MeshCore Communication

Companions are the everyday mobile devices in the MeshCore network. Companions can be connected to a smartphone via the BLE Bluetooth standard or Wi-Fi, allowing them to communicate within 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 wide variety of devices that work well as companions. You can find more devices and comparisons under Hardware.

If you have the right hardware on hand, you can move right on to “flashing.” On the website https://meshcore.io/flasher, you can load the necessary software onto your device using 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. You can do this easily by clicking the “Enter DFU mode” button. A pop-up window will then let you select the serial port for the connection. If you want to control your Companion with your smartphone, we recommend selecting the firmware for “Companion Bluetooth.” Then just click “Flash!” and the device will reboot shortly thereafter.

First, you need to pair the Companion with your smartphone via Bluetooth. To do this, open the MeshCore app.

The app automatically searches for nearby Bluetooth devices. Once the correct device is found, it must be paired using the code displayed on the screen (if there is no screen: 123456).

Now you can enter all the necessary information in the settings.

General Settings

The settings configured here apply to the 868 MHz band available in this region. Regardless of the node’s role, 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 default setting used throughout most of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Spreading Factor

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

Coding rate

8 – This is the default setting for almost all of Europe and the United Kingdom.

Transmit power

22 dBm – This is the default setting; generally, no manual adjustments are needed here. Note that the transmit power may need to be adjusted if you’re using amplifiers or high-gain antennas to comply with EIRP requirements.

Airtime Factor

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

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

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

duty_cycle = 100 / (airtime_factor + 1)