meshtastic-protobuf/docs/docs.md

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Protocol Documentation

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admin.proto

AdminMessage

This message is handled by the Admin plugin and is responsible for all settings/channel read/write operations. This message is used to do settings operations to both remote AND local nodes. (Prior to 1.2 these operations were done via special ToRadio operations)

Field Type Label Description
set_radio RadioConfig set the radio provisioning for this node
set_owner User Set the owner for this node
set_channel Channel Set channels (using the new API). A special channel is the "primary channel". The other records are secondary channels. Note: only one channel can be marked as primary. If the client sets a particular channel to be primary, the previous channel will be set to SECONDARY automatically
get_radio_request bool Send the current RadioConfig in the response for this message
get_radio_response RadioConfig
get_channel_request uint32 Send the specified channel in the response for this message NOTE: This field is sent with the channel index + 1 (to ensure we never try to send 'zero' - which protobufs treats as not present)
get_channel_response Channel
confirm_set_channel bool Setting channels/radio config remotely carries the risk that you might send an invalid config and the radio never talks to your mesh again. Therefore if setting either of these properties remotely, you must send a confirm_xxx message within 10 minutes. If you fail to do so, the radio will assume loss of comms and revert your changes. These messages are optional when changing the local node.
confirm_set_radio bool
exit_simulator bool This message is only supported for the simulator porduino build. If received the simulator will exit successfully/
reboot_seconds int32 Tell the node to reboot in this many seconds (or <0 to cancel reboot)

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apponly.proto

ChannelSet

This is the most compact possible representation for a set of channels. It includes only one PRIMARY channel (which must be first) and any SECONDARY channels. No DISABLED channels are included. This abstraction is used only on the the 'app side' of the world (ie python, javascript and android etc) to show a group of Channels as a (long) URL

Field Type Label Description
settings ChannelSettings repeated

ServiceEnvelope

This message wraps a MeshPacket with extra metadata about the sender and how it arrived.

Field Type Label Description
packet MeshPacket The (probably encrypted) packet
channel_id string The global channel ID it was sent on
gateway_id string The sending gateway. Can we use this to authenticate/prevent fake nodeid impersonation for senders? - i.e. use gateway/mesh id (which is authenticated) + local node id as the globally trusted nodenum

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channel.proto

Meshtastic protobufs

For more information on protobufs (and tools to use them with the language of your choice) see https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto3

We are not placing any of these defs inside a package, because if you do the resulting nanopb version is super verbose package mesh.

Protobuf build instructions:

To build java classes for reading writing: protoc -I=. --java_out /tmp mesh.proto

To generate Nanopb c code: /home/kevinh/packages/nanopb-0.4.0-linux-x86/generator-bin/protoc --nanopb_out=/tmp -I=app/src/main/proto mesh.proto

Nanopb binaries available here: https://jpa.kapsi.fi/nanopb/download/ use nanopb 0.4.0

Channel

A pair of a channel number, mode and the (sharable) settings for that channel

Field Type Label Description
index int32 The index of this channel in the channel table (from 0 to MAX_NUM_CHANNELS-1) (Someday - not currently implemented) An index of -1 could be used to mean "set by name", in which case the target node will find and set the channel by settings.name.
settings ChannelSettings The new settings, or NULL to disable that channel
role Channel.Role

ChannelSettings

Full settings (center freq, spread factor, pre-shared secret key etc...) needed to configure a radio for speaking on a particular channel This information can be encoded as a QRcode/url so that other users can configure their radio to join the same channel. A note about how channel names are shown to users: channelname-Xy poundsymbol is a prefix used to indicate this is a channel name (idea from @professr). Where X is a letter from A-Z (base 26) representing a hash of the PSK for this channel - so that if the user changes anything about the channel (which does force a new PSK) this letter will also change. Thus preventing user confusion if two friends try to type in a channel name of "BobsChan" and then can't talk because their PSKs will be different. The PSK is hashed into this letter by "0x41 + [xor all bytes of the psk ] modulo 26" This also allows the option of someday if people have the PSK off (zero), the users COULD type in a channel name and be able to talk. Y is a lower case letter from a-z that represents the channel 'speed' settings (for some future definition of speed)

FIXME: Add description of multi-channel support and how primary vs secondary channels are used. FIXME: explain how apps use channels for security. explain how remote settings and remote gpio are managed as an example

