Remote Node Administration

Disclaimer

This is an advanced feature that few users should need. Keep in mind that it is possible (if you are not careful) to assign settings to a remote node that cause it to completely drop off of your mesh. We advise network admins have a test node to test settings with before applying changes to a remote node to prevent this.

This feature allows you to remotely administer Meshtastic nodes through the mesh.

Prerequisites

For any node that you want to administer, you must:

Configure a channel with the channel name of admin.
Set the PSK for the admin channel with the same key you wish to administer other all other nodes of the mesh with.

Creating the admin channel

By default, nodes will only respond to administrative commands via the local USB/Bluetooth/TCP interface. This provides basic security to prevent unauthorized access and is how normal administration and settings changes work. The only difference for the remote case is that we are sending those commands over the mesh.

Before a node will allow remote admin access, it must have a primary channel:

Command

meshtastic --info

Expected output
Connected to radio
...
Channels:
  PRIMARY psk=default { "psk": "AQ==" }
Primary channel URL: https://meshtastic.org/e/#CgMSAQESCggBOANAA0gBUBs

From this output you see can that this node knows about only one channel and that its PSK is set to the default value.

Now we add an admin channel:

note

The name of the channel is important and must be admin.

Command

meshtastic --ch-add admin

Expected output

Connected to radio
Writing modified channels to device

Run meshtastic --info and your channels will now look like this:

Expected output
Connected to radio
...
Channels:
  PRIMARY psk=default { "psk": "AQ==" }
  SECONDARY psk=secret { "psk": "YyDCitupTAOOXTcaMDxyNhDpPa3eThiQFziPFCqT0mo=", "name": "admin" }
Primary channel URL: https://meshtastic.org/e/#CgMSAQESCggBOANAA0gBUBs
Complete URL (includes all channels): https://meshtastic.org/e/#CgMSAQEKKRIgYyDCitupTAOOXTcaMDxyNhDpPa3eThiQFziPFCqT0moaBWFkbWluEgoIATgDQANIAVAb

Notice that now we have a new secondary channel and the --info option prints out TWO URLs. The Complete URL includes all of the channels this node understands. The URL contains the preshared keys and should be treated with caution and kept a secret. When deploying remote administration, you only need the node you want to administer and the node you are locally connected to, to know this new "admin" channel. All of the other nodes will forward the packets as long as they are a member of the primary channel.

Creating an "admin" channel automatically generates a preshared key. In order to administer other nodes remotely, we need to copy the preshared key to the new nodes.

For this step you need physical access to both the nodes.

Create the "admin" channel on the "local node" using the instructions above.
Copy the "Complete URL" someplace for permanent reference/access.
Connect to the "remote node" over the USB port.
For the "remote node" type

meshtastic --seturl the-url-from-step-2

Run meshtastic --info and confirm that the "Complete URL" is the same for both of the nodes.

At this point you can take your remote node and install it far away. You will still be able to change any of its settings.

Remotely administering your node

Now that both your local node and the remote node contain your secret admin channel key, you can now change settings remotely:

Get the node list from the local node:

Command

meshtastic --nodes

Expected output
Connected to radio
/-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|N|    User    |AKA|   ID    |Latitude|Longitude|Altitude|Battery|   SNR   |     LastHeard     |    Since     |
|-+------------+---+---------+--------+---------+--------+-------+---------+-------------------+--------------|
|1|Unknown 9058|?58|!28979058|25.0382°|121.5731°|  N/A   |  N/A  |-13.50 dB|2021-03-22 09:25:42|19 seconds ago|
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

Using the node ID from that list, send a message through the mesh telling that node to change its owner name.

info

The --dest argument value must be in single quotes for linux/mac: '!28979058', no quotes for Windows: !28979058.

Command
meshtastic --dest '!28979058' --set-owner "Im Remote"

Expected output
Connected to radio
Setting device owner to Im Remote
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)

And you can now confirm via the local node that the remote node has changed:

Command

meshtastic --nodes

Expected output
Connected to radio
/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|N|  User   |AKA|   ID    |        Position        |Battery|  SNR  |     LastHeard     |    Since    |
|-+---------+---+---------+------------------------+-------+-------+-------------------+-------------|
|1|Im Remote|IR |!28979058|25.0382°, 121.5731°, N/A|  N/A  |8.75 dB|2021-03-22 09:35:42|3 minutes ago|
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

Note: you can change any parameter, add channels or get settings from the remote node. Here's an example of setting ls_secs using the --set command and printing the position settings from the remote node using the --get command:

Command
meshtastic --dest '!28979058' --set power.ls_secs 301 --get position

Expected output
Connected to radio
Requesting current config from remote node (this can take a while).

power:
wait_bluetooth_secs: 60
mesh_sds_timeout_secs: 7200
sds_secs: 4294967295
ls_secs: 300
min_wake_secs: 10

Set power.ls_secs to 301
Writing modified preferences to device
Requesting current config from remote node (this can take a while).
Received an ACK.
Completed getting preferences
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)

position:
position_broadcast_secs: 900
position_broadcast_smart_enabled: true
gps_enabled: true
gps_update_interval: 120
gps_attempt_time: 900
position_flags: 3
rx_gpio: 15
tx_gpio: 13
broadcast_smart_minimum_distance: 100
broadcast_smart_minimum_interval_secs: 30

Completed getting preferences

To set the hop_limit to 4 and then get the lora settings to confirm your new settings:

Command
meshtastic --dest '!28979058' --set lora.hop_limit 4 --get lora

Expected output
lora:
use_preset: true
region: US
hop_limit: 3
tx_enabled: true
tx_power: 30

Set lora.hop_limit to 4
Writing modified preferences to device
Requesting current config from remote node (this can take a while).
Received an ACK.
Completed getting preferences
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)

lora:
use_preset: true
region: US
hop_limit: 4
tx_enabled: true
tx_power: 30

Admin Channel Setup is Complete

You've finished setting up and adding two devices to the admin channel. Remember, because this is a mesh network, it doesn't matter which node you are at; you could administer your first device we set up from the second one we added to the channel. And the settings and examples on this page are just a taste of the other settings you can set.

For further reading, I recommend starting out with the Meshtastic Python CLI Guide if you haven't already gone through this (hopefully you have since you are reading this). But for a full reference to the settings you can change, please see:

Settings Overview and Complete list of user settings in Protobufs

Prerequisites​

Creating the admin channel​

Sharing the admin channel with other nodes​

Remotely administering your node​

Admin Channel Setup is Complete​

Prerequisites

Creating the admin channel

Sharing the admin channel with other nodes

Remotely administering your node

Admin Channel Setup is Complete