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How to Change Keys

Repeaters use the first two characters (one byte in hex) of its public key to show in the path that it repeated the packet. If two or more repeaters share the same prefix, it is hard to trace which repeater repeated the message and will show as "X known repeaters" if they are in your contacts.

Known Repeaters

To avoid collisions, we kindly ask repeater owners to change keys.

Finding open prefixes​

The quickest way to find an open prefix is to use MeshBuddy on Discord.

Go to the appropriate #repeater-control channel for your region:

info

ALL PREFIXES IN SOCAL HAVE BEEN TAKEN. ONCE WE MOVE TO 2 BYTE, MORE WILL OPEN UP

Run the /open command to find an open 2 character prefix (1 byte) for your new key.

Run the /prefix or /stats command to check if another device is using the prefix you want.

Generating a new key​

Generate your private key by using the /keygen command in the #repeater-control channel and pass in your 2 character prefix.

Or

Navigate to the MeshCore Key Generator and type in your prefix.

Copy or write down the PRIVATE key.

Change your key​

For MeshCore firmware 1.11 and below​

Connect your repeater to a PC via USB, use Chrome and go to the web flasher and click on Console button to enter repeater console.

MeshCore Console

Type the command set prv.key followed by the private key you copied or wrote down from the previous step. Example: set prv.key 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678

set prv.key command

For MeshCore firmware 1.12 and above​

You can either do the same serial console instruction above, or you can log in to your repeater remotely to change the private key.

From your companion deivce, log in to your repeater using your admin password. Click on the Command Line tab and then paste the same set prv.key command with your generated private key.

Other resources​

There are additional instructions on the MeshCore Key Generator site