Field Type Label Description
tx_power int32 If zero then, use default max legal continuous power (ie. something that won't burn out the radio hardware) In most cases you should use zero here. Units are in dBm.
modem_config ChannelSettings.ModemConfig Note: This is the 'old' mechanism for specifying channel parameters. Either modem_config or bandwidth/spreading/coding will be specified - NOT BOTH. As a heuristic: If bandwidth is specified, do not use modem_config. Because protobufs take ZERO space when the value is zero this works out nicely. This value is replaced by bandwidth/spread_factor/coding_rate. If you'd like to experiment with other options add them to MeshRadio.cpp in the device code.
bandwidth uint32 Bandwidth in MHz Certain bandwidth numbers are 'special' and will be converted to the appropriate floating point value: 31 -> 31.25MHz
spread_factor uint32 A number from 7 to 12. Indicates number of chirps per symbol as 1<<spread_factor.
coding_rate uint32 The denominator of the coding rate. ie for 4/8, the value is 8. 5/8 the value is 5.
channel_num uint32 NOTE: this field is independent and unrelated to the concepts in channel.proto. this is controlling the actual hardware frequency the radio is transmitting on. In a perfect world we would have called it something else (band?) but I forgot to make this change during the big 1.2 renaming. Most users should never need to be exposed to this field/concept. A channel number between 1 and 13 (or whatever the max is in the current region). If ZERO then the rule is "use the old channel name hash based algorithm to derive the channel number") If using the hash algorithm the channel number will be: hash(channel_name) % NUM_CHANNELS (Where num channels depends on the regulatory region). NUM_CHANNELS_US is 13, for other values see MeshRadio.h in the device code. hash a string into an integer - djb2 by Dan Bernstein. - http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~oz/hash.html unsigned long hash(char *str) { unsigned long hash = 5381; int c; while ((c = *str++) != 0) hash = ((hash << 5) + hash) + (unsigned char) c; return hash; }
psk bytes A simple pre-shared key for now for crypto. Must be either 0 bytes (no crypto), 16 bytes (AES128), or 32 bytes (AES256) A special shorthand is used for 1 byte long psks. These psks should be treated as only minimally secure, because they are listed in this source code. Those bytes are mapped using the following scheme: 0 = No crypto 1 = The special "default" channel key: {0xd4, 0xf1, 0xbb, 0x3a, 0x20, 0x29, 0x07, 0x59, 0xf0, 0xbc, 0xff, 0xab, 0xcf, 0x4e, 0x69, 0xbf} 2 through 10 = The default channel key, except with 1 through 9 added to the last byte. Shown to user as simple1 through 10
name string A SHORT name that will be packed into the URL. Less than 12 bytes. Something for end users to call the channel If this is the empty string it is assumed that this channel is the special (minimally secure) "Default"channel. In user interfaces it should be rendered as a local language translation of "X". For channel_num hashing empty string will be treated as "X". Where "X" is selected based on the English words listed above for ModemConfig
id fixed32 Used to construct a globally unique channel ID. The full globally unique ID will be: "name.id" where ID is shown as base36. Assuming that the number of meshtastic users is below 20K (true for a long time) the chance of this 64 bit random number colliding with anyone else is super low. And the penalty for collision is low as well, it just means that anyone trying to decrypt channel messages might need to try multiple candidate channels. Any time a non wire compatible change is made to a channel, this field should be regenerated. There are a small number of 'special' globally known (and fairly) insecure standard channels. Those channels do not have a numeric id included in the settings, but instead it is pulled from a table of well known IDs. (see Well Known Channels FIXME)
uplink_enabled bool If true, messages on the mesh will be sent to the public internet by any gateway ndoe
downlink_enabled bool If true, messages seen on the internet will be forwarded to the local mesh.

Channel.Role

How this channel is being used (or not).

Note: this field is an enum to give us options for the future. In particular, someday we might make a 'SCANNING' option. SCANNING channels could have different frequencies and the radio would occasionally check that freq to see if anything is being transmitted.

For devices that have multiple physical radios attached, we could keep multiple PRIMARY/SCANNING channels active at once to allow cross band routing as needed. If a device has only a single radio (the common case) only one channel can be PRIMARY at a time (but any number of SECONDARY channels can't be sent received on that common frequency)

Name Number Description
DISABLED 0 This channel is not in use right now
PRIMARY 1 This channel is used to set the frequency for the radio - all other enabled channels must be SECONDARY
SECONDARY 2 Secondary channels are only used for encryption/decryption/authentication purposes. Their radio settings (freq etc) are ignored, only psk is used.

ChannelSettings.ModemConfig

Standard predefined channel settings Note: these mappings must match ModemConfigChoice in the device code.

Name Number Description
Bw125Cr45Sf128 0 < Bw = 125 kHz, Cr = 4/5, Sf(7) = 128chips/symbol, CRC < on. Default medium range (5.469 kbps)
Bw500Cr45Sf128 1 < Bw = 500 kHz, Cr = 4/5, Sf(7) = 128chips/symbol, CRC < on. Fast+short range (21.875 kbps)
Bw31_25Cr48Sf512 2 < Bw = 31.25 kHz, Cr = 4/8, Sf(9) = 512chips/symbol, < CRC on. Slow+long range (275 bps)
Bw125Cr48Sf4096 3 < Bw = 125 kHz, Cr = 4/8, Sf(12) = 4096chips/symbol, CRC < on. Slow+long range (183 bps)

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deviceonly.proto

ChannelFile

The on-disk saved channels

Field Type Label Description
channels Channel repeated The channels our node knows about

DeviceState

This message is never sent over the wire, but it is used for serializing DB state to flash in the device code FIXME, since we write this each time we enter deep sleep (and have infinite flash) it would be better to use some sort of append only data structure for the receive queue and use the preferences store for the other stuff

Field Type Label Description
legacyRadio LegacyRadioConfig Moved to its own file, but we keep this here so we can automatically migrate old radio.region settings
my_node MyNodeInfo Read only settings/info about this node
owner User My owner info
node_db NodeInfo repeated
receive_queue MeshPacket repeated Received packets saved for delivery to the phone
version uint32 A version integer used to invalidate old save files when we make incompatible changes This integer is set at build time and is private to NodeDB.cpp in the device code.
rx_text_message MeshPacket We keep the last received text message (only) stored in the device flash, so we can show it on the screen. Might be null
no_save bool Used only during development. Indicates developer is testing and changes should never be saved to flash.
did_gps_reset bool Some GPSes seem to have bogus settings from the factory, so we always do one factory reset.

LegacyRadioConfig

This is a stub version of the old 1.1 representation of RadioConfig. But only keeping the region info. The device firmware uses this stub while migrating old nodes to the new preferences system.

Field Type Label Description
preferences LegacyRadioConfig.LegacyPreferences

LegacyRadioConfig.LegacyPreferences

Field Type Label Description
region RegionCode The region code for my radio (US, CN, EU433, etc...)

