pyMC_Repeater/README.md

pyMC_repeater

Repeater Daemon in Python using the pymc_core Lib.

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I started pyMC_core as a way to really get under the skin of MeshCore — to see how it ticked and why it behaved the way it did. After a few late nights of tinkering, testing, and head-scratching, I shared what I’d learned with the community. The response was honestly overwhelming — loads of encouragement, great feedback, and a few people asking if I could spin it into a lightweight repeater daemon that would run happily on low-power, Pi-class hardware.

That challenge shaped much of what followed:

• I went with a lightweight HTTP server (CherryPy) instead of a full-fat framework.
• I stuck with simple polling over WebSockets — it’s more reliable, has fewer dependencies, and is far less resource hungry.
• I kept the architecture focused on being clear, modular, and hackable rather than chasing performance numbers.

There’s still plenty of room for this project to grow and improve — but you’ve got to start somewhere! My hope is that pyMC_repeater serves as a solid, approachable foundation that others can learn from, build on, and maybe even have a bit of fun with along the way.

I’d love to see these repeaters out in the wild — actually running in real networks and production setups. My own testing so far has been in a very synthetic environment with little to no other users in my area, so feedback from real-world deployments would be incredibly valuable!

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Overview

The repeater daemon runs continuously as a background process, forwarding LoRa packets using pymc_core's Dispatcher and packet routing.

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Supported Hardware (Out of the Box)

The repeater supports two radio backends:

• SX1262 (SPI) — Direct connection to LoRa modules (HATs, etc.) as listed below.
• KISS modem — Serial TNC using the KISS protocol. Set radio_type: kiss in config and configure kiss.port and kiss.baud_rate.

Caution

Compatibility

Supported Radio Interfaces

Interface	Supported
Native SPI radio SX1262	✅ Yes
USB–SPI bridge (CH341F)	✅ Yes
UART-based HATs	❌ No
SX1302 concentrator boards	❌ No
SX1303 concentrator boards	❌ No

This project supports single-radio SPI transceivers only, either:

• Connected directly via SPI
• Connected via a CH341F USB–SPI adapter
• Connected using hardware that supports Meshcore Kiss Modem firmware

The following hardware is currently supported out-of-the-box:

Waveshare LoRaWAN/GNSS HAT (SPI Version Only)

Hardware: Waveshare SX1262 LoRa HAT (SPI interface - UART version not supported)
Platform: Raspberry Pi (or compatible single-board computer)
Frequency: 868MHz (EU) or 915MHz (US)
TX Power: Up to 22dBm
SPI Bus: SPI0
GPIO Pins: CS=21, Reset=18, Busy=20, IRQ=16
Note: Only the SPI version is supported. The UART version will not work.

HackerGadgets uConsole

Hardware: uConsole RTL-SDR/LoRa/GPS/RTC/USB Hub
Platform: Clockwork uConsole (Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5)
Frequency: 433/915MHz (configurable)
TX Power: Up to 22dBm
SPI Bus: SPI1
GPIO Pins: CS=-1, Reset=25, Busy=24, IRQ=26
Additional Setup: Requires SPI1 overlay and GPS/RTC configuration (see uConsole setup guide)

Frequency Labs meshadv-mini

Hardware: FrequencyLabs meshadv-mini Hat
Platform: Raspberry Pi (or compatible single-board computer)
Frequency: 868MHz (EU) or 915MHz (US)
TX Power: Up to 22dBm
SPI Bus: SPI0
GPIO Pins: CS=8, Reset=24, Busy=20, IRQ=16

Frequency Labs meshadv

Hardware: FrequencyLabs meshadv-mini Hat
Platform: Raspberry Pi (or compatible single-board computer)
Frequency: 868MHz (EU) or 915MHz (US)
TX Power: Up to 22dBm
SPI Bus: SPI0
GPIO Pins: CS=21, Reset=18, Busy=20, IRQ=16, TXEN=13, RXEN=12, use_dio3_tcxo=True

HT-RA62 module

Hardware: Heltec HT-RA62 LoRa module
Platform: Raspberry Pi (or compatible single-board computer)
Frequency: 868MHz (EU) or 915MHz (US)
TX Power: Up to 22dBm
SPI Bus: SPI0
GPIO Pins: CS=21, Reset=18, Busy=20, IRQ=16, use_dio3_tcxo=True, use_dio2_rf=True

...

