Companions are your daily mobile companions in the MeshCore network. Companions can be connected to your smartphone via the Bluetooth standard BLE or Wi-Fi, enabling them to communicate in the MeshCore network. However, there are also standalone devices such as the Lilygo T-Deck or the SenseCap T1000-E Card Tracker.

There are a variety of devices that are suitable as companions. You can find more devices and comparisons under Hardware.

Once you have the right hardware at hand, you can proceed with “flashing.” On the website https://flasher.meshcore.co.uk/, you can install the necessary software on your device via a USB cable and a web interface.

To do this, select your device from the extensive list. For nRF-based hardware, you must first switch to DFU mode. This can be done conveniently by clicking on the “Enter DFU mode” button. A pop-up window now allows you to select the serial interface for the connection. If you want to operate your Companion with your smartphone, it is recommended to select the firmware for “Companion Bluetooth.” Then click on “Flash!” and after a short time, the device will restart.

First, the Companion must be paired with the smartphone via Bluetooth. To do this, open the MeshCore app.

The app automatically searches for nearby Bluetooth devices. Once the appropriate device has been found, it must be paired using the code displayed on the screen (without display: 123456).

Now all the necessary information can be entered via the settings.

General settings

The settings made here refer to the 868 MHz band available in the region. Regardless of the role of the node, the following settings are recommended.

Name

Choose any name you like, but avoid offensive terms and be polite.

Frequency

869.618 MHz – This is the frequency used throughout most of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Bandwidth

62.5 kHz – This is the standard setting used throughout most of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Spreading factor

8 – This is the standard setting used throughout most of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Coding rate

8 – This is the standard setting used throughout most of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Transmit power

22 dBm – This is the default setting; usually, nothing needs to be changed manually here. Note that the transmission power may need to be adjusted if amplifiers or high-gain antennas are used in order to comply with EIRP specifications.

Airtime-Faktor

1 – This is the recommendation of the MeshCore community and the default setting.

However, the legal limit for the duty cycle here in Europe on the 869.525 MHz frequency is 10%, which technically would require setting the AF to 9. Since MeshCore does not transmit much and the duty cycle is usually less than 1% in reality, keeping the AF at 1 does not mean that the duty cycle is exceeded by definition.

The following formula can be used to convert from a duty cycle of 10% to the airtime factor:

duty_cycle = 100 / (airtime_factor + 1)