# pyMC Console [![GitHub Release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/dmduran12/pymc_console-dist)](https://github.com/dmduran12/pymc_console-dist/releases) [![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-blue.svg)](LICENSE) A modern web dashboard for monitoring and managing your [MeshCore](https://meshcore.co.uk/) LoRa mesh repeater. Built on [pyMC_Repeater](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_Repeater) by [RightUp](https://github.com/rightup), pyMC Console provides real-time visibility into your mesh network with an intuitive, feature-rich interface. ## How It All Fits Together The MeshCore Python ecosystem has three components: ``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ pyMC Console │ │ (this repo - web dashboard UI) │ │ │ │ • React dashboard served on port 8000 │ │ • Visualizes packets, topology, stats │ │ • manage.sh installer handles everything │ └─────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘ │ uses API from ┌─────────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ pyMC_Repeater │ │ (RightUp's repeater daemon) │ │ │ │ • Python daemon that runs the repeater │ │ • Provides REST API on port 8000 │ │ • Handles packet forwarding, logging, config │ └─────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘ │ built on ┌─────────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ pyMC_core │ │ (RightUp's protocol library) │ │ │ │ • Low-level MeshCore protocol implementation │ │ • Radio drivers (SX1262, SX1276) │ │ • Packet encoding/decoding │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` **Key points:** - **Console does NOT replace Repeater** — they work together - Console's `manage.sh` installs both Repeater and Console side-by-side - Console provides the web UI; Repeater provides the backend API and radio control - You can upgrade Console independently without touching Repeater/Core ## Features ### Dashboard - **Live packet metrics** — Received, forwarded, dropped packets with sparkline charts - **TX Delay Recommendations** — Slot-based delay optimization with network role classification (edge/relay/hub/backbone) - **LBT Insights widgets** — Channel health, collision risk, noise floor, link quality at a glance - **Time range selector** — View stats from 20 minutes to 7 days - **Recent packets** — Live feed of incoming traffic ![Dashboard](docs/images/dashboard.png) ### Statistics - **Airtime utilization** — RX/TX utilization spectrum with peak and mean metrics - **Link quality polar** — Neighbor signal strength plotted by compass bearing - **Network composition** — Breakdown of repeaters, companions, and room servers - **Packet types treemap** — Distribution of ADVERT, TXT_MSG, ACK, RESPONSE, etc. - **RF noise floor** — Noise floor heatmap showing interference patterns over time - **Prefix disambiguation** — Health metrics for the topology inference system ![Statistics](docs/images/statistics.png) ### Contacts & Topology - **Interactive map** — MapLibre GL with dark theme, neighbor positions, and smooth animations - **Mesh topology graph** — Network connections inferred from packet paths - **Deep Analysis** — One-click full topology rebuild from 20K+ packets - **Intelligent disambiguation** — Four-factor scoring resolves prefix collisions - **Edge confidence** — Line thickness scales with observation count - **Animated edges** — Trace-in effect on toggle, smooth fade-out - **Filter toggles** — Solo view for hub nodes or direct neighbors only - **Loop detection** — Identifies redundant paths (double-line rendering) - **Visual identity** — Yellow house icon for local node, indigo rings for neighbors - **Path health panel** — Health scores, weakest links, and latency estimates for observed routes - **Mobile node detection** — Identifies volatile nodes that appear/disappear frequently - **Wardriving coverage heatmap** — Overlay coverage data from external wardriving servers (e.g., coverage.wcmesh.com) as a GPU-accelerated heatmap showing signal coverage across your area ![Topology Map](docs/images/topology.png) ### Packets - **Searchable history** — Filter by type, route, time range - **Packet details** — Hash, path, payload, signal info, duplicates - **Path visualization** — Interactive map showing packet route with hop confidence ### Settings - **Mode toggle** — Forward (repeating) or Monitor (RX only) - **Duty cycle** — Enable/disable enforcement - **Radio config** — Live frequency, power, SF, bandwidth changes ![Settings](docs/images/settings.png) ### System & Logs - **System resources** — 20-minute rolling CPU and memory utilization chart - **Disk usage** — Storage utilization with progress bar - **Temperature** — Multi-sensor temperature gauges with threshold coloring - **Live logs** — Stream from repeater daemon with DEBUG/INFO toggle ![System](docs/images/system.png) ## Quick Start ### Requirements - Raspberry Pi (3, 4, 5, or Zero 2 W) - LoRa module (SX1262 or SX1276 based) - Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm recommended) ### Installation ```bash # Clone this repository git clone https://github.com/dmduran12/pymc_console-dist.git pymc_console cd pymc_console # Run the installer (requires sudo) sudo bash manage.sh install ``` The installer will: 1. Install all system dependencies (Python, pip, etc.) 2. Clone and install [pyMC_Repeater](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_Repeater) as a sibling directory 3. Install [pyMC_core](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_core) (the protocol library) 4. Deploy the Console web dashboard 5. Configure and start the systemd service **After installation, your directory structure looks like:** ``` ~/pymc_console/ ← Console (this repo) ~/pyMC_Repeater/ ← Repeater daemon (cloned by installer) /opt/pymc_repeater/ ← Installed repeater files /opt/pymc_console/ ← Installed console files ``` Once complete, access your dashboard at `http://:8000` ## Management Menu After installation, run `sudo bash manage.sh` to access the management menu: ``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ pyMC Console Management │ ├─────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1. Start Service │ │ 2. Stop Service │ │ 3. Restart Service │ │ 4. View Logs │ │ 5. Configure Radio │ │ 6. Configure GPIO │ │ 7. Upgrade │ │ 8. Uninstall │ │ 9. Exit │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` ### Menu Options - **Start/Stop/Restart** — Control the repeater service - **View Logs** — Live log output from the repeater - **Configure Radio** — Set frequency, power, bandwidth, SF via preset selection - **Configure GPIO** — Set up SPI bus and GPIO pins for your LoRa module - **Upgrade** — Pull latest updates and reinstall - **Uninstall** — Remove the installation completely ## Upgrading To update to the latest version, use the TUI menu: ```bash cd pymc_console sudo bash manage.sh ``` Select **Upgrade** and choose: - **Console UI only** — Updates just the web dashboard (recommended, quick) - **Full upgrade** — Updates Console + pulls latest pyMC_Repeater/pyMC_core **Note:** You can safely upgrade Console without affecting your Repeater installation. This is useful when you want new dashboard features but your repeater is running stable. ## Configuration ### Radio Settings Use the **Configure Radio** menu option, or edit directly: ```bash sudo nano /etc/pymc_repeater/config.yaml ``` Key settings: ```yaml radio: frequency: 927875000 # Frequency in Hz spreading_factor: 7 # SF7-SF12 bandwidth: 62500 # Bandwidth in Hz tx_power: 28 # TX power in dBm coding_rate: 6 # 4/5, 4/6, 4/7, or 4/8 ``` ### Service Management ```bash # Check status sudo systemctl status pymc-repeater # Start/stop/restart sudo systemctl start pymc-repeater sudo systemctl stop pymc-repeater sudo systemctl restart pymc-repeater # View live logs sudo journalctl -u pymc-repeater -f ``` ## Hardware Requirements - **Raspberry Pi** (3, 4, 5, or Zero 2 W recommended) - **LoRa Module** — SX1262 or SX1276 based (e.g., Waveshare SX1262, LILYGO T3S3) - **SPI Connection** — Module connected via SPI with GPIO for reset/busy/DIO1 ### Tested Modules - Waveshare SX1262 HAT - LILYGO T3S3 (via USB serial) - Ebyte E22 modules - Heltec LoRa 32 ## Troubleshooting ### Service won't start ```bash # Check for errors sudo journalctl -u pymc-repeater -n 50 # Verify config syntax cat /etc/pymc_repeater/config.yaml ``` ### No packets being received 1. Verify SPI is enabled: `ls /dev/spidev*` 2. Check GPIO configuration in manage.sh → Configure GPIO 3. Confirm frequency matches your network ### Dashboard not loading 1. Verify service is running: `sudo systemctl status pymc-repeater` 2. Check if port 8000 is accessible: `curl http://localhost:8000/api/stats` ## Uninstalling ```bash cd pymc_console sudo bash manage.sh ``` Select **Uninstall** from the menu. This removes: - `/opt/pymc_repeater` (installation) - `/etc/pymc_repeater` (configuration) - `/var/log/pymc_repeater` (logs) - The systemd service ## How It Works ### Mesh Topology Analysis The dashboard reconstructs network topology from packet paths. MeshCore packets contain 2-character hex prefixes representing the route through the mesh: ``` Packet path: ["FA", "79", "24", "19"] Origin → Hop1 → Hop2 → Local ``` **The Challenge**: Multiple nodes may share the same 2-char prefix (1 in 256 collision chance). The system uses four-factor scoring inspired by [meshcore-bot](https://github.com/agessaman/meshcore-bot) to resolve ambiguity: 1. **Position (15%)** — Where in paths does this prefix typically appear? 2. **Co-occurrence (15%)** — Which prefixes appear adjacent to this one? 3. **Geographic (35%)** — How close is the candidate to anchor points? 4. **Recency (35%)** — How recently was this node seen? **Key techniques:** - **Recency scoring** — Exponential decay `e^(-hours/12)` favors recently-active nodes - **Age filtering** — Nodes not seen in 14 days are excluded from consideration - **Dual-hop anchoring** — Candidates scored by distance to both previous and next hops (a relay must be within RF range of both neighbors) - **Score-weighted redistribution** — Appearance counts redistributed proportionally by combined score - **Source-geographic correlation** — Position-1 prefixes scored by distance from packet origin The system loads up to 20,000 packets (~7 days of traffic) to build comprehensive topology evidence. ![Prefix Disambiguation](docs/images/disambiguation.png) ### Edge Rendering Topology edges are rendered with visual cues indicating confidence: - **Line thickness** — Scales from 1.5px (5 validations) to 10px (100+ validations) - **Validation threshold** — Edges require 5+ certain observations to render - **Certainty conditions** — An edge is "certain" when: - Both endpoints have ≥0.6 confidence (HIGH threshold), OR - The destination has ≥0.9 confidence (VERY_HIGH threshold), OR - It's the last hop to local node - **Inclusion threshold** — Edges require ≥0.4 confidence (MEDIUM threshold) for topology - **Trace animation** — Edges "draw" from point A to B when topology is enabled - **Fade animation** — Edges smoothly fade out when topology is disabled - **Loop edges** — Redundant paths rendered as parallel double-lines in accent color ### Path Visualization Clicking a packet shows its route on a map with confidence indicators: - **Green** — 100% confidence (unique prefix, no collision) - **Yellow** — 50-99% confidence (high certainty) - **Orange** — 25-49% confidence (medium certainty) - **Red** — 1-24% confidence (low certainty) - **Gray** — Unknown prefix (not in neighbor list) ## License MIT — See [LICENSE](LICENSE) ## Credits Built on the excellent work of: - **[RightUp](https://github.com/rightup)** — Creator of pyMC_Repeater, pymc_core, and the MeshCore ecosystem - **[pyMC_Repeater](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_Repeater)** — Core repeater daemon for LoRa communication and mesh routing - **[pymc_core](https://github.com/rightup/pyMC_core)** — Underlying mesh protocol library - **[meshcore-bot](https://github.com/agessaman/meshcore-bot)** — Inspiration for recency scoring and dual-hop anchor disambiguation - **[MeshCore](https://meshcore.co.uk/)** — The MeshCore project and community