Meshtastic + OpenPlotter — anyone running signalk-meshtastic in production?

[SkipperDon]

I'm planning another standalone feature for a open plotter and others, collision avoidance system — working name WiBoat — that runs alongside OpenPlotter/Signal K and uses LoRa mesh radio for cooperative vessel awareness between equipped boats. I'm at the stage of speccing out the Meshtastic integration and would love to hear from anyone who's already gone down this path on OpenPlotter.

The planned setup is:
    • Heltec V3 (915 MHz, Meshtastic firmware) connected via USB serial to an RPi 4B
    • signalk-meshtastic plugin on the Signal K server (RPi 5 running d3kOS / OpenPlotter)
    • Meshtastic vessels injected into Signal K and appearing as trackable contacts in AvNav and freeboard-sk

A few specific questions for anyone who's tried this:
1. signalk-meshtastic plugin — production experience? The GitHub repo says it's "in production use on several boats." How stable has it been for you in practice? Any issues with the HTTP/TCP connection to the Meshtastic node dropping, or the Signal K plugin crashing on reconnect?

2. Heltec V3 on OpenPlotter — any quirks? USB serial recognition, /dev/ttyUSB0 vs /dev/ttyACM0, baud rate — any setup gotchas on RPi OS (Bookworm) worth knowing before I start?

3. AvNav display — do the injected vessels render cleanly? I want Meshtastic contacts to appear as AIS-style triangles in AvNav with their node name visible. Is this what you see in practice, or does the display differ from a real AIS target?

4. Dual-node setup My architecture has the Meshtastic bridge service running on the WiBoat RPi 4B (exposing a JSON API on the LAN) with the Signal K plugin connecting to it from the RPi 5. Has anyone run the Meshtastic serial connection and Signal K plugin on different devices, or does everyone co-locate them?

5. Clock sync / timestamp drift The plugin documentation mentions GPS-disciplined time when a fix is available. I'm planning to discard LoRa alerts older than 5 minutes as stale. Has timestamp drift between nodes been an issue in practice — particularly in anchorages where you might not have GPS lock?

6. Conflict with the Meshtastic mobile app I understand the Signal K plugin holds the connection to the Meshtastic node exclusively — the phone app can't connect at the same time. Has anyone found a clean workaround for this so crew can still use the app while the plugin is running?

The end goal is LoRa-equipped vessels appearing automatically in AvNav alongside AIS targets, with no manual intervention — just plug in and have it work. Any experience, gotchas, or config tips from people who've done this on OpenPlotter would be hugely appreciated.
Happy to share back what I learn once the build is running.

[SkipperDon]

LoRa and Meshtastic — what they are and why boaters should care

LoRa is a radio technology. Think of it like a very efficient walkie-talkie signal — it travels 10 to 30 kilometres
over open water on a battery the size of your thumb. It doesn't need cell towers, WiFi, or a subscription. It just
works, anywhere.

Meshtastic is free software that runs on a small LoRa radio device (about the size of a matchbox, costs around $30).
The clever part: every device is also a repeater. If your boat can't reach a vessel directly, any Meshtastic device in
between automatically relays the signal — so the network grows the more people use it.

What this means on the water:

AIS only shows you vessels that paid for and installed an AIS transponder. Kayaks, fishing boats, dinghies, anchored
boats in a fog bank — most of them are invisible. With LoRa mesh, any boat with a $30 device shows up on your chart
automatically. No subscription, no internet, no cell signal required.

You get:
- Vessel awareness — see other equipped boats on your chart the same way you see AIS targets
- Collision alerts — automatic warning when an equipped vessel is on a converging course
- Text messaging — send a message to another boat or a marina with no cell service
- Anchor watch — get notified if a nearby vessel drags toward you overnight
- It grows itself — every new device on the water makes the network stronger for everyone

The goal with WiBoat is to make all of this plug-and-play alongside OpenPlotter and d3kOS — plug in the device, and
other equipped vessels appear on your chart automatically.