Telemetry Module Configuration

The Telemetry Module provides three types of data over the mesh: Device metrics (Battery Level, Voltage, Channel Utilization and Airtime) from your Meshtastic device, Environment Metrics from attached I2C sensors, and Air Quality Metrics from attached I2C particle sensors.

Supported sensors connected to the I2C bus of the device will be automatically detected at startup. Environment Telemetry and Air Quality must be enabled for them to be instrumented and their readings sent over the mesh.

Currently Supported Sensor Types

Sensor	I2C Address	Data Points
BMP280	0x76, 0x77	Temperature and barometric pressure
BME280	0x76, 0x77	Temperature, barometric pressure and humidity
BME680	0x76, 0x77	Temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and air resistance
MCP9808	0x18	Temperature
INA260	0x40, 0x41	Current and Voltage
INA219	0x40, 0x41	Current and Voltage
LPS22	0x5D, 0x5c	Barometric pressure
SHTC3	0x70	Temperature and humidity
SHT31	0x44	Temperature and humidity
PMSA003I	0x12	Concentration units by size and particle counts by size

Module Config Values

Environment Telemetry Enabled

Enable the Environment Telemetry (Sensors).

Environment Metrics Update Interval

How often we should send Environment(Sensor) Metrics over the mesh.

Default is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

Device Metrics Update Interval

How often we should send Device Metrics over the mesh.

Default is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

Device Metrics to a connected client app will always be sent once per minute, regardless of this setting.

Environment Screen Enabled

Show the environment telemetry data on the device display.

Default is false.

Display Fahrenheit

The sensor is always read in Celsius, but the user can opt to display in Fahrenheit (on the device display only) using this setting.

Default is false.

Air Quality Enabled

This option is used to enable/disable the sending of air quality metrics from an attached supported sensor over the mesh network.

Default is false.

Air Quality Interval

This option is used to configure the interval (in seconds) that should be used to send air quality metrics from an attached supported sensor over the mesh network.

Default is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

Telemetry Config Client Availability

Android

Android

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Telemetry Config options are available for Android.

1. Open the Meshtastic App
2. Navigate to: Vertical Ellipsis (3 dots top right) > Radio Configuration > Telemetry

Apple

Apple

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All telemetry module config options are available on iOS, iPadOS and macOS at Settings > Module Configuration > Telemetry (Sensors).

CLI

CLI

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All telemetry module config options are available in the python CLI. Example commands are below:

Settings

Setting	Acceptable Values	Default
telemetry.device_update_interval	integer (seconds)	Default 0 is 15 minutes(900 seconds).
telemetry.environment_display_fahrenheit	true, false	false
telemetry.environment_measurement_enabled	true, false	false
telemetry.environment_screen_enabled	true, false	false
telemetry.environment_update_interval	integer (seconds)	Default 0 is 15 minutes(900 seconds).
telemetry.air_quality_enabled	true, false	false
telemetry.air_quality_interval	integer (seconds)	Default 0 is 15 minutes(900 seconds).

tip

Because the device will reboot after each command is sent via CLI, it is recommended when setting multiple values in a config section that commands be chained together as one.

Example:

meshtastic --set telemetry.device_update_interval 0 --set telemetry.environment_update_interval 0

Set module update intervals (Default of 0 is 5 Minutes)

meshtastic --set telemetry.device_update_interval 0
// Device Metrics Two Minutes
meshtastic --set telemetry.device_update_interval 0
// Environment Metrics Two Minutes
meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_update_interval 120

Enable/Disable Environment Module

meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_measurement_enabled true
meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_measurement_enabled false

Enable/Disable on device screen

meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_screen_enabled true
meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_screen_enabled false

Enable / Disable Display Fahrenheit

meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_display_fahrenheit true
meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_display_fahrenheit false

Web

Web

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All telemetry module config options are available in the Web UI.

Examples

RAK 4631 with BME680 Environment Sensor

Setup of a RAK 4631 with Environment Sensor

Requirements:

• RAK4631
• Environment Sensor

Steps:

• configure the device:

meshtastic --set telemetry.environment_measurement_enabled true --set telemetry.environment_screen_enabled true --set telemetry.environment_display_fahrenheit true

tip

While the above values serve as an example and can be modified to fit your specific needs, it is advisable to chain multiple commands together, as demonstrated in the example. This approach will minimize the number of necessary reboots.

• Device will reboot after command is sent.
• When the device boots again it should say "Telemetry" and it may show the sensor data
• If this does not appear to have any effects, run:

meshtastic --noproto

And examine the serial logs for Telemetry diagnostic information.

Supporting Additional Sensors

Environment Metrics

The environment metrics in the telemetry module supports a limited amount of fields as they are stored in memory on the device. Support for sensors that provide one or more of the following fields can potentially be added to the main firmware provided there is a GPL licensed library for us to include to support it, and the library size is not prohibitive.

• Temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Barometric Pressure
• Gas Resistance (AQI)
• Voltage
• Current

Supporting Other Sensor types

For other interesting sensor types and use cases we need to add a portnum for more generic telemetry packets and a second MCU will be required to interact with the sensor and process the data to be sent over the mesh. This data will not be stored in the nodedb on the device.