Meshtastic Bridge

Connect Meshtastic radio networks using MQTT and HTTP.

WARNING: Work in progress

Requirements

• Command-line install
  • Python 3.8
  • git
  • Outbound HTTPS (TCP/443) or SSH (TCP/22) access to github.com
• Docker-based install
  • Docker
• Meshtastic radio device:
  • The IP address or Serial devPath (micro USB cable needed for serial access) of a Meshtastic device
• MQTT server:
  • The domain name of the server
  • The port (e.g. 1883)

Refer to https://meshtastic.org/docs/settings/config/wifi#wifi-client for details on how to configure a Meshtastic device to use wifi and expose a TCP address.

Command-line installation

Download the code and install it onto a system:

$ git clone https://github.com/geoffwhittington/meshtastic-bridge.git

Create a Python virtual environment

$ python3 -m venv meshtastic-bridge

Install the bridge dependencies

$ cd meshtastic-bridge
$ source bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Docker installation

There is nothing to install with Docker, the bridge is downloaded at the time it is run

Configuration

The bridge is configured using a YAML file config.yaml. It is composed of three sections, devices, mqtt_servers and pipelines.

An example config.yaml is provided below:

devices:
   - name: remote
     tcp: 192.168.86.39
     active: true
mqtt_servers:
   - name: external
     server: broker.hivemq.com
     port: 1883
     topic: meshtastic/radio-network1
     pipelines:
       mqtt-to-radio:
         - decrypt_filter:
            key: '/home/user/keys/key.pem'
         - radio_message_plugin:
            device: remote
pipelines:
 radio-to-mqtt:
   - encrypt_filter:
       key: '/home/user/keys/cert.pem'
   - mqtt_plugin:
       name: external
       topic: mesh/tastic

devices is a list of radios the bridge listens for packets or to where it can send packets.

• name Reference given to a radio that is used elsewhere in the pipelines configuration. For example, my_radio
• tcp The IP address of the radio. For example, 192.168.0.1 (Optional)
• serial The name of the serial device attached to the radio. For example, /dev/ttyUSB0 (Optional)
• active Indicator whether this configuration is active. Values: true or false. Default = true.

NOTE: If tcp or serial are not given the bridge will attempt to detect a radio attached to the serial port. Additional configuration may be needed to use the serial port with the Docker option.

mqtt_servers is a list of MQTT servers the bridge listens for shared network traffic.

• name Reference given to the MQTT server. For example, my_mqtt_server
• server The IP address or hostname of a MQTT server. For example, server.mqttserver.com
• port The port the MQTT server listens on
• topic The topic name associated with the network traffic. For example, mesh/network
• insecure Use a secure connection but do not validate the server certificate
• pipelines A set of plugins (filters/actions) that run when a new message emerges for topic. Each pipeline is given a name; such as mqtt-to-radio (as in the example above)

pipelines is a list of ordered plugins (filters/actions) that run when a packet is detected by any connected radio. Each set is given a name; such as radio-to-mqtt (as in the example above). Pipelines can run in any order, however plugins run in the order they are defined.

Plugins

The following plugins can be used in the pipelines section of config.yaml:

Plugin	Description
debugger	Log the packet to the system console
message_filter	Filters out packets from the bridge that match a specific criteria
location_filter	Filters out packets that originate too far from a specified device
webhook	Send HTTP requests with custom payloads using packet information
mqtt_plugin	Send packets to a MQTT server
encrypt_filter	Encrypt a packet for a desired MQTT recipient
decrypt_filter	Decrypt a packet originating from MQTT
radio_message_plugin	Send a packet to a specified device
nostr_plugin	Send a NoStr event to a relay
owntracks_plugin	Send location data to MQTT server for Owntracks

debugger - Output the contents of a packet

• log_level debug or info. Default info

For example:

debugger:
  log_level: debug

Useful for troubleshooting.

message_filter - Allow or block packets based on criteria

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• app Name of meshtastic application to allow or disallow
• from The packet fromId values to allow or disallow
• to The packet toId values to allow or disallow
• message The packet message values to allow or disallow. Supports Regex.