Screenshots

Dashboard

Real-time monitoring dashboard showing packet statistics, neighbor discovery, and system status

Statistics

statistics and performance metrics

Installation

Before You Begin

Make sure SPI is switched on using raspi-config:

sudo raspi-config

1. Go to Interface Options
2. Select SPI
3. Choose Enable
4. Reboot when prompted:

sudo reboot

After reboot, you can confirm SPI is active:

ls /dev/spi*

You should see something like:

/dev/spidev0.0  /dev/spidev0.1

Install Git (if not already installed):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git -y

Clone the Repository:

git clone https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_Repeater.git
cd pyMC_Repeater

Quick Install:

sudo ./manage.sh

This script will:

• Create a dedicated repeater service user with hardware access
• Install files to /opt/pymc_repeater
• Create configuration directory at /etc/pymc_repeater
• Setup log directory at /var/log/pymc_repeater
• Launch interactive radio & hardware configuration wizard
• Install and enable systemd service

After Installation:

# View live logs
sudo journalctl -u pymc-repeater -f

# Access web dashboard
http://<repeater-ip>:8000

Development Install:

pip install -e .

Configuration

The configuration file is created and configured during installation at:

/etc/pymc_repeater/config.yaml

To reconfigure radio and hardware settings after installation, run:

sudo bash setup-radio-config.sh /etc/pymc_repeater
# or
sudo ./manage.sh
# then restart the service
sudo systemctl restart pymc-repeater

Upgrading

To upgrade an existing installation to the latest version:

# Navigate to your pyMC_Repeater directory
cd pyMC_Repeater

# Run the upgrade script
sudo ./manage.sh

The upgrade script will:

• Pull the latest code from the main branch
• Update all application files
• Upgrade Python dependencies if needed
• Restart the service automatically
• Preserve your existing configuration

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Installing on Proxmox (LXC Container)

pyMC Repeater can run inside a Proxmox LXC container using a CH341 USB-to-SPI adapter for radio communication. This is ideal for headless, always-on deployments without dedicating a full Raspberry Pi.

Requirements

• Proxmox VE 7.x or 8.x host
• CH341 USB-to-SPI adapter (VID 1a86, PID 5512) connected to the Proxmox host
• SX1262-based LoRa module (e.g. Ebyte E22-900M30S) wired to the CH341 adapter
• Internet connectivity for the container

One-Line Install

Run this on the Proxmox host (not inside a container):

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rightup/pyMC_Repeater/feat/newRadios/scripts/proxmox-install.sh)"

Tip: Replace feat/newRadios in the URL with whichever branch you want to install.

The installer will interactively prompt you for container settings (hostname, RAM, disk, bridge, etc.) and then:

1. Download a Debian 12 LXC template
2. Create a privileged container with USB passthrough
3. Install a host-side udev rule for the CH341 device
4. Clone the repository and pre-seed the config with CH341 GPIO pin mappings
5. Run manage.sh install inside the container
6. Display the dashboard URL when finished

Default Container Settings

Setting	Default
Hostname	pymc-repeater
RAM	1024 MB
Disk	4 GB
CPU cores	2
Bridge	vmbr0
Storage	local-lvm
Password	pymc

After Installation

# Enter the container
pct enter <CTID>

# View service logs
journalctl -u pymc-repeater -f

# Access web dashboard
http://<container-ip>:8000

# Manage the repeater
cd /opt/pymc_repeater && bash manage.sh

CH341 GPIO Pin Mapping

The installer pre-configures the CH341 GPIO pins for an E22 module. These differ from the Raspberry Pi BCM pin numbers:

Function	CH341 GPIO	Pi BCM (default)
CS	0	21
RXEN	1	-1
Reset	2	18
Busy	4	20
IRQ	6	16

The installer also enables use_dio3_tcxo and use_dio2_rf for E22 modules.

