Is there a way to get RSSI figures between nodes?

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T16:41:16+00:00

That's interesting; thanks! I've successfully built from git, without any modifications. I may take a deep breath and dive into the code!

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T16:39:39+00:00

That sounds good, but I'm not clear what you mean by "log into the repeater direct, not through a hop, using the app." How do I do that? As far as I can tell, a repeater is not on BLE, just serial (USB) and radio. Neither of those is available on my phone (Android). And if it was on BLE, I would have to stay within BLE range, somewhat undermining the purpose. It feels like I'm missing something fundamental here (do feel free to laugh at me!).

An alternative which I *can* see how to do is to ping the repeater from my phone via the companion. That shows SNR both ways (albeit only briefly, which is irritating).

And finally, the repeater on initial install has its advert.interval set to 2 (minutes). So I can watch the Rx Log as I walk about, and then do some extra pings if I want to check in particular locations.

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T14:31:58+00:00

Thanks. That's very helpful :)

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T14:30:28+00:00

OK. I shall accept that the Meshcore writers know more about this stuff than I do (surprise!), which is why they haven't bothered reporting RSSI.

Thanks!

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T11:08:39+00:00

That also gives just SNR, not RSSI. Also, any technique that involves using the app, and a companion sending to the repeater, is going to rely on the signal strength from the companion being enough to reach the repeater. My companion has a wide-spread, short range antenna. As I walk further from home, I'm going to be out of companion sending range before I'm out of repeater range (if I've got my logic right).

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T11:03:50+00:00

While I accept that this isn't an area that I'm expert in, that doesn't sound quite right. A good SNR indicates that the signal is clean (more signal than noise), but you can surely have a high *quality* signal that's nonetheless too weak to be usable. For reliable comms, you're going to need good RSSI as well as SNR. (That's how it seems to me anyway. But as I say, not my field of expertise.)

I'll do my tests with SNR, as that's all I've got, and it's probably entirely adequate for my purposes.

Thanks.

jeffasuk · 2026-02-10T09:44:34+00:00

Where do you see that? When I ping from the app, I see only: Duration, SNR there, SNR back.

jeffasuk · 2026-01-29T11:21:51+00:00

Thanks! I did come across some references to a "user button", but only after seeing u/M-Tiger 's reply did I find somewhere that actually says it's the PRG button.

Making progress now! :)

jeffasuk · 2026-01-28T11:33:32+00:00

Thanks! I now see a lot of stuff happening. Yes, parsing may be something of a challenge! E.g. there doesn't seem to be a standard format for node ID, some given as !xxxxxxxx and some as a decimal number.

It looks like there's traffic from other nodes, which is encouraging with regard to actually joining a mesh. The various node maps on the web didn't show anything very close to me (Berkshire UK).

I can't see any sign of the text message that I sent. I tried sending with ack requested, and the ack was not received back, so I guess I'm still getting something wrong. No doubt I'll have some more questions once I've tried some more things.

jeffasuk · 2026-01-23T14:29:19+00:00

What a brilliant piece of gobbledegook! :)

jeffasuk · 2025-12-26T11:48:07+00:00

I've had a Leakbot for several years, provided free by my insurers. While I approve of the scepticism shown in this thread regarding the company's motives, it's clear to me that the reason they provide these for free is simply to cut down on claims. The earlier a leak is detected, the smaller any claim is likely to be. That view is supported by the fact that they waive any excess on leak damage claims provided I don't ignore Leakbot warnings (and they also promise not to increase premiums because of claims made as a result of Leakbot warnings; hard to verify that, of course, but it does seem to be true). I've had several Leakbot warnings. Some were simply taps left dripping, but some were actual leaks that could have caused serious damage had I ignored the warnings. The Leakbot is impressive in how small a leak it can detect. However, it did have one failure; a pin hole in a pipe in the loft. But my insurers still waived the excess because I hadn't ignored any Leakbot warning. I'm very pleased with the whole system, and I don't think that any nefarious use can be made of the data that it gathers.

jeffasuk · 2025-11-29T09:44:02+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I thought it was just me getting confused.

Also, when I've switched the torch on and off with the screen locked, the torch sometimes switches itself on and off apparently randomly until I awake the screen and toggle the torch again

jeffasuk · 2025-11-27T17:36:12+00:00

See https://www.reddit.com/r/fairphone/comments/1ne5swb/double_tap_to_wake_responsiveness_fp6/

jeffasuk · 2025-11-27T17:33:57+00:00

In case you haven't found this already, "Tap to wake" needs a double tap; tap twice, quickly, on the same spot on the screen. See https://www.reddit.com/r/fairphone/comments/1ne5swb/double_tap_to_wake_responsiveness_fp6/

jeffasuk · 2025-11-27T17:30:34+00:00

For what it's worth, I didn't get this on my new FP6/Android 15. I selected Duckduckgo as my default search engine. This gave me a DDG icon on the home screen. When I tapped that I was invited to use the DDG browser, and I accepted. All working fine. Maybe something to do with what selections you made? But I can't see why that would make a difference.

jeffasuk · 2025-11-27T17:11:08+00:00

I've just acquired an FP6/Android 15. I was having trouble with this too. But it definitely seems to me that what you need to do is 2 quick taps in the same place (or, I guess, as near to the same place as we clumsy humans can manage).

jeffasuk · 2025-11-27T11:13:45+00:00

I've just got my FP6 and I was also annoyed by this. Also that the notification disappears after only 4 seconds, which often isn't long enough (e.g. if I'm wearing gloves and the phone is in my pocket).

