MeshCore map auto uploader

Description

This bot will upload every repeater or room server to the map when companion hears new advert

Requirements

You will need Meshcore device with Companion USB connected to your machine or Companion WiFi on the same network.

Installation

1. Install Node.js 22 or higher(most recent LTS recommended)
2. Clone this repo & install dependencies via npm

git clone https://github.com/recrof/map.meshcore.dev-uploader
cd map.meshcore.dev-uploader
npm install .

Usage

1. Connect working MeshCore companion usb into the computer
2. run node index.mjs (usb_port) or node index.mjs (host:port)

Running with Docker

Option 1 (easier)

Download docker compose file and run

mkdir ~/map.meshcore.dev-uploader
cd ~/map.meshcore.dev-uploader
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greentown0/map.meshcore.dev-uploader/refs/heads/main/.env.example
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greentown0/map.meshcore.dev-uploader/refs/heads/main/docker-compose.yml
cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file to suit your needs. Run the image with

docker-compose up

Option 2 (if you are a developer)

After cloning the repo, build and run the docker image with

docker-compose build
docker-compose up

Logs

You can inspect the logs with

docker compose logs -f map-uploader

Configuration in Docker

You can override default values with a .env file, such as:

# Set device to a wifi companion
DEVICE=192.168.10.74:5000
# Override timeout to 30 mins (if no adverts have been received within this time, the container will report unhealthy and restart automatically)
ADVERT_TIMEOUT_MS=1800000

A .env.example is included.

Running with Podman

To avoid running with priveledged mode, podman can be used to build and run this image.

The magic for avoiding prveledged is to add --group-add keep-groups to the podman run command.

This blog post explains it well: https://www.nite07.com/en/posts/podman-group-share/

podman build . -f Dockerfile -t localhost/map-reporter

# Update the `-e DEVICE=` and `--device` lines below to match your meshcore
# usb companion usb device path.
podman run --restart=unless-stopped -d \
  --device /dev/ttyUSB0:/dev/ttyUSB0 \
  -e DEVICE=/dev/ttyUSB0 \
  --group-add keep-groups \
  --name meshcore-map-reporter \
  localhost/map-reporter

Persist reboots

Since podman runs in the user context, it doesn't run a daemon by default like Docker does. To have your container start at boot time, we can leverage systemd to start podman at boot.

See Also: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/container-systemd-persist-reboot

# Use the container that we created in the previous step as a template to generate the systemd unit file.
# No changes need to be made to the unit file
podman generate systemd --new --files --name meshcore-map-reporter
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/
cp -Z container-meshcore-map-reporter.service ~/.config/systemd/user
systemctl --user daemon-reload

# Stop and remove the template container
podman stop meshcore-map-reporter
podman rm meshcore-map-reporter

# Enable and start the container via systemd
systemctl --user enable container-meshcore-map-reporter.service
systemctl --user start container-meshcore-map-reporter.service

View logs

journalctl --user -efu container-meshcore-map-reporter

or

podman logs -f meshcore-map-reporter

Updating

1. Build the container image with the same tag
2. Restart the systemd service: systemctl --user restart container-meshcore-map-reporter.service