Troubleshooting (Proxmox)

• USB device not found: Make sure the CH341 is plugged into the Proxmox host and shows up with lsusb -d 1a86:5512
• Permission denied on USB: The installer creates a host udev rule (/etc/udev/rules.d/99-ch341.rules). Run udevadm trigger on the host if needed
• Container can't see USB: Verify USB passthrough lines exist in /etc/pve/lxc/<CTID>.conf:

  lxc.cgroup2.devices.allow: c 189:* rwm
  lxc.mount.entry: /dev/bus/usb dev/bus/usb none bind,optional,create=dir 0 0
  

• NoBackendError (libusb): The installer installs libusb-1.0-0 automatically. If you see this error, run apt-get install libusb-1.0-0 inside the container

Uninstallation

sudo ./manage.sh

This script will:

• Stop and disable the systemd service
• Remove the installation directory
• Optionally remove configuration, logs, and user data
• Optionally remove the service user account

The script will prompt you for each optional removal step.

Docker Compose

You can now run pyMC Repeater from within a Docker Container. Checkout the example Docker Compose file before you get started. It will need some configuration changes based on what hardware you're using (USB vs SPI). Look at the commented out lines to see which hardware requires what lines and only enable what you need.

Here is what you'll need to do in order to get the container running:

1. Copy the config.yaml.example to config.yaml

cp ./config.yaml.example ./config.yaml

2. Run the configuration script and follow the prompts.

sudo bash ./setup-radio-config.sh

3. Modify the config.yaml file with a unique web UI password. This allows you to bypass the /setup page when logging for the first time. You can find the value under repeater.security.admin_password. Change to anything besides the default of admin123.

4. Configure the docker compose to your specific hardware and file paths. Be sure to comment-out or delete lines that aren't required for your hardware. Please note that your hardware devices might be at a different path than those listed in the docker compose file.

5. Build and start the container.

docker compose up -d --force-recreate --build

Roadmap / Planned Features

• Public Map Integration - Submit repeater location and details to public map for discovery
• Remote Administration over LoRa - Manage repeater configuration remotely via LoRa mesh
• Trace Request Handling - Respond to trace/diagnostic requests from mesh network

Contributing

I welcome contributions! To contribute to pyMC_repeater:

1. Fork the repository and clone your fork
2. Create a feature branch from the dev branch:

   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name dev
   

3. Make your changes and test with real hardware
4. Commit with clear messages:

   git commit -m "feat: description of changes"
   

5. Push to your fork and submit a Pull Request to the dev branch
   • Include a clear description of the changes
   • Reference any related issues

Development Setup

# Install in development mode with dev tools (black, pytest, isort, mypy, etc)
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Setup pre-commit hooks for code quality
pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

# Manually run pre-commit checks on all files
pre-commit run --all-files

Note: Hardware support (LoRa radio drivers) is included in the base installation automatically via pymc_core[hardware].

Pre-commit hooks will automatically:

• Format code with Black
• Sort imports with isort
• Lint with flake8
• Fix trailing whitespace and other file issues

Support

• Core Lib Documentation
• Meshcore Discord

Disclaimer

⚠️ Important Notice

This software has been tested on actual hardware, but is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. While care has been taken to ensure stability and reliability, I make no guarantees about the software's performance, compatibility, or suitability for any particular purpose.

By using this software, you acknowledge and agree that:

• You use this software entirely at your own risk
• I hold no responsibility for any damage to hardware, data loss, or system failures
• You are responsible for ensuring compliance with local radio regulations and licensing requirements
• No support or warranty is guaranteed, though community assistance is available

This software is intended for educational and experimental purposes. Always test in a controlled environment before deploying to production.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.