Connect an observer

openHop runs your repeater and publishes what it hears. You set the broker up in its web dashboard, on the Observer page.

1. Open your repeater's dashboard and choose Configuration › Observer in the side menu.

   Screenshot to come: the Observer page, Observer Status and Broker Settings

2. Click Edit Settings.

3. Under Observer Setup, set IATA Code to BHS. Leave Status Interval at 300 seconds. Owner Companion Pubkey and Email are optional.

4. Under Broker Settings, click Add. (From Template lists other networks' brokers; ours isn't one of them.)

5. Fill in the Add Broker form, then click Done:

   Name	bxmesh
   Format	Letsmesh
   Enabled	On
   Transport	Websockets
   Use JWT Auth	Off
   Host	mqtt.bxmesh.net
   Port	443
   Username	<your username>
   Password	<your password>
   Retain Status	On
   Insecure	Off
   Publish Neighbours	Off

   Screenshot to come: the Add Broker form, filled in

6. Click Save Settings.

7. Check Observer Status: Handler shows Active and the bxmesh broker shows as connected. Your node appears on CoreScope within a few minutes.

   Screenshot to come: Observer Status with the bxmesh broker connected

There's no path or TLS switch to set: openHop connects with TLS on by default, at /mqtt, which our broker accepts.

Editing the file instead

Add the broker under mqtt_brokers in /etc/openhop_repeater/config.yaml (keep any brokers you already have in the brokers list), then restart with sudo systemctl restart openhop-repeater.

mqtt_brokers:
  iata_code: "BHS"
  brokers:
    - name: bxmesh
      enabled: true
      host: mqtt.bxmesh.net
      port: 443
      transport: websockets
      format: letsmesh
      username: <your username>
      password: <your password>
      retain_status: true
      tls:
        enabled: true
        insecure: false

meshcoretomqtt reads the packet log from a MeshCore node plugged in by USB, so the node needs firmware built with packet logging. It runs on a Raspberry Pi or any Linux machine with Python 3.11 or newer.

1. Install it. The installer creates an mctomqtt user and service, and asks about brokers: you can skip its presets, as ours goes in the file in the next step.

   InstallCopy

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Cisien/meshcoretomqtt/main/install.sh | sudo bash

2. Put our broker in /etc/mctomqtt/config.d/99-user.toml, the file updates never overwrite:

   /etc/mctomqtt/config.d/99-user.tomlCopy

   [general]
   iata = "BHS"
   
   [[broker]]
   name = "bxmesh"
   enabled = true
   server = "mqtt.bxmesh.net"
   port = 443
   transport = "websockets"
   keepalive = 60
   qos = 0
   retain = true
   
   [broker.tls]
   enabled = true
   verify = true
   
   [broker.auth]
   method = "password"
   username = "<your username>"
   password = "<your password>"

   retain = true is right: meshcoretomqtt retains only its online/offline status, never packets. Leave remote serial off (it is by default): our logins can't receive commands, so it would only log refusals.

3. Restart it and check it's running:

   RestartCopy

   sudo systemctl restart mctomqtt
   sudo systemctl status mctomqtt

The MQTT observer firmware turns an ESP32 node into an observer with no computer attached: it joins your Wi-Fi and publishes straight to the broker.

1. Flash it with the MeshCore Observer Flasher: choose MQTT Observer Firmware and your device, from Chrome or Edge.

2. Open a console: USB serial at 115200 baud, or a repeater admin login from the companion app.

3. Set the radio, the name, the region, Wi-Fi and our broker. Values run to the end of the line: no quotes.

   CommandsCopy

   set radio 915.075,125,9,5
   set name <your observer's name>
   set mqtt.iata BHS
   set wifi.ssid <your Wi-Fi network>
   set wifi.pwd <your Wi-Fi password>
   
   set mqtt3.preset custom
   set mqtt3.server wss://mqtt.bxmesh.net:443/
   set mqtt3.username <your username>
   set mqtt3.password <your password>
   
   reboot

4. After it restarts, check it joined Wi-Fi and connected:

   CheckCopy

   get link.status
   get mqtt.status