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environmental_measurement.proto

EnvironmentalMeasurement

Field Type Label Description
temperature float
relative_humidity float
barometric_pressure float

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mesh.proto

Meshtastic protobufs

For more information on protobufs (and tools to use them with the language of your choice) see https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto3

We are not placing any of these defs inside a package, because if you do the resulting nanopb version is super verbose package mesh.

Protobuf build instructions:

To build java classes for reading writing: protoc -I=. --java_out /tmp mesh.proto

To generate Nanopb c code: /home/kevinh/packages/nanopb-0.4.0-linux-x86/generator-bin/protoc --nanopb_out=/tmp -I=app/src/main/proto mesh.proto

Nanopb binaries available here: https://jpa.kapsi.fi/nanopb/download/ use nanopb 0.4.0

Data

(Formerly called SubPacket) The payload portion fo a packet, this is the actual bytes that are sent inside a radio packet (because from/to are broken out by the comms library)

Field Type Label Description
portnum PortNum Formerly named typ and of type Type
payload bytes Required
want_response bool Not normally used, but for testing a sender can request that recipient responds in kind (i.e. if it received a position, it should unicast back it's position). Note: that if you set this on a broadcast you will receive many replies.
dest fixed32 The address of the destination node. This field is is filled in by the mesh radio device software, application layer software should never need it. RouteDiscovery messages must populate this. Other message types might need to if they are doing multihop routing.
source fixed32 The address of the original sender for this message. This field should only be populated for reliable multihop packets (to keep packets small).
request_id fixed32 Only used in routing or response messages. Indicates the original message ID that this message is reporting failure on. (formerly called original_id)

FromRadio

Packets from the radio to the phone will appear on the fromRadio characteristic. It will support READ and NOTIFY. When a new packet arrives the device will BLE notify? It will sit in that descriptor until consumed by the phone, at which point the next item in the FIFO will be populated.

Field Type Label Description
num uint32 The packet num, used to allow the phone to request missing read packets from the FIFO, see our bluetooth docs
packet MeshPacket
my_info MyNodeInfo Tells the phone what our node number is, can be -1 if we've not yet joined a mesh. NOTE: This ID must not change - to keep (minimal) compatibility with <1.2 version of android apps.
node_info NodeInfo One packet is sent for each node in the on radio DB starts over with the first node in our DB
log_record LogRecord set to send debug console output over our protobuf stream
config_complete_id uint32 sent as true once the device has finished sending all of the responses to want_config recipient should check if this ID matches our original request nonce, if not, it means your config responses haven't started yet. NOTE: This ID must not change - to keep (minimal) compatibility with <1.2 version of android apps.
rebooted bool Sent to tell clients the radio has just rebooted. Set to true if present. Not used on all transports, currently just used for the serial console. NOTE: This ID must not change - to keep (minimal) compatibility with <1.2 version of android apps.

LogRecord

Debug output from the device.

To minimize the size of records inside the device code, if a time/source/level is not set on the message it is assumed to be a continuation of the previously sent message. This allows the device code to use fixed maxlen 64 byte strings for messages, and then extend as needed by emitting multiple records.

Field Type Label Description
message string
time fixed32 Seconds since 1970 - or 0 for unknown/unset
source string Usually based on thread name - if known
level LogRecord.Level Not yet set

MeshPacket

A packet envelope sent/received over the mesh only payloadVariant is sent in the payload portion of the LORA packet. The other fields are either not sent at all, or sent in the special 16 byte LORA header.

Field Type Label Description
from fixed32 The sending node number. Note: Our crypto implementation uses this field as well. See docs/software/crypto.md for details. FIXME - really should be fixed32 instead, this encoding only hurts the ble link though.
to fixed32 The (immediatSee Priority description for more details.y should be fixed32 instead, this encoding only hurts the ble link though.
channel uint32 (Usually) If set, this indicates the index in the secondary_channels table that this packet was sent/received on. If unset, packet was on the primary channel. A particular node might know only a subset of channels in use on the mesh. Therefore channel_index is inherently a local concept and meaningless to send between nodes. Very briefly, while sending and receiving deep inside the device Router code, this field instead contains the 'channel hash' instead of the index. This 'trick' is only used while the payloadVariant is an 'encrypted'.
decoded Data
encrypted bytes
id fixed32 A unique ID for this packet. Always 0 for no-ack packets or non broadcast packets (and therefore take zero bytes of space). Otherwise a unique ID for this packet, useful for flooding algorithms. ID only needs to be unique on a per sender basis, and it only needs to be unique for a few minutes (long enough to last for the length of any ACK or the completion of a mesh broadcast flood). Note: Our crypto implementation uses this id as well. See docs/software/crypto.md for details. FIXME - really should be fixed32 instead, this encoding only hurts the ble link though.
rx_time fixed32 The time this message was received by the esp32 (secs since 1970). Note: this field is never sent on the radio link itself (to save space) Times are typically not sent over the mesh, but they will be added to any Packet (chain of SubPacket) sent to the phone (so the phone can know exact time of reception)
rx_snr float Never* sent over the radio links. Set during reception to indicate the SNR of this packet. Used to collect statistics on current link quality.
hop_limit uint32 If unset treated as zero (no forwarding, send to adjacent nodes only) if 1, allow hopping through one node, etc... For our usecase real world topologies probably have a max of about 3. This field is normally placed into a few of bits in the header.
want_ack bool This packet is being sent as a reliable message, we would prefer it to arrive at the destination. We would like to receive a ack packet in response. Broadcasts messages treat this flag specially: Since acks for broadcasts would rapidly flood the channel, the normal ack behavior is suppressed. Instead, the original sender listens to see if at least one node is rebroadcasting this packet (because naive flooding algorithm). If it hears that the odds (given typical LoRa topologies) the odds are very high that every node should eventually receive the message. So FloodingRouter.cpp generates an implicit ack which is delivered to the original sender. If after some time we don't hear anyone rebroadcast our packet, we will timeout and retransmit, using the regular resend logic. Note: This flag is normally sent in a flag bit in the header when sent over the wire
priority MeshPacket.Priority The priority of this message for sending. See MeshPacket.Priority description for more details.
rx_rssi int32 rssi of received packet. Only sent to phone for dispay purposes.

