Subj : Re: Thinknode M5
To   : nblade
From : pyrewyrm
Date : Wed Mar 18 2026 11:22 pm

 nb> So I guess that gets to a question I have about Meshtastic. Does it just
 nb> send  messages? In the case of your weather station, does it just send a
 nb> message that is formatted a certain way (say JSON) and then at the the
 nb> other end does it just
 nb> accept that message and then do something with it? Or is there a way to
 nb> send some 
 nb> sort of data packets via the mesh network? 

Meshtastic is intended as a text-based system. So I'd likely use pre-formatted text strings, in the case of the weather station. Wx station emits the message, listening radio receives. From here, I could either go w/ a MQTT bridge or, if my listening radio transceiver is connected to/a part of a computer, the Meshtastic python library can directly read the message.
In either case, once I have the message in hand, I expand it out to JSON or some such, commit the record to a database, and send the JSON to whatever I am displaying the current weather output on.

If I wanted to get fancy, Meshtastic supports me building my own protocol buffer schemas and sending raw data packets.

Actual JSON is a no go. The messages are tight on space and JSON (along with most other web data exchange standards) are just too much. In my formatted string concept, I'm thinking something more raw - ie 0814305 is decoded to 081 - Temp in F, 43 relative humidity, 05 wind in kts.

.... MY SysOp lets me say things like [ C E N S O R E D ]

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

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