Andy Stetzinger #Meshtastic #Podcaster #Maker

Maker. Podcaster. Meshtastic enthusiast. On my bench: Raspberry Pi Meshtastic testing project. Tinkering thoughts, creative cranium, ukulele by my side. Builds posted as they happen. – at Tangelo Park, FL

MARS Ground Control update: After 3 unexplained Raspberry Pi crashes in 2 days, I swapped the hardware while keeping the same SD card, software, and radio. 4+ hours stable. 521/521 probes acknowledged. No thermal throttling. The original Pi is now the most likely culprit. Testing continues. #Meshtastic #RaspberryPi #LoRa – at Tangelo Park, FL

I think that the balance of this week for MARS, outside of the hardware issue and a nice park-walk test tomorrow, is going to be a web interface. Arguably my weakest skill set. I do UI and UX like an engineer would. It's practical, and it makes sense... at least to me. :-)

MARS had a rough morning. Walking test with a Heltec V3 running Meshtastic 2.7.26: • 59 probes sent • 12 reached base • 11 confirmed end-to-end • 0 confirmed beyond 100m (When GC Rebooted) Ground Control instability remains under investigation. Bad results are still useful data. #Meshtastic #LoRa #Maker #Orlando

Meshtastic traffic test this morning! MARS confirmed 17/18 packets (94%) with 13.5% channel utilization. App logs identified 19 MARS packets. Radio counters saw 53 total. MARS now reports both, exposing traffic the app can't decrypt. @buggedlab #Meshtastic #LoRa #MeshNetworking – at Williamsburg, FL

MARS v1.4: Third test. Still the little Heltec V3, stock internal antenna, two laps around the neighborhood. 20 probes, 90% reached the base, 70% confirmed end to end. The weak direction is the way back, meaning the base hears the car better than the car hears the base. #Meshtastic #MARS #Testing #Maker #Orlando

MARS release branches, for the record: 1.1 Run control moved onto Ground Control, no commander node 1.2 Radio auto-discovery fixed, ACK buzzer added 1.3 Reporting overhaul: named tests, branded charts, PDF reports 1.4 Manufacturer validation series with plain-language verdicts 1.4.1 Demo unit disclosure printed on reports and charts 1.4.2 Recent rain now means the ground is still wet meshtastic.org #Meshtastic – at Tangelo Park, FL

Florida Mesh’s weekly net is tonight at 8 PM ET in Central Florida. Check in on Meshtastic’s default primary channel: NAME - CITY #FLMeshNet message 1. Number each message, then report what you hear and any acknowledgements. Details: areyoumeshingwith.us/docs/ge… #Meshtastic #FloridaMesh #FLMeshNet – at Tangelo Park, FL

A pocket computer with a physical keyboard may be getting Meshtastic. OrionPDA says it’s testing a Meshtastic expansion module and considering a built-in RAK radio option. reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comm… #Meshtastic #LoRa #OpenHardware – at Tangelo Park, FL

Meshtastic’s Oct. 26 nightly fixes repeated random values after reboot on STM32WL nodes by seeding from the hardware RNG. It’s untested development firmware, not a stable upgrade. If you run a RAK3172 or Wio-E5, share your experience. Follow for Meshtastic firmware and field-test updates: nightly.meshtastic.org/ #Meshtastic #LoRa – at Tangelo Park, FL

And, of course, I'm already up to 1.3.5 for this morning. I did a second test drive with the Heltec as the guinea pig. Need to sort out a way to compare the data sets for a comparison test. And, while I am at it, probably some additional tests. Any suggestions? #Meshtastic #MARS #Testing #Maker #Orlando

MARS v1.3 is live! MARS is my Meshtastic Automated Range System: two Raspberry Pi stations that measure how a node actually performs on a route. New in v1.3: Charts carry MARS branding and are titled properly (Round Trip Latency Test, Signal To Noise Test, Delivery By Distance Test) Every run produces a full PDF report Reports state the reference radio and both antennas, so anyone can see what a test ran against Charts and the PDF carry a stock photo of the radio under test, credited to its maker Next up: full standard session, multiple trips along the same path for comparison. #Meshtastic #LoRa #MARS #Orlando #Maker

Going to stop by @makerfx tomorrow and 3D Print a little window box to hold a Meshtastic Node on my vehicle's window for a better test. #MakerFX #Orlando #Makerspace – at Southchase, FL

First drive test for MARS, my Meshtastic range tester. Two Raspberry Pi stations, a Heltec V3 riding in the van. 14 probes sent, 9 fully acknowledged. Solid two-way contact inside 100 m, spotty out to 250 m, and the base still decoded pings at -107 dBm on the far side of the block. #Meshtastic #MARS #Testing #LoRa

Because I am impatient. 🤣 But, it worked. The pi beeped when it got a message, every 30 seconds. When it went quiet, I knew to turn around. #Meshtastic #MARS #Testing – at Southchase, FL

MARS Latency Testing complete. I'm waiting on enclosures to arrive, but I'm thinking of loading Major Tom into the back of my vehicle and driving around the block. #Meshtastic #MARS #Testing #Metrics #Maker #Orlando

Major Tom is showing it's first signs of life. The buzzer works... The little Heltec is just a reliable testing node, I'll be attaching different nodes I own as soon as Major Tom is working. #meshtastic #MARS #Testing – at Southchase, FL

Well, as Bon Jovi says... we're halfway there... MARS Project update: Ground Control is online. Now to tackle Major Tom. #Meshtastic #Metrics #Maker #Orlando

PSA for Meshtastic folks: Seeed warns that NRF-OTA firmware updates can kill its trackers. T1000-E, Wio Tracker L1 series, Wio Tracker 1110, XIAO nRF52840 kit. Update wired instead: web flasher, DFU mode, UF2 drag and drop. wiki.seeedstudio.com/get_sta… @seeedstudio #Meshtastic – at Southchase, FL