MyNodeInfo

Unique local debugging info for this node Note: we don't include position or the user info, because that will come in the Sent to the phone in response to WantNodes.

Field Type Label Description
my_node_num uint32 Tells the phone what our node number is, default starting value is lowbyte of macaddr, but it will be fixed if that is already in use
has_gps bool Note: This flag merely means we detected a hardware GPS in our node. Not the same as UserPreferences.location_sharing
num_bands uint32 # of frequencies that can be used (set at build time in the device flash image). Note: this is different from max_channels, this field is telling the # of frequency bands this node can use. (old name was num_channels)
max_channels uint32 The maximum number of 'software' channels that can be set on this node.
region string Deprecated. Deprecated! ONLY USED IN DEVICE CODE (for upgrading old 1.0 firmwares) DO NOT READ ELSEWHERE. The region code for my radio (US, CN, etc...) Note: This string is deprecated. The 1.0 builds populate it based on the flashed firmware name. But for newer builds this string will be unpopulated (missing/null). For those builds you should instead look at the new read/write region enum in UserSettings The format of this string was 1.0-US or 1.0-CN etc.. Or empty string if unset.
hw_model_deprecated string Deprecated. TBEAM, HELTEC, etc... Starting in 1.2.11 moved to hw_model enum in the NodeInfo object. Apps will still need the string here for older builds (so OTA update can find the right image), but if the enum is available it will be used instead.
firmware_version string 0.0.5 etc...
error_code CriticalErrorCode An error message we'd like to report back to the mothership through analytics. It indicates a serious bug occurred on the device, the device coped with it, but we still want to tell the devs about the bug. This field will be cleared after the phone reads MyNodeInfo (i.e. it will only be reported once) a numeric error code to go with error message, zero means no error
error_address uint32 A numeric error address (nonzero if available)
error_count uint32 The total number of errors this node has ever encountered (well - since the last time we discarded preferences)
reboot_count uint32 The total number of reboots this node has ever encountered (well - since the last time we discarded preferences)
message_timeout_msec uint32 How long before we consider a message abandoned and we can clear our caches of any messages in flight Normally quite large to handle the worst case message delivery time, 5 minutes. Formerly called FLOOD_EXPIRE_TIME in the device code
min_app_version uint32 The minimum app version that can talk to this device. Phone/PC apps should compare this to their build number and if too low tell the user they must update their app

NodeInfo

The bluetooth to device link:

Old BTLE protocol docs from TODO, merge in above and make real docs...

use protocol buffers, and NanoPB

messages from device to phone: POSITION_UPDATE (..., time) TEXT_RECEIVED(from, text, time) OPAQUE_RECEIVED(from, payload, time) (for signal messages or other applications)

messages from phone to device: SET_MYID(id, human readable long, human readable short) (send down the unique ID string used for this node, a human readable string shown for that id, and a very short human readable string suitable for oled screen) SEND_OPAQUE(dest, payload) (for signal messages or other applications) SEND_TEXT(dest, text) Get all nodes() (returns list of nodes, with full info, last time seen, loc, battery level etc) SET_CONFIG (switches device to a new set of radio params and preshared key, drops all existing nodes, force our node to rejoin this new group)

Full information about a node on the mesh

Field Type Label Description
num uint32 the node number
user User The user info for this node
position Position This position data. Note: before 1.2.14 we would also store the last time we've heard from this node in position.time. That is no longer true. Position.time now indicates the last time we received a POSITION from that node.
snr float Returns the Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the last received message, as measured by the receiver. Return SNR of the last received message in dB
last_heard fixed32 Set to indicate the last time we received a packet from this node

Position

a gps position

Field Type Label Description
latitude_i sfixed32 The new preferred location encoding, divide by 1e-7 to get degrees in floating point
longitude_i sfixed32
altitude int32 In meters above MSL
battery_level int32 1-100 (0 means not provided)
time fixed32 This is usually not sent over the mesh (to save space), but it is sent from the phone so that the local device can set its RTC If it is sent over the mesh (because there are devices on the mesh without GPS), it will only be sent by devices which has a hardware GPS clock. seconds since 1970

RouteDiscovery

A message used in our Dynamic Source Routing protocol (RFC 4728 based)

Field Type Label Description
route fixed32 repeated The list of nodenums this packet has visited so far

Routing

A Routing control Data packet handled by the routing plugin

Field Type Label Description
route_request RouteDiscovery A route request going from the requester
route_reply RouteDiscovery A route reply
error_reason Routing.Error A failure in delivering a message (usually used for routing control messages, but might be provided in addition to ack.fail_id to provide details on the type of failure).

ToRadio

packets/commands to the radio will be written (reliably) to the toRadio characteristic. Once the write completes the phone can assume it is handled.