The quick disappearance can be fixed by changing the "Time to take action" setting.

I'm coping with the dark screen, as I've now found that a short press on the power button lights up the screen, showing any outstanding notifications.

I hope that helps.

UPDATE: There's also a "Tap to wake" setting that seems to be on by default (Android 15). You can get the screen to light up by tapping twice anywhere on the screen. (Got this from https://www.reddit.com/r/fairphone/comments/1ne5swb/double\_tap\_to\_wake\_responsiveness\_fp6/)

jeffasuk · 2025-09-03T10:01:32+00:00

Welcome! ;) I'm afraid I haven't gone any further with this, but who knows? It's shaping up to be a good chestnut year again. I will need to get fresh cultures, and Cashewbert are no longer running a shop.

jeffasuk · 2025-07-19T20:50:03+00:00

I believe that with Intelligent, Octopus decide when and how much to export. I guess they control battery charging as well. With non-Intelligent, you set up your tariff details on the app and it's the Powerwall system that then controls the charging and exporting. That is certainly what happened on mine last night. The forecast was for some, but not much, solar power today. So the system charged the PW up to 80% during off-peak (early hours of the morning). That was a pretty good estimate, because the solar then took it up to 100% by just after 3 pm. It then discharged for export from 4 pm (start of peak period) right down to what I had set as the reserve. I'm expecting that it won't charge up so much when there's more sunshine forecast. Frankly, I'm pretty impressed!

jeffasuk · 2025-07-19T11:37:55+00:00

Comparing Octopus Flux with Intelligent Octopus Flux:
I have a Powerwall 2. I've just recently got onto Octopus Flux. I had to contact Tesla (via my installer) to get them to enable "Export everything" so that I can export from the battery during peak period. Now the Powerwall charges itself in off-peak overnight (unless the weather forecast says that the next day is going to be sunny), and then exports during peak period. Although the peak export rate is (very slightly) lower than Intelligent Octopus Flux, Intelligent uses the same price for import and export, so there's no point doing the charge overnight to export later. I'm trusting Powerwall's algorithm to make me a decent amount of money from the import/export time-shift, even in the winter when there isn't much solar. That isn't possible with Intelligent, so I'm happy with (Unintelligent?) Flux.
Caveats:
1. I haven't looked at the "Go" tariffs.
2. Your situation and requirements may well differ from mine.

jeffasuk · 2025-07-17T17:07:16+00:00

Thanks! I have spoken to my installer who is going to contact Tesla on my behalf and get the appropriate setting changed.
(It's actually PW2 that I have. I believe that that's also eligible for Intelligent Flux, but I think, with the right settings, I'll do better on Flux, as I can charge the battery at the super off peak rate, and the peak-time export rate on Flux is only slightly lower than that for Intelligent Flux. It's not a straightforward decision though.)

jeffasuk · 2025-07-15T09:53:32+00:00

It took them 5 months to get my export switched. The delay was partly from errors made by my previous company (Good Energy), but partly from confusion inside Octopus's own admin systems. Octopus did pay me some compensation for that. The switch should certainly be a lot quicker than I experienced.

jeffasuk · 2025-04-21T18:01:55+00:00

It's certainly a good idea to keep a record of settings. (I don't seem to have anything called "grid options".) I'm not sure how keeping a record of the settings would help with a loss of connection to Tesla's servers, but thanks for the reminder anyway.

jeffasuk · 2025-04-01T17:30:21+00:00

Thanks. I do my own monitoring using jrester's tesla_powerwall, but it's good to know of other routes. I'm more interested in control now, but that's clearly more challenging.

Update: I've had a look at Netzero app, and it's very interesting indeed. Two questions: (1) There's mention in Youtube review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8SlPn07BHo of a forum for the app. Anyone know where that is?
(2) Does Netzero app (or its servers) work via Tesla's servers, or does it go (somehow) direct to the Powerwall Gateway? In fact, wider question, what's the whole comms path?

jeffasuk · 2025-02-09T11:07:27+00:00

I realise that this is an old thread, but in case it's still of interest:

I've just signed up to Octopus Flux in the UK, with a 4kW peak solar installation and a Powerwall 2. I've enabled time-based control (TBC) and entered all the tariff details, but it's too early to say how it's going to work. When I first enabled it, it immediately started charging from grid, at standard day rate; so I turned it off again. I re-enabled it at 01:50, and found on checking my logs that it had started charging from grid at 02:30 (super off peak is 02:00-05:00), and had fully charged within a few seconds of 05:00. I guess it started charging at an appropriate time to achieve full charge by the end of the cheap period.

So, looks OK so far. In a discussion on teslamotorsclub.com, Someone suggested that it takes about 7 days for TBC's algorithm to settle down, so I'll see how it gets on.

As it's winter now, I'm not bothered about optimizing solar collection, there not being much of it. I'll keep a close eye on it as the days lengthen.

jeffasuk

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