Build a Small Reticulum Meshchat Node with Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and RAK 4631 including WiFi Hotspot.

Описание: I incorporated a small wifi router into this battery powered node so that it can set up its own wifi / wlan network allowing clients to connect without having to rely on a mains powered router. This makes for an autonomous Reticulum Meshchat node which can be run from a solar charged battery and accessed remotely via wifi.

The following components came from Amazon:
https://amzn.eu/d/8ix1mR1
https://amzn.eu/d/d2MCbcB
https://amzn.eu/d/ajXDd5G
https://amzn.eu/d/iTLhXjf
https://amzn.eu/d/bjbxdIa
https://amzn.eu/d/7SjujTx

except for RAK 4631:
https://store.rakwireless.com/product...

Thanks to Liam Cottle for providing this great program and publishing the steps below:
https://github.com/liamcottle/reticul...

Commands used in the terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

sudo apt install git

sudo apt install python3-pip

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nod... | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg

NODE_MAJOR=22

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE... nodistro main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install nodejs

git clone https://github.com/liamcottle/reticul...

cd reticulum-meshchat

pip install -r requirements.txt --break-system-packages

npm install --omit=dev

export NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=512

npm run build-frontend

python meshchat.py --headless --host 0.0.0.0

Point browser to
rasp-ip-address:8000

***

INSTALL AS A SERVICE so that meshchat survives a reboot and does not terminate when ssh session is closed.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/reticulum-meshchat.service

Put into the file following 3 statements.
Remember to change username in 4 places as necessary

[Unit]
Description=reticulum-meshchat
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=fotog
Group=fotog
WorkingDirectory=/home/fotog/reticulum-meshchat
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env python /home/fotog/reticulum-meshchat/meshchat.py --headless --host 0.0.0.0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


Save file and exit nano

Then do

sudo systemctl status reticulum-meshchat.service

sudo systemctl start reticulum-meshchat.service

sudo systemctl enable reticulum-meshchat.service

sudo systemctl status reticulum-meshchat.service