Field Type Label Description
packet MeshPacket send this packet on the mesh
want_config_id uint32 phone wants radio to send full node db to the phone, This is typically the first packet sent to the radio when the phone gets a bluetooth connection. The radio will respond by sending back a MyNodeInfo, a owner, a radio config and a series of FromRadio.node_infos, and config_complete the integer you write into this field will be reported back in the config_complete_id response this allows clients to never be confused by a stale old partially sent config.
disconnect bool Tell API server we are disconnecting now. This is useful for serial links where there is no hardware/protocol based notification that the client has dropped the link. (Sending this message is optional for clients)

User

Broadcast when a newly powered mesh node wants to find a node num it can use Sent from the phone over bluetooth to set the user id for the owner of this node. Also sent from nodes to each other when a new node signs on (so all clients can have this info)

The algorithm is as follows: when a node starts up, it broadcasts their user and the normal flow is for all other nodes to reply with their User as well (so the new node can build its nodedb) If a node ever receives a User (not just the first broadcast) message where the sender node number equals our node number, that indicates a collision has occurred and the following steps should happen:

If the receiving node (that was already in the mesh)'s macaddr is LOWER than the new User who just tried to sign in: it gets to keep its nodenum. We send a broadcast message of OUR User (we use a broadcast so that the other node can receive our message, considering we have the same id - it also serves to let observers correct their nodedb) - this case is rare so it should be okay.

If any node receives a User where the macaddr is GTE than their local macaddr, they have been vetoed and should pick a new random nodenum (filtering against whatever it knows about the nodedb) and rebroadcast their User.

A few nodenums are reserved and will never be requested: 0xff - broadcast 0 through 3 - for future use

Field Type Label Description
id string A globally unique ID string for this user. In the case of Signal that would mean +16504442323, for the default macaddr derived id it would be !<8 hexidecimal bytes> Note: app developers are encouraged to also use the following standard node IDs "^all" (for broadcast), "^local" (for the locally connected node)
long_name string A full name for this user, i.e. "Kevin Hester"
short_name string A VERY short name, ideally two characters. Suitable for a tiny OLED screen
macaddr bytes This is the addr of the radio. Not populated by the phone, but added by the esp32 when broadcasting
hw_model HardwareModel TBEAM, HELTEC, etc... Starting in 1.2.11 moved to hw_model enum in the NodeInfo object. Apps will still need the string here for older builds (so OTA update can find the right image), but if the enum is available it will be used instead.

Constants

Shared constants between device and phone

Name Number Description
Unused 0 First enum must be zero, and we are just using this enum to pass int constants between two very different environments
DATA_PAYLOAD_LEN 240 From mesh.options note: this payload length is ONLY the bytes that are sent inside of the radiohead packet Data.payload max_size:240

CriticalErrorCode

Error codes for critical errors

The device might report these fault codes on the screen. If you encounter a fault code, please post on the meshtastic.discourse.group and we'll try to help.

Name Number Description
None 0
TxWatchdog 1 A software bug was detected while trying to send lora
SleepEnterWait 2 A software bug was detected on entry to sleep
NoRadio 3 No Lora radio hardware could be found
Unspecified 4 Not normally used
UBloxInitFailed 5 We failed while configuring a UBlox GPS
NoAXP192 6 This board was expected to have a power management chip and it is missing or broken
InvalidRadioSetting 7 The channel tried to set a radio setting which is not supported by this chipset, radio comms settings are now undefined.
TransmitFailed 8 Radio transmit hardware failure. We sent data to the radio chip, but it didn't reply with an interrupt.
Brownout 9 We detected that the main CPU voltage dropped below the minumum acceptable value

HardwareModel

Note: these enum names must EXACTLY match the string used in the device bin/build-all.sh script. Because they will be used to find firmware filenames in the android app for OTA updates. To match the old style filenames, _ is converted to -, p is converted to .

Name Number Description
UNSET 0
TLORA_V2 1
TLORA_V1 2
TLORA_V2_1_1p6 3
TBEAM 4
HELTEC 5
TBEAM0p7 6
T_ECHO 7
TLORA_V1_1p3 8
LORA_RELAY_V1 32 Less common/prototype boards listed here (needs one more byte over the air)
NRF52840DK 33
PPR 34
GENIEBLOCKS 35
NRF52_UNKNOWN 36
PORTDUINO 37
ANDROID_SIM 38 The simulator built into the android app

LogRecord.Level

Log levels, chosen to match python logging conventions.

Name Number Description
UNSET 0
CRITICAL 50
ERROR 40
WARNING 30
INFO 20
DEBUG 10
TRACE 5

MeshPacket.Priority

The priority of this message for sending. Higher priorities are sent first (when managing the transmit queue). This field is never sent over the air, it is only used internally inside of a local device node. API clients (either on the local node or connected directly to the node) can set this parameter if necessary.

(values must be <= 127 to keep protobuf field to one byte in size.

Detailed background on this field:

I noticed a funny side effect of lora being so slow: Usually when making a protocol there isnt much need to use message priority to change the order of transmission (because interfaces are fairly fast). But for lora where packets can take a few seconds each, it is very important to make sure that critical packets are sent ASAP. In the case of meshtastic that means we want to send protocol acks as soon as possible (to prevent unneeded retransmissions), we want routing messages to be sent next, then messages marked as reliable and finally background packets like periodic position updates.

So I bit the bullet and implemented a new (internal - not sent over the air) field in MeshPacket called priority. And the transmission queue in the router object is now a priority queue.

