Node-RED Meshtastic messages node

This node allows sending and receiving packets to a Meshtastic mesh network thru a device connected via HTTP. It is based on Meshtastic.js library.

Features

• Send and receive text messages to/from any device in the mesh
• Supervise/monitor device status
• Subscribe and receive all types of events supported by Meshtastic.js (examples: Atak, Position, Range Test, Map Report, Store and Forward, etc...)
• Send packets to any Meshtastic APP (port num)
• Plug and Play: no additional servers, no containers, no CLI, no binary files
• Indirect support to MQTT via uplink/downlink channels

Limitations

• Connect directly to MQTT server: this is not supported by Meshtastic.js
• Connect to a device via Bluetooth or Serial (not implemented yet)

Automatic installation (recommended)

• Search for the package @danpeig/node-red-meshtastic-msg in the Node-RED community library or NPM.

Manual installation

1. Place the project files inside a folder called node-red-meshtastic-msg inside the Node-RED base directory (where the settings.js file is located)
2. Run npm install ./node-red-meshtastic-msg
3. Edit meshtastic-msg.js and change the relative path of the Meshtastic library according to the existing directory structure. Example: importSync("../node_modules/@meshtastic/js/dist/index.js").

To uninstall, run npm remove @danpeig/node-red-meshtastic-msg from the same base directory.

Known issues

Meshtastic.js library has some bugs and can crash the Node-RED server in the following scenarios:

• Connection interrupted during initialization can cause an infinite loop.
• Sending a packet with wantResponse flag set to true
• Depending on the installation method, you may have to edit the file meshtastic-msg.js and change the path of the ImportSync to the location where Meshtastic library was installed. Example: importSync("../../@meshtastic/js/dist/index.js").
• Failing to install the node due missing protobuf packages: Create a file called .npmrc with the following content @jsr:registry=https://npm.jsr.io and place it in the Node-RED base directory (where the settings.js file is located).

Examples

An example flow with the acceptable input message formats can be found in the examples sub-directory.

Bonus

The experiments_meshtastic.js illustrates how to use Meshtastic.js library from plain Javascript (No TypeScript, no React, no compilation, no nothing).

License

This node was created by Daniel BP and is available under the MIT license.

Version history

• 1.5 (13/11/2024)
  • Updated @meshtastic/js version to 2.5.9-2. This should fix protobuf decoding errors with the latest device firmware.
• 1.4 (21/09/2024)
  • Updated dependency versions
• 1.3 (30/07/2024)
  • Added Meshtastic.js log node
• 1.2 (29/07/2024)
  • Improved documentation
  • Meshtastic visual identity
  • Improved NPM descriptions
• 1.1 (28/07/2024)
  • Fixed path to the Meshtastic library when installed from NPM
• 1.0 (28/07/2024)
  • Initial release

Node reference guide

This information can also be found in the specific node help pages, directly from Node-RED interface.

Send text node

Send a text message to the mesh connected device

Input

• msg.payload (string) : the text message to be sent to the network
• [msg.channel] (integer): the Meshtastic channel number. Defaults to 0 (primary)
• [msg.destination] (integer): the destination node number, broadcast or self. Defaults broadcast
• [msg.wantAck] (boolean): if the receiving devices should acknowldege receipt. Defaults to true

[] = optional fields

Receive text node

Receive a text message from the mesh connected device

Outputs

• msg (json) : object with all package properties
• msg.payload (string): text content of the message

Receive status node

Receive the status code of the Meshtastic device

Outputs

• msg.payload (integer): status code of the device

Receive event node

This node will watch for the defined event and output the payload received. Typically, the output should be a JSON field but there are some events that report numbers or simple strings. The events list comes from Mesthastic.js Event System Class

Settings

• event (string): select the event to monitor/watch

Outputs

• msg (json): data from the event

Send packet node

Send a packet to the mesh connected device. Input packet can be either in the string format (msg.payload) or Uint8Array (msg.byteData) format.

Input

• msg.payload (string): Will be converted to Uint8Array and used if byteData field is not set
• [msg.byteData] (json) : Data properly encoded as Uint8Array. If set, will be used instead of payload. Example [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 119, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33]
• [msg.portNum] (integer): Application number. Defaults to 1 (text messsage app).
• [msg.destination] (integer string): Destination node number, broadcast or self. Detaults to broadcast
• [msg.channel] (integer): Channel number, defaults to 0 (primary channel)
• [msg.wantAck] (boolean): Confirmation, defaults to true
• [msg.wantResponse] (boolean): Defaults to false
• [msg.echoResponse] (boolean): Defaults to false
• [msg.replyId] (integer): Defaults to null
• [msg.emoji] (integer): Defaults to null

[] = optional fields

Receive Meshtastic.js log node

Output the log from Mesthastic.js library. Usefull for debug purposes and connection status info. Note: This is not Node-RED log neither the Lora device log.

Outputs

• msg (json) : object with all log message properties
• msg.payload (string): text content of the log entry (fields [0] and [1] concatenated)

Device configuration node

This will setup the connection to the Meshtastic node. The connection protocol is HTTP. Serial, Bluetooth or MQTT are not supported.

Options

• IP or hostname (string) : IP address or hostname of the Meshtastic device to connect. Examples: 192.168.0.15, meshtastic.local
• Use TLS (boolean): If true, the connection will be performed using TLS (encrypted). Default is false as most of the devices are not configured for it.
• Fetch interval (integer): Interval between polling data from the device. Default is 5000ms.