Get started
Put your radio on the map
You need three things: a MeshCore device, an Android phone or an iPhone, and a road nobody has driven with a receiver yet. The third one is usually the easiest to find.
1 · The device
Any LoRa board running MeshCore firmware that a phone can talk to over Bluetooth LE, in the companion role. Set it to the same radio preset (frequency, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate) as the mesh you want to map; a device on the wrong preset will hear nothing and map nothing.
MapMinter does not sell hardware and has no affiliate arrangement with anyone who does. Ask your local mesh what they run and buy that.
2 · The app
The collector app pairs with the device, records what it hears, and uploads in batches. It is beta software: it works, and it will change.
Android APK (beta) iOS beta (TestFlight)
The Android build is distributed as an APK for now, which means your phone will ask you to confirm an install from outside the store. The download page has the file, its checksum and the steps. The iOS build is an open beta, and joining it needs the TestFlight app from the App Store.
3 · Connect the device
- Power the device and keep it near the phone for the first pairing.
- In the app, scan for MeshCore devices over Bluetooth LE and pick yours. Android will ask for Bluetooth and location permissions; both are required by the operating system for a BLE scan, and location is genuinely needed here: an unpositioned measurement is not a measurement.
- Once connected, the app subscribes to the device's packet push and starts recording straight away. There is nothing to press per packet.
- Grant background location if you want a commute to be a mapping run with the screen off. Without it, collection stops when the app leaves the foreground.
If you would rather see it screen by screen, the connection guide walks through exactly this, with a picture per step, and leads on to the wallet and node binding.
4 · Get a collector key
Uploads are authenticated. Every app instance uploads as a collector, and a collector key is what ties your measurements to you so they can be attributed, ranked, and rate limited.
You do not request one on this website. The app's onboarding walks you through it on first run. Follow that, and treat the key like a password: it is not a public identifier, and anyone who has it can upload as you.
5 · Drive
- Mount the phone and the antenna before you set off, and set the route before you move. Nothing on this map is worth taking your eyes off the road for.
- An external antenna with a clear view of the sky changes results more than any setting in the app.
- Aim at cells the map marks Unexplored. A road already covered in hot cells adds freshness; a road nobody has driven adds a piece of the map that did not exist.
Running your own instance
MapMinter is built to be self-hosted, and the public map is one instance of it. The source is not public yet, so this is a commitment rather than an invitation. The about page says where that stands.