Name Number Description
UNSET 0 Treated as Priority.DEFAULT
MIN 1
BACKGROUND 10 Background position updates are sent with very low priority - if the link is super congested they might not go out at all
DEFAULT 64 This priority is used for most messages that don't have a priority set
RELIABLE 70 If priority is unset but the message is marked as want_ack, assume it is important and use a slightly higher priority
ACK 120 Ack/naks are sent with very high priority to ensure that retransmission stops as soon as possible
MAX 127

Routing.Error

A failure in delivering a message (usually used for routing control messages, but might be provided in addition to ack.fail_id to provide details on the type of failure).

Name Number Description
NONE 0 This message is not a failure
NO_ROUTE 1 Our node doesn't have a route to the requested destination anymore.
GOT_NAK 2 We received a nak while trying to forward on your behalf
TIMEOUT 3
NO_INTERFACE 4 No suitable interface could be found for delivering this packet
MAX_RETRANSMIT 5 We reached the max retransmission count (typically for naive flood routing)
NO_CHANNEL 6 No suitable channel was found for sending this packet (i.e. was requested channel index disabled?)
TOO_LARGE 7 The packet was too big for sending (exceeds interface MTU after encoding)
NO_RESPONSE 8 The request had want_response set, the request reached the destination node, but no service on that node wants to send a response (possibly due to bad channel permissions)
BAD_REQUEST 32 The application layer service on the remote node received your request, but considered your request somehow invalid
NOT_AUTHORIZED 33 The application layer service on the remote node received your request, but considered your request not authorized (i.e you did not send the request on the required bound channel)

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portnums.proto

PortNum

For any new 'apps' that run on the device or via sister apps on phones/PCs they should pick and use a unique 'portnum' for their application.

If you are making a new app using meshtastic, please send in a pull request to add your 'portnum' to this master table. PortNums should be assigned in the following range:

0-63 Core Meshtastic use, do not use for third party apps 64-127 Registered 3rd party apps, send in a pull request that adds a new entry to portnums.proto to register your application 256-511 Use one of these portnums for your private applications that you don't want to register publically

All other values are reserved.

Note: This was formerly a Type enum named 'typ' with the same id #

We have change to this 'portnum' based scheme for specifying app handlers for particular payloads. This change is backwards compatible by treating the legacy OPAQUE/CLEAR_TEXT values identically.

Name Number Description
UNKNOWN_APP 0 Deprecated: do not use in new code (formerly called OPAQUE) A message sent from a device outside of the mesh, in a form the mesh does not understand NOTE: This must be 0, because it is documented in IMeshService.aidl to be so
TEXT_MESSAGE_APP 1 A simple UTF-8 text message, which even the little micros in the mesh can understand and show on their screen eventually in some circumstances even signal might send messages in this form (see below) Formerly called CLEAR_TEXT
REMOTE_HARDWARE_APP 2 A message receive acknowledgment, sent in cleartext - allows radio to show user that a message has been read by the recipient, optional Note: this concept has been removed for now. Once READACK is implemented, use the new packet type/port number stuff? @exclude CLEAR_READACK = 2; Reserved for built-in GPIO/example app. See remote_hardware.proto/HardwareMessage for details on the message sent/received to this port number
POSITION_APP 3 The built-in position messaging app. See Position for details on the message sent to this port number. payload is a Position protobuf
NODEINFO_APP 4 The built-in user info app. See User for details on the message sent to this port number. payload is a User protobuf
ROUTING_APP 5 Protocol control packets for mesh protocol use, payload is a Routing protobuf
ADMIN_APP 6 Admin control packets, payload is a AdminMessage protobuf
REPLY_APP 32 Provides a 'ping' service that replies to any packet it receives. Also this serves as a small example plugin.
IP_TUNNEL_APP 33 Used for the python IP tunnel feature
SERIAL_APP 64 Provides a hardware serial interface to send and receive from the Meshtastic network. Connect to the RX/TX pins of a device with 38400 8N1. Packets received from the Meshtastic network is forwarded to the RX pin while sending a packet to TX will go out to the Mesh network. Maximum packet size of 240 bytes. Plugin is disabled by default can be turned on by setting SERIALPLUGIN_ENABLED = 1 in SerialPlugh.cpp. Maintained by Jm Casler (MC Hamster) : jm@casler.org
STORE_FORWARD_APP 65 STORE_FORWARD_APP (Work in Progress) Maintained by Jm Casler (MC Hamster) : jm@casler.org
RANGE_TEST_APP 66 STORE_FORWARD_APP (Work in Progress) Maintained by Jm Casler (MC Hamster) : jm@casler.org
ENVIRONMENTAL_MEASUREMENT_APP 67 Provides a format to send and receive environmental data from the Meshtastic network. Maintained by Charles Crossan (crossan007) : crossan007@gmail.com
PRIVATE_APP 256 Private applications should use portnums >= 256. To simplify initial development and testing you can use "PRIVATE_APP" in your code without needing to rebuild protobuf files (via bin/regin_protos.sh)
ATAK_FORWARDER 257 ATAK Forwarder Plugin https://github.com/paulmandal/atak-forwarder
MAX 511 Currently we limit port nums to no higher than this value

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radioconfig.proto

Meshtastic protobufs

For more information on protobufs (and tools to use them with the language of your choice) see https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/proto3

We are not placing any of these defs inside a package, because if you do the resulting nanopb version is super verbose package mesh.

