Meshtastic Check Mate

TCP based bot that monitors private channels and responds to radio checks.

Requirements

• Python3.x
• Meshtastic Python Library
• Meshtastic node connected via WiFi to the same network as the machine running this program. I use a Heltec V3.

Installation

Make sure python3 is installed, then clone the repo:

git clone [email protected]:dpup/meshtastic-check-mate
cd meshtastic-check-mate

Install dependencies:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Run check-mate:

python3 check-mate.py --host meshtastic.local --location 'Base Camp'

Then in a private channel on a different node to the one connected to check-mate send a message containing radio check or mesh check (case insensitive and spaces are ignored).

Arguments

Arg	Env	Description
-h	N/A	Show help
--host	HOST	The IP or hostname of the meshtastic node, e.g. 192.168.5.10
--location	LOCATION	Text description of where your node is, e.g. SF Mission District
--healthcheck	HEALTHCHECKURL	URL to send healthcheck pings to when receiving messages
--status	N/A	Print JSON of latest status
--status-dir	STATUS_DIR	Override where the status file is located (see below)

Example radio check

Outrider (a4bc)  : Radio check
Base camp (ffea) : Copy a4bc, 5.75 SNR from Everest Base Camp

Responses are randomized, to make it a bit more interesting.

Running on ECS

ECS does not use Docker healthchecks directly and the healthcheck runs as a different user than the appuser specified in the Dockerfile. To get around this, set the STATUS_DIR environment variable to /tmp then add the following healthcheck to the container definition (what follows is a terraform snippet):

healthCheck = {
    command     = ["CMD-SHELL", "cd /app && python3 -m check-mate --status --status-dir=/tmp"]
    interval    = 60
    timeout     = 10
    retries     = 3
    startPeriod = 60
}

(These healthchecks and restarts seem to be pretty important, because the underlying meshtastic client can get in a bad state that doesn't trigger the disconnect pubsub topic.)

Contributing

Improvements and enhancements welcome. If you find issues or spot possible improvements, please submit a pull-request or file an issue.