guide

Living with it

Everything you need in the first ten minutes, and the handful of things worth knowing later.

Keys

wheelturn to move, press to select
Backspaceback, or delete while typing
Entersend, or select
orange (hold)numbers and symbols
on homem messages  c contacts  p map  t tools  s settings  n NFC  l lock
in a chatpress the wheel for emoji and quick replies
on the mapwheel zooms, wasd pans, n next node, c centre on you

First start

Give the node a name when it asks; that is how you appear to everyone else. Then check Settings → Radio & Mesh and pick the preset for your area if it is not already set. A fresh install formats storage first, which takes a few minutes and only ever happens once.

Updates

Settings → System → check for updates, or leave "check on start" on and it will offer them when a new release appears. It always asks first. Turning on beta updates gets you builds before they are released, which is useful if you want to help find problems and tolerable only if you do.

Battery

Settings → Battery shows charge and battery health, and holds the two power features. Optimised charging learns roughly when you unplug and holds at 80% until shortly before, which is easier on the cell; it needs a few days of routine before it does anything. Battery saver switches on at 20% and turns off GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi until you are back above 80%. If health looks wrong on a new battery, use reset battery learning and let it do one full charge and one good discharge.

Notifications

Global settings live in Settings → Notifications, including quiet hours. Any single chat can override them from its own menu, or from the menu on any message in it: all messages, @mentions only, silent, or muted. Muted chats still count as unread.

SD card

/tiles/z/x/y.jpgoffline map tiles
/meshcore-backup.jsonimported on first start
/inw/daily backups written by the pager
/screenshots/screenshots taken from Tools

Keep a card in it. A first install formats internal storage, and the card is what brings your contacts back.

Radio defaults

Ships with the Inland Northwest preset: 910.5250244 MHz, 62.5 kHz, SF7, CR 4/5. Any MeshCore radio settings work, so set whatever your local mesh uses. Everyone on a mesh has to agree on these or you will hear nothing.

Privacy

Position sharing is off until you turn it on. Channel keys are derived from the channel name, so sharing a name is sharing access. And an export contains your private key — anyone holding that file can be you on the mesh, so treat it like a password.