Protobuf build instructions:

To build java classes for reading writing: protoc -I=. --java_out /tmp mesh.proto

To generate Nanopb c code: /home/kevinh/packages/nanopb-0.4.0-linux-x86/generator-bin/protoc --nanopb_out=/tmp -I=app/src/main/proto mesh.proto

Nanopb binaries available here: https://jpa.kapsi.fi/nanopb/download/ use nanopb 0.4.0

RadioConfig

The entire set of user settable/readable settings for our radio device. Includes both the current channel settings and any preferences the user has set for behavior of their node

Field Type Label Description
preferences RadioConfig.UserPreferences

RadioConfig.UserPreferences

see sw-design.md for more information on these preferences

Field Type Label Description
position_broadcast_secs uint32 We should send our position this often (but only if it has changed significantly) Defaults to 15 minutes
send_owner_interval uint32 Send our owner info at least this often (also we always send once at boot - to rejoin the mesh)
wait_bluetooth_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of 1 minute
screen_on_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of one minute
phone_timeout_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of 15 minutes
phone_sds_timeout_sec uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of two hours, MAXUINT for disabled
mesh_sds_timeout_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of two hours, MAXUINT for disabled
sds_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of one year
ls_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of 3600
min_wake_secs uint32 Power management state machine option. See https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/blob/master/docs/software/power.md for details. 0 for default of 10 seconds
wifi_ssid string If set, this node will try to join the specified wifi network and acquire an address via DHCP
wifi_password string If set, will be use to authenticate to the named wifi
wifi_ap_mode bool If set, the node will operate as an AP (and DHCP server), otherwise it will be a station
region RegionCode The region code for my radio (US, CN, EU433, etc...)
charge_current ChargeCurrent Sets the current of the battery charger
is_router bool Are we operating as a router. Changes behavior in the following ways: The device will only sleep for critically low battery level (i.e. always tries to stay alive for the mesh) In the future routing decisions will preferentially route packets through nodes with this attribute (because assumed good line of sight)
is_low_power bool If set, we are powered from a low-current source (i.e. solar), so even if it looks like we have power flowing in we should try to minimize power consumption as much as possible. YOU DO NOT NEED TO SET THIS IF YOU'VE set is_router (it is implied in that case).
fixed_position bool If set, this node is at a fixed position. We will generate GPS position updates at the regular interval, but use whatever the last lat/lon/alt we have for the node. The lat/lon/alt can be set by an internal GPS or with the help of the app.
serial_disabled bool If set, this will disable the SerialConsole by not initilizing the StreamAPI
factory_reset bool This setting is never saved to disk, but if set, all device settings will be returned to factory defaults. (Region, serial number etc... will be preserved)
debug_log_enabled bool By default we turn off logging as soon as an API client connects (to keep shared serial link quiet). Set this to true to leave the debug log outputting even when API is active.
location_share LocationSharing How our location is shared with other nodes (or the local phone)
gps_operation GpsOperation How the GPS hardware in this unit is operated. Note: This is independent of how our location is shared with other devices. For that see LocationSharing
gps_update_interval uint32 How often should we try to get GPS position (in seconds) when we are in GpsOpMobile mode? or zero for the default of once every 30 seconds or a very large value (maxint) to update only once at boot.
gps_attempt_time uint32 How long should we try to get our position during each gps_update_interval attempt? (in seconds) Or if zero, use the default of 30 seconds. If we don't get a new gps fix in that time, the gps will be put into sleep until the next gps_update_rate window.
ignore_incoming uint32 repeated If true, radio should not try to be smart about what packets to queue to the phone bool keep_all_packets = 101; If true, we will try to capture all the packets sent on the mesh, not just the ones destined to our node. bool promiscuous_mode = 102; For testing it is useful sometimes to force a node to never listen to particular other nodes (simulating radio out of range). All nodenums listed in ignore_incoming will have packets they send droped on receive (by router.cpp)
serialplugin_enabled bool Preferences for the SerialPlugin FIXME - Move this out of UserPreferences and into a section for plugin configuration.
serialplugin_echo bool
serialplugin_rxd uint32
serialplugin_txd uint32
serialplugin_timeout uint32
serialplugin_mode uint32
ext_notification_plugin_enabled bool Preferences for the ExternalNotificationPlugin FIXME - Move this out of UserPreferences and into a section for plugin configuration.
ext_notification_plugin_output_ms uint32
ext_notification_plugin_output uint32
ext_notification_plugin_active bool
ext_notification_plugin_alert_message bool
ext_notification_plugin_alert_bell bool
range_test_plugin_enabled bool Preferences for the RangeTestPlugin FIXME - Move this out of UserPreferences and into a section for plugin configuration.
range_test_plugin_sender uint32
range_test_plugin_save bool
store_forward_plugin_enabled bool Preferences for the StoreForwardPlugin FIXME - Move this out of UserPreferences and into a section for plugin configuration. (was 136)
store_forward_plugin_records uint32
environmental_measurement_plugin_measurement_enabled bool Preferences for the EnvironmentalMeasurement Plugin FIXME - Move this out of UserPreferences and into a section for plugin configuration. Enable/Disable the environmental measurement plugin measurement collection
environmental_measurement_plugin_screen_enabled bool Enable/Disable the environmental measurement plugin on-device display
environmental_measurement_plugin_read_error_count_threshold uint32 Sometimes sensor reads can fail. If this happens, we will retry a configurable number of attempts Each attempt will be delayed by the minimum required refresh rate for that sensor
environmental_measurement_plugin_update_interval uint32 Interval in seconds of how often we should try to send our measurements to the mesh
environmental_measurement_plugin_recovery_interval uint32 Sometimes we can end up with more than read_error_count_threshold failures. In this case, we will stop trying to read from the sensor for a while. Wait this long until trying to read from the sensor again
environmental_measurement_plugin_display_farenheit bool We'll always read the sensor in Celsius, but sometimes we might want to display the results in Farenheit as a "user preference".
environmental_measurement_plugin_sensor_type RadioConfig.UserPreferences.EnvironmentalMeasurementSensorType Specify the sensor type
environmental_measurement_plugin_sensor_pin uint32 Specify the peferred GPIO Pin for sensor readings

ChargeCurrent

Sets the charge control current of devices with a battery charger that can be configured. This is passed into the axp power management chip like on the tbeam.

