

Connecting to your device

You don’t need to download anything to connect to and configure your device from your computer. It all happens through a website. Visit https://client.meshtastic.org on your computer.

Click the “New Connection” button to connect to your device. Make sure your device is powered on, of course. When you click that button, you’ll see this popup. If your device is connected through a USB cable, you’ll choose the “Serial” option. If you prefer to use Bluetooth that option is available as well, as long as your computer has Bluetooth built in. Most laptops do these days.

Select Bluetooth or Serial and then click the “New Device” button.

After you click “New Device” you’ll see a little popup from your browser with a list of available devices to connect to. Your list may look slightly different than this, but you’re looking for a USB device in that list to select. In most cases, the name of your type of device will be a part of the text for the option that you want to select.

Once you select the option and click Connect, you’ll see the device listed on the meshtastic website popup. Just click that new button that appears for your device.

Changing your device’s name

When you’ve successfully connected to your device, you’ll see the default name of your device which will be something like “Meshtastic 3d42”. You’re going to want to set the name of your device to something unique that will help you and others identify the device, but keep in mind that this is something anyone can see.

To change the name of the device, click the pencil icon next to the device name at the top of the page. You’ll see a popup to change the name. There is a long name and a short name. The short name can only be 4 characters long. Once you save a new name, the device will reboot. You’ll need to wait until it reboots and reconnects before changing any more settings. Sometimes you need to refresh the website and reconnect the device again to proceed.

Configuring your first channel

Overview

The next thing you’ll want to do is configure your channels. When you click “Channels” in the navigation on the left, it will load the channels into the right side of the screen. You should see something similar to the channels below, with either Primary or LongFast in the first slot, and Ch 1 through Ch 7 which don’t have anything yet.

Remember, the first slot is special. This is the only channel that will receive automatic position updates from your device. Usually you want the channel in this first slot to be for your innermost circle of family or friends – the people you want to keep updated on your location automatically.

If someone you trust sent you a QR code or link to add your channels, you can use that and skip the next section on creating your own.
But it’s probably worth reading anyway….

If someone in your innermost circle already created a channel for you to share, you’ll want to set this to the information that they’ve shared with you – the name of the channel and the pre-shared key (aka. PSK aka. password) must match exactly.

Creating your first channel

If you’re the first, then you want to take these steps to create that channel for your inner circle. We’ll go one by one for each of the options you need to change. Remember, this is for your innermost circle so we need to update the first slot that currently says either “LongFast” or “Primary”.

pre-Shared Key – first, change 8-bit to 256-bit and click the “Generate” button. This will generate a new encryption key for this channel. Share this ONLY with those you want to be a part of this channel. Anyone who has this will be able to join that channel and see the messages you send here, and your location. Once you have a new pre-Shared Key, save that somewhere secure (like a password vault), so you can share it with others in your inner circle, and keep as a backup in case you need to set up your device again from scratch.
Name – name the channel anything you want (max of 12 or less characters) for your inner circle, but make it unique enough that it’s unlikely others would use it. “SmithCircle” as an example.
Allow Position Requests – this setting allows others on the same channel to manually request the position of your device at any time they want to get your latest position.
Precise Location – this is a very important setting. This setting determines whether or not the location that is shared on this channel should be precise. A precise location is enough to determine exactly where your device is, or where you are standing/sitting with your device in your pocket. If this channel is your innermost circle, you will probably be ok with share a precise location here.
Approximate Location – this setting is only used if “Precise Location” is turned off. With Precise Location turned off, you can still provide your general position to people on the same channel with a configurable level of precision. Choose whatever value makes sense for the channel you’re configuring. For example, on a public channel, you may not be ok with sharing your precise location, but may still be ok with others knowing your general location within several miles.

Wrapping up

When you have this channel configured, click the “Submit” button to send that to your device. Remember, we just went through the first channel slot (slot 0), and replaced the Primary/LongFast channel with something for your innermost circle. We did this because slot 0 is special – it is the only channel slot that will receive automatic updates on your position.

Configuring the other channels (1 – 7)

Now that you have the special slot 0 channel configured for your innermost circle, you’re going to want to add two other channels right away.

The first is the LongFast channel that we just overwrote with your inner circle channel. The reason you want to add this back in is it allows you to communicate with anyone that has a meshtastic device. In a pinch this could be very useful.

The second is the CRN Public channel which is used by anyone who comes to this site to get started!

Both LongFast and CRN Public should be considered public channels. Even though they both have a pre-Shared Key and are encrypted, the pre-Shared Key is shared publicly here, which means anyone could add these channels and see the messages. That is why protecting the pre-Shared Key for your private channels is so important.

Adding the LongFast channel back

You might be wondering where someone came up with such an odd name (LongFast) for the public channel – it is actually a reference to another setting in the radio that determines the range, and the speed messages can move at that range. Long – long range mode, Fast – the fastest speed available in the long range mode.

Select the Ch 1 slot, which is actually the second channel slot, to start adding back the LongFast public channel. See below for the settings you’ll need.

Role – you need to change this to “Secondary” to enable the channel.
pre-Shared Key – for the LongFast channel, make sure the dropdown says “8 bit”. In the input box where you can type, enter “AQ==” without the quotes. Simply, AQ==.
Name – the name must be “LongFast” without the quotes. Simply, LongFast.
Allow Position Requests – you can turn this off completely for this channel if you wish. That means people on the public channel cannot see your location at all.
Precise Location – If you do allow location requests, you should probably turn Precise Location off because this is a public channel.
Approximate Location – remember, this setting is only used if “Precise Location” is turned off. Choose whatever value makes sense for this very public channel.

After you set those settings, click the Submit button at the bottom to save this channel.

VERY IMPORTANT!! – for your device to work, you need to change another setting before moving on.

Fixing the radio!

By now you should know that the slot 0 channel slot is special. Behind the scenes it performs another special task, which is to configure the radio in your device based on the name of the channel itself. All you need to know is that the “LongFast” name that used to live in slot 0 was responsible for setting up the radio to operate in Long-range Fast-mode. Most of those settings remain intact, but there is one that you will need to set manually.

You’ll need to click “Config” on the left side, and make sure you’re on the “Radio Config” section. Then click the “LoRa” tab at the top. See below.

There are two things to check on this screen. These settings are for the US only. If you live in a different country, you’ll need different values.

Region – make sure “US” is the selected region.
Frequency Slot – make sure this is set to the number 20.

Once you’ve confirmed those settings, click the save icon in the top right corner of that screen. Your device will reboot when you save this setting.

Adding the CRN Public channel

You’re at the LAST STEP for this guide. Nice work! Let’s get the CRN Public channel added to the Ch 2 slot. Same as when you added LongFast but this time you’ll be using the next channel slot.

Role – you need to change this to “Secondary” to enable the channel.
pre-Shared Key – MlRPRVo3MVFjT0R6OEE5OENrWjN4UjV5amlqbVFpc3g=
Name – the name must be “CRN Public” without the quotes. Note: as of writing this, the iOS app doesn’t allow you to enter a channel name with a space, and without the space, the channel will not work.
Allow Position Requests – for this channel, you may want to leave this on, but it’s up to you.
Precise Location – If you do allow location requests, you should probably turn Precise Location off because this is a public channel.
Approximate Location – remember, this setting is only used if “Precise Location” is turned off. Choose whatever value makes sense for this public channel.