Project Details

Meshtastic devices are incredibly powerful for creating long-range, mesh-networked telemetry solutions. However, managing and visualizing telemetry data from these devices can become challenging when you need to analyze trends or spot anomalies. This is where Telemetry Harbor and Grafana come into play. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to push telemetry data from your Meshtastic node to Telemetry Harbor and visualize it in Grafana. We’ll also explore how Telemetry Harbor’s new Harbor AI feature can help you interact with your data in a whole new way.

Why Push and View Meshtastic Data on Grafana?

Integrating Meshtastic with Telemetry Harbor and Grafana gives you powerful tools to visualize and analyze your device data in real-time. Here’s why you should consider using this setup:

• Centralized Data Collection: With Telemetry Harbor, you can centralize all your Meshtastic telemetry data. This makes it easier to manage, access, and analyze, especially when dealing with large deployments.
• Real-Time Insights: Grafana provides real-time dashboards that enable you to monitor device health, sensor data, and network performance at a glance.
• Customizable Dashboards: Grafana allows you to create tailored dashboards to visualize telemetry data. You can track individual device metrics, analyze trends, and create heatmaps or interactive maps to visualize location data.

Getting Started with Telemetry Harbor

Let’s walk through how to get started and push your first data point to Telemetry Harbor. We’ll follow the official documentation, and you can always check the latest guide here: Getting Started Guide.

Step 1: Create Your Account

1. Go to the Sign Up page.
2. Fill in your details and create your account.
3. Check your inbox for a verification email.
4. Click the verification link to activate your account.
5. After activation, log in to your account.
6. Now, head to the Harbor Page.

Step 2: Set Up Your Harbor

1. In the top right corner, click on Create Harbor.
2. Give your harbor a name.
3. Choose the harbor type. For now, select the General type (custom types like GPS or temperature data will be added soon).
4. Choose your Harbor Specifications. If you want to use the free tier, select Free.
5. Click Create Harbor to finish setting up your harbor.
6. After creating your harbor, the harbor list will update, and you’ll see your new harbor listed.
7. Click View Details to access essential information like the API Endpoint, API Batch Endpoint, API Key, Grafana Endpoint, Grafana Username, and Grafana Password.

Step 3: Get Your API Key and Endpoint

1. Find the API Batch Endpoint and API Key.
2. Copy the API Key and API Batch Endpoint. Keep these handy for the next step.

Step 4: Push Your First Data Point

To push data from your Meshtastic node, follow these steps:

1. Clone the Meshtastic Integration Repository: Clone/Download the repository: https://github.com/TelemetryHarbor/harbor-meshtastic
2. Install the Required Dependencies: Install the dependencies by running: pip install -r requirements.txt
3. Run the Application: Run the app using python app.py.

After running the application, ensure that:

• Put your API Key and API Batch Endpoint we copied ealier.
• Select the COM Port for your Meshtastic device. Ensure your device is connected and the correct port is selected.
• Click Start to begin pushing data.

After starting the application, check the logs to confirm data is being sent successfully. The logs should display messages like this:

Data for node ... successfully sent to Telemetry Harbor

💡
This Python code is a work in progress, and any pull requests (PRs) are welcomed.

Step 5: View Your Data

1. Go back to the Harbor Details page.
2. Copy the Grafana Password and open the Grafana Endpoint.
3. Log in using your Grafana Username (this will be the same as your Telemetry Harbor email) and the Grafana Password.
4. Once logged in, go to Dashboards and select the Comprehensive Telemetry Dashboard (this is the demo dashboard provided by Telemetry Harbor).

Inside the dashboard:

• Choose your data source (which will be your harbor).
• Use the filters to view data based on ship_id and cargo_id.
• You’ll see several panels displaying telemetry data. Feel free to customize them or create entirely new ones to suit your needs. If you scroll down, you’ll also see a map (if applicable). This is because, even with the general harbor type, you can push GPS coordinates to visualize location data.

For more information on how to work with GPS data, check out the official guide on GPS data in Telemetry Harbor.

Harbor AI: Talk to Your Data

Telemetry Harbor has rolled out the beta version of Harbor AI, an innovative feature that allows you to interact with your data using natural language, enabling you to query your data as if you were talking to a colleague.

How Harbor AI Works

You can ask Harbor AI simple questions about your data without needing to configure dashboards or write complex queries. For example:

• "What was the average Channel Utilization of my nodes last week?"
• "Show me the Battery Level for any node?"
• "How many devices I have?"

Why Use Harbor AI?

• Ease of Use: No need to create complex dashboards or write SQL queries.
• Instant Answers: Get immediate responses to your questions.
• Time-Saving: Focus on analysis rather than dashboard configuration.

Harbor AI Beta Limitations

As Harbor AI is still in beta, users are limited to 10 queries per day. Future updates will likely increase this limit and improve AI capabilities.

Conclusion

Integrating Meshtastic telemetry with Telemetry Harbor and Grafana gives you complete visibility into your Meshtastic network, enabling real-time monitoring, customizable dashboards, and dynamic location data visualization.

Additionally, with the new Harbor AI feature, you can simply ask your data for insights without the need for complex queries or dashboards. Whether you are a developer, hobbyist, or business professional, Telemetry Harbor offers a powerful solution for managing and visualizing telemetry data.