Name Number Description
MAUnset 0
MA100 1
MA190 2
MA280 3
MA360 4
MA450 5
MA550 6
MA630 7
MA700 8
MA780 9
MA880 10
MA960 11
MA1000 12
MA1080 13
MA1160 14
MA1240 15
MA1320 16

GpsOperation

How the GPS hardware in this unit is operated. Note: This is independent of how our location is shared with other devices. For that see LocationSharing

Name Number Description
GpsOpUnset 0 This is treated as GpsOpMobile - it is the default setting
GpsOpStationary 1 Note: This mode was removed, because it is identical go GpsOpMobile with a gps_update_rate of once per day This node is mostly stationary, we should try to get location only once per day, Once we have that position we should turn the GPS to sleep mode This is the recommended configuration for stationary 'router' nodes
GpsOpMobile 2 This node is mobile and we should get GPS position at a rate governed by gps_update_rate
GpsOpTimeOnly 3 We should only use the GPS to get time (no location data should be acquired/stored) Once we have the time we treat gps_update_interval as MAXINT (i.e. sleep forever)
GpsOpDisabled 4 GPS is always turned off - this mode is not recommended - use GpsOpTimeOnly instead

LocationSharing

How our location is shared with other nodes (or the local phone)

Name Number Description
LocUnset 0 This is the default and treated as LocEnabled.
LocEnabled 1 We are sharing our location
LocDisabled 2 We are not sharing our location (if the unit has a GPS it will default to only get time - i.e. GpsOpTimeOnly)

RadioConfig.UserPreferences.EnvironmentalMeasurementSensorType

Name Number Description
DHT11 0

RegionCode

The frequency/regulatory region the user has selected.

Note: In 1.0 builds (which must still be supported by the android app for a long time) this field will be unpopulated.

If firmware is ever upgraded from an old 1.0ish build, the old MyNodeInfo.region string will be used to set UserPreferences.region and the old value will be no longer set.

Name Number Description
Unset 0
US 1
EU433 2
EU865 3
CN 4
JP 5
ANZ 6
KR 7
TW 8
RU 9

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remote_hardware.proto

HardwareMessage

An example app to show off the plugin system. This message is used for REMOTE_HARDWARE_APP PortNums.

Also provides easy remote access to any GPIO.

In the future other remote hardware operations can be added based on user interest (i.e. serial output, spi/i2c input/output).

FIXME - currently this feature is turned on by default which is dangerous because no security yet (beyond the channel mechanism). It should be off by default and then protected based on some TBD mechanism (a special channel once multichannel support is included?)

Field Type Label Description
typ HardwareMessage.Type What type of HardwareMessage is this?
gpio_mask uint64 What gpios are we changing. Not used for all MessageTypes, see MessageType for details
gpio_value uint64 For gpios that were listed in gpio_mask as valid, what are the signal levels for those gpios. Not used for all MessageTypes, see MessageType for details

HardwareMessage.Type

Name Number Description
UNSET 0 Unset/unused
WRITE_GPIOS 1 Set gpio gpios based on gpio_mask/gpio_value
WATCH_GPIOS 2 We are now interested in watching the gpio_mask gpios. If the selected gpios change, please broadcast GPIOS_CHANGED. Will implicitly change the gpios requested to be INPUT gpios.
GPIOS_CHANGED 3 The gpios listed in gpio_mask have changed, the new values are listed in gpio_value
READ_GPIOS 4 Read the gpios specified in gpio_mask, send back a READ_GPIOS_REPLY reply with gpio_value populated
READ_GPIOS_REPLY 5 A reply to READ_GPIOS. gpio_mask and gpio_value will be populated

Scalar Value Types

.proto Type Notes C++ Java Python Go C# PHP Ruby
double double double float float64 double float Float
float float float float float32 float float Float
int32 Uses variable-length encoding. Inefficient for encoding negative numbers – if your field is likely to have negative values, use sint32 instead. int32 int int int32 int integer Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
int64 Uses variable-length encoding. Inefficient for encoding negative numbers – if your field is likely to have negative values, use sint64 instead. int64 long int/long int64 long integer/string Bignum
uint32 Uses variable-length encoding. uint32 int int/long uint32 uint integer Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
uint64 Uses variable-length encoding. uint64 long int/long uint64 ulong integer/string Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
sint32 Uses variable-length encoding. Signed int value. These more efficiently encode negative numbers than regular int32s. int32 int int int32 int integer Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
sint64 Uses variable-length encoding. Signed int value. These more efficiently encode negative numbers than regular int64s. int64 long int/long int64 long integer/string Bignum
fixed32 Always four bytes. More efficient than uint32 if values are often greater than 2^28. uint32 int int uint32 uint integer Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
fixed64 Always eight bytes. More efficient than uint64 if values are often greater than 2^56. uint64 long int/long uint64 ulong integer/string Bignum
sfixed32 Always four bytes. int32 int int int32 int integer Bignum or Fixnum (as required)
sfixed64 Always eight bytes. int64 long int/long int64 long integer/string Bignum
bool bool boolean boolean bool bool boolean TrueClass/FalseClass
string A string must always contain UTF-8 encoded or 7-bit ASCII text. string String str/unicode string string string String (UTF-8)
bytes May contain any arbitrary sequence of bytes. string ByteString str []byte ByteString string String (ASCII-8BIT)