For example:

message_filter:
  from:
     allow:
        - !bd5ba0ec
        - !f85bc0bc
     disallow:
        - !c15ba2ec
  message:
     disallow:
        - Good night

location_filter - Filter packets by location from current node (default) or specific location

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• max_distance_km Filter packets more than a certain distance
• comparison within or outside. Default within
• compare_latitude latitude to compare against
• compare_longitude longitude to compare against
• latitude Set the latitude
• longitude Set the longitude

For example

location_filter:
  max_distance_km: 1000

webhook - Send a HTTP request

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• active Plugin is active. Values: true or false. Default = true.
• body The JSON payload to send
• url The target URL
• headers HTTP headers to include in the request. Secrets can be passed using ENV variables
• message Override the packet message

Placeholders can be used with the body value:

• {LAT} - Latitude associated with the POSITION packet. Empty if no value available.
• {LNG} - Latitude associated with the POSITION packet. Empty if no value available.
• {MSG} - Packet text or message from the configuration (above)
• {FID} - The fromId associated with the packet.
• {TID} - The toId associated with the packet.

For example:

webhook:
  active: true
  body: '{"lat": "{LAT}", "lng": "{LNG}", "text_message": "{MSG}"}'
  url: 'https://localhost:8000/message'
  headers:
     Authorization: Token {AUTH_TOKEN}
     Content-type: application/json

mqtt_plugin - Send a packet to a MQTT server

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• active Plugin is active. Values: true or false. Default = true.
• name Reference of an existing MQTT server configured in the top-level mqtt_servers configuration
• message Override the packet message with a custom value.
• topic The message topic

For example:

mqtt_plugin:
  name: external
  topic: meshtastic/topic

Placeholders can be used with the message value:

• {MSG} - Packet text

encrypt_filter - Encrypt a packet before sending it to a MQTT server

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• key The PEM filename of the public key used to encrypt the message.

For example:

encrypt_filter:
  key: '/home/user/keys/cert.pem'

decrypt_filter - Decrypt message from a MQTT server

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• key The PEM filename of the key used to decrypt the message.

For example:

decrypt_filter:
  key: '/home/user/keys/key.pem'

nostr_plugin - Send a NoStr event

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• private_key The private key for a NoStr user. Secrets can be passed using ENV variables
• public_key The public key for the NoStr user associated with the private key.
• message A specific message (Optional)
• relays List of NoStr relays. Default wss://nostr-pub.wellorder.net, and wss://relay.damus.io

For example:

nostr_plugin:
  private_key: "{NOSTR_PRIVATE_KEY}"
  public_key: "npub1d0ja5d.......xw7jys4eqnk0"
  relays:
    - "wss://nostr-pub.wellorder.net"

Placeholders can be used with the message value:

• {MSG} - Packet text

owntracks_plugin - Send location data to MQTT server for Owntracks

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• server_name The mqtt server to send owntracks messages to
• tid_table Table of the numeric from IDs of each node, mapped to an Owntracks name and TID

For example:

owntracks_plugin:
  server_name: external
  tid_table:
    "1234": ["Van", "GV"]
    "-5678": ["Home", "HR"]

Placeholders can be used with the message value:

• {MSG} - Packet text

radio_message_plugin - Send a packet to a radio

• log_level debug or info. Default info
• active Plugin is active. Values: true or false. Default true.
• device Required. Send the packet to a Radio with this name. It should be configured in the top-level devices configuration
• message Send a text message
• lat Send a position message having this latitude
• lng Send a position message having this longitude
• node_mapping Map the packet to value to another value
• to Target node reference
• toId Target node reference. Ignored if to is used.

For example:

Broadcasts all packets to the "remote" radio network that are destined to the node 12354345.

radio_message_plugin:
  device: remote
  node_mapping:
    12354345: ^all

Run the bridge

Command-line

Create a config.yaml in the meshtastic-bridge directory. Run:

$ source bin/activate

And:

python main.py

Docker

Create a config.yaml with the desired settings and run the following Docker command:

Linux

docker run --rm --network host -v $(pwd)/config.yaml:/code/config.yaml gwhittington/meshtastic-bridge:latest

Resources

• Example guidance for creating PEM key files.
• Test webhooks using Webhooks.site