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Nucleus User Manual

This manual covers hardware setup, Nucleus OS, and app configuration for the Nucleus mesh radio.

First Steps

The Nucleus ships without its antennas installed. The Wi-Fi antenna is marked with "WiFi" on the antenna itself and with a small WiFi symbol next to the port it should be installed on (Fig. 1). The LoRa antenna is installed on the unmarked RF connector (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1: Wi-Fi antenna
Fig. 1: Wi-Fi antenna
Fig. 2: LoRa antenna
Fig. 2: LoRa antenna

The Nucleus has three bulkhead connections alongside the antenna ports (Fig. 3): a USB-C port, an RJ45 Ethernet port, and the M12 power port.

The Nucleus ships with a USB-A to M12 cable. Screw the M12 connector onto the M12 power port, then plug the USB-A end into any 5V power source to start the Nucleus. Auto boot should be complete within 1 minute. The general assembly is shown with a generic USB power bank providing power (Fig. 4).

Fig. 3: Bulkhead connections
Fig. 3: Bulkhead connections
Fig. 4: General assembly
Fig. 4: General assembly

Node Placement

Placement of Radio

Due to the nature of the shorter wavelengths of the onboard radios, it is recommended to mount the antennas as high as possible on the body to provide the best line of sight (Fig. 5). Either by physically setting the radio higher or using remote mount antennas.

Fig. 5: Radio placement
Fig. 5: Radio placement

Nucleus OS

After the Nucleus has booted it will begin advertising a WiFi access point labelled as 00xx-nucleus-ap, where xx is your node's serial number. The default password is 52235223. This should be changed via the configuration page as soon as possible.

Once connected to that access point, take the web browser to 10.20.xx.1:5000 where xx is the serial number of your node. This will open the Nucleus OS UI. Alternatively, the node can be reached by hostname at 00xx-nucleus.local, where xx is the same serial number.

Front Page

The front page displays a menu of the available functions on the Nucleus, with navigation buttons along the bottom of the screen (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: Nucleus OS front page
Fig. 6: Nucleus OS front page

Mesh Connections

The Mesh Connections page displays the connected nodes on both the WiFi and LoRa meshes (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7: Mesh Connections page
Fig. 7: Mesh Connections page

Node Configuration Page

The Node Configuration page allows modification of mesh and node variables without having to edit system files directly (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: Node Configuration page
Fig. 9: Node Configuration page

Tailscale

This page allows the user to start/stop Tailscale connections and select a tailnet if there are multiples configured (Fig. 11). As a default, the node will be connected to the Natak Mesh tailnet to allow remote updating and troubleshooting if desired. New tailnets can be added or removed as desired.

Fig. 11: Tailscale page
Fig. 11: Tailscale page

Meshtastic Page

This page allows serial control of the onboard Meshtastic radio, enabling sending and receiving messages with other Meshtastic radios without use of the app (Fig. 14). Functionality here will expand in future revisions; currently it provides bare bones messaging.

Fig. 14: Meshtastic page
Fig. 14: Meshtastic page

Reticulum Monitoring Page

This page monitors the onboard Reticulum transport instance (Fig. 15). It displays the running state, reachable destinations, and interfaces.

Fig. 15: Reticulum Monitoring page
Fig. 15: Reticulum Monitoring page

OpenTAKServer Page

This page displays the server running state, number of connected EUDs, video stream list, and a link to open the OTS web interface (Fig. 16). This allows access to OTS directly from the Nucleus OS.

Fig. 16: OpenTAKServer page
Fig. 16: OpenTAKServer page

Node Administration

SSH Access

SSH is enabled on the Nucleus. To access the node directly, plug it into your router or switch via the ethernet port — it will accept an IP address from your DHCP server. Avahi is running on the node, so it should be discoverable on your local network at:

ssh natak@00xx-nucleus.local

Where xx is the node's serial number printed on the case. The default password is 52235223.

Nucleus OS Repository

A local copy of the git repository used to deploy the Nucleus software is located at ~/Nucleus_os. The Nucleus live file system is configured per that repo. To pull the latest updates, run git pull from within the repo directory. Changes will then be available to deploy.

App Setup

Jami

Navigate to Account Settings > Advanced to configure the OpenDHT settings to match those shown in Fig. 17. All IP addresses should be replaced with your node's IP address — the 10.20.17.1 shown is only an example.

Fig. 17: Jami OpenDHT settings
Fig. 17: Jami OpenDHT settings

Sideband

Navigate to the Connectivity section of Sideband and configure the TCP settings to match those shown in Fig. 18. All IP addresses should be replaced with your node's IP address — the 10.20.17.1 shown is only an example.

Fig. 18: Sideband TCP settings
Fig. 18: Sideband TCP settings

Meshtastic

Refer to the official Meshtastic documentation to configure the Meshtastic radio. Once configured, the user can continue to use the Meshtastic app or switch to serial control of the Meshtastic radio through the Nucleus UI.

ATAK

ATAK will automatically take advantage of the Nucleus Wi-Fi mesh with no configuration needed. The official Meshtastic plugin can be loaded to give ATAK use of the onboard Meshtastic radio. If OpenTAKServer is installed, the OTS connection can be activated as well. Configuration of these features will be covered in future documentation.