Meshtastic in CLI command prompt

[@ruxpi]

This is the exact obscure information I was looking for. Thanks!

[@niknazzd]

Yeah sure. There is a ton more we can do. If there is something you’d like to see.

[@Meshtastic]

Very well presented! Thank you!

[@johntack1049]

Very helpful tutorial. Thanks Mark. I really appreciate you breaking it down step by step. Especially how you double checked your work using the --nodes command to check the changes.

[@CharcoalDaddyBBQ]

Ah ha! Thank you! This is exactly what i was looking for!! Now off to deploy!

[@SpeedThruCali20]

You should post more!! Love the content and it’s extremely helpful.❤

[@niknazzd]

Hi thanks for the kind words. It’s hard to come up with ideas because there is so much stuff. These are not scripted or planned out I just record and give commentary on what I’m doing. Is there a topic you would like covered?

[@SpeedThruCali20]

@@niknazzd I recently got into the meshwork, and I got the T-Beam supreme and there is not many videos or topics on that specific device. I’m just looking to have that device set up and connected to my phone. And also, I don’t own any Microsoft devices, but I do own macOS devices and there are not that many videos showing a set up process for that certain operating system.

[@nonya1940]

Thanks for all the help Mark

[@fotografm]

The command you showed: pip install --upgrade meshtastic appears to want to upgrade the software running in the Python environment on the PC and not the firmware on the board. I tried it and it remains the same (2.19) although the current version available is 2.22

[@niknazzd]

Correct. You were the first person to point that out! Congrats! If you are using the Tbeam, I still think the web flasher is the way to go. It has a new look since last time.

[@fotografm]

Did you find out how to see live debug info on the CLI ? I would like to see packets etc as they arrive in real time.

[@niknazzd]

Are you on the official Meshtastic discourse site? This would be a great question for them not to mention Garth (one of the developers) is active on there so if it’s possible you’ll find out how and if it’s not, Garth might be able to add it.

[@fotografm]

@@niknazzd Good suggestion. Thank you. I already got the answer which is to use PuTTY to monitor the serial debug information. That works. Will use your idea for future questions however.

[@yagoa]

do you know a command to get the temperature of the esp32(internal chip sensor)?

[@niknazzd]

That’s probably better asked on the meshtastic discourse. The CLI is mostly to toggle things in the GUI.

[@cuddlybear4524]

Can you rename the admin channels so that if you have multiple "tower" nodes you know which channel pairs with which device?

[@niknazzd]

To my understanding naming a Channel “admin” is a specific thing. This is how it knows where to send that type of payload. I don’t know if you can have more than one admin channel but I don’t know the internal coding or what that would do. The thing that would seperate the nodes from a client would be the encryption key. If you ran the “tower node” in router or repeater, this would disable the WiFi/BLE and you’d only to able to connect to it via a node with the same admin channel/encryption. Hope this helps.

[@yagoa]

can you use it over bluetooth?

[@suzyamerica4679]

Has anyone figured out how to pull messages off their node using the CLI? Need that functionality for a project.

[@niknazzd]

I think the CLI is more one sided on these. It’s meant to send to the node or pull data from it on a one shot kind of deal. It wouldn’t update the CMD as things change. This might be something you could bring up on the official meshtastic discourse group as the developers hang out there.

[@suzyamerica4679]

@@niknazzd Yah I talked with them on this already and there is not a good solution yet. Another way would be to dig into the BLE data modes that go back and forth between the phone app and the node, since (obviously) the functionality is there already. (edit: forget chatgpt, I want to run Eliza on a home node to talk to people who say hi)

[@jim3922]

how do you get the meshtastic command on a mac?

[@niknazzd]

I am a Mac guy. I have been using Apple since 1986. Usually the Mac version is ABC123 easy but I couldn’t get the Mac to do this. I tried this along time ago when I first started out but I believe it involved a huge setup and downloading and installing several programs. I only use windows for this stuff and radios. If this is something you’d like me to figure out I can see what I can come up with.

[@jim3922]

@@niknazzdthanks for the offer. I’ll try to figure something out. I do have a PC that’s rarely used. I’ll try that first.

[@niknazzd]

@@jim3922 the unofficial meshtastic website (just search for that) has a better step by step setup for windows. After you get python and all that, flip back over to the official meshtastic site for the rest.

[@CorbTheCoinBoi]

What does it mean when I try and run meshtastic -nodes and receive “aborting due to: ‘Latin-1’ codec can’t encode characters in position 0-181: ordinal not in range (256)”? Any assistance is appreciated

[@niknazzd]

Couple questions… did you install python on the computer? Has this ever worked in the past? Are you on windows11? lol

[@CorbTheCoinBoi]

@@niknazzd sure thing, I’m using raspbian 64 OS on a pi 4. I have a python venv setup to run the meshtastic CLI but that meshtastic -nodes command is the only one that gives me issues…. I can send texts etc no issue but it’s wonky on the nodes command

[@niknazzd]

@@CorbTheCoinBoi I am not a computer guy and I’m not pretending to be. I have no clue about the Pi stuff. When you run the meshtastic-info line…it should have a section that says “nodes in mesh” does that work?

[@CorbTheCoinBoi]

@@niknazzd no it gives me that error I listed in the first comment oddly enough. I am sitting here sending texts between my nodes with it on my box (the RAIN in my profile pic) but receiving the Latin 1 error lmao

[@niknazzd]

@@CorbTheCoinBoi that’s really interesting. When you do any configuration changes like short name/owner, number of hops… do you use a cmd via the Pi or how does that work?

[@alainsaaiman4975]

My screen is blank on a T3S3, how do I use the CLI thing to reflash the software? Is there a video, I don't know what cli or any other acronym means Thank you

[@niknazzd]

The command line interface (CLI) works on the existing firmware. The easiest way to flash it with meshtastic is to use the web flasher which was the video I uploaded 10 min before this one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoWbZJ5nmpiLY7csi=8v101hjBxj8raKU4

[@alainsaaiman4975]

Thanks, I did this many times, screen came up blank, (Possible boot loop) that is why I tried to use CLI but have no idea if I am doing it right. Any ideas?

[@niknazzd]

@@alainsaaiman4975 I have had these boards completely fail. I blame them on no case and being cheaply made. I’d get one LED that would just stay on and it would never boot up. It would need the firmware to work in order to do anything via CLI. If the board is junked perhaps you could use it as a door stop or paper weight lol. I used mine for parts. Your best bet is getting a new one. I got some TEcho’s on the way and if they are considerably different I’ll do a video on them. For the past 2 years I’ve only played with TBeams. My partner in crime is doing the hardware side of things. He’s figuring out what’s best for vehicle mounted ones, personal ones, base stations. What the best solar panel to use… I’m still learning after a couple years with these. Stay tuned….

[@alainsaaiman4975]

@@niknazzd Thanks. my T beams run flawlessly. I got new bigger GPS for them and would totally recomend that. I would love to know what is best for relay, vehicle and personal. Will be watching your channel. Thanks so much.

[@ralphbeardmore9738]

Can't see a thing your doing even on 40 inch tv Use a capture device or OBS studio.

[@niknazzd]

You’re funny. Thanks for watching.

[@A_scope]

i wear glasses too, but have no problem following you with my eyes closed!!! well done self taught is always head of the pack ;)

[@fotografm]

Great video ! Microsoft is going to be helpful and remove Notepad LOL