Great news: we finally tested Mesh setup with Blynk and can confirm that it works with current Blynk library out-of-the-box. Which is…amazing. Thanks for supporting the architecture you already have. Kudos to the developers!
Next, we are considering Mesh products for one of the clients Blynk Studios works on, however we can’t find information on certain use-cases when Mesh is used in final products.
Any guidelines on mesh provisioning for end-customers. Current network setup and provisioning UX is not something a non-technical person is capable of going through, unfortunately. Plus there are just too many issues with that. We would like to design our own flow, but can’t find any references or API
Is there a way to address a particular node without getting it’s name/mac/ip from Particle Cloud for autonomous use
Can Xenons continue exchange messages when gateway node is down? We weren’t able to make it work yet.
Any guidelines on mesh provisioning for end-customers. Current network setup and provisioning UX is not something a non-technical person is capable of going through, unfortunately. Plus there are just too many issues with that. We would like to design our own flow, but can’t find any references or API
The Mobile Setup SDK will be provided to white label and customize the existing setup process on mobile devices. That should available in the 2nd quarter of 2019.
A USB-based setup option using the Particle CLI that would allow you to script setup of multiple devices should be available a bit before mobile device setup SDK. That would be appropriate if you're pre-configuring a large number of devices for your customers, instead of having them do it themselves.
Is there a way to address a particular node without getting it’s name/mac/ip from Particle Cloud for autonomous use
I'm not positive I understand the question, but I think the answer is no. However using Mesh.publish you can broadcast to all nodes of the mesh, and you can use your own logic to determine whether it reached the right destination, however.
Can Xenons continue exchange messages when gateway node is down? We weren’t able to make it work yet.
Yes, but only using Mesh.publish/Mesh.subscribe or using direct UDP. You also must use SYSTEM_THREAD(ENABLED). While you cannot set up or add nodes while the gateway is down, you can communicate between nodes on the mesh.
The UDP class provides an API to send datagrams between devices on the mesh network. Xenons can even send UDP packets directly from the device to the Internet, and receive responses, through the mesh gateway, without requiring custom code on the gateway.
The Mesh.publish and Mesh.subscribe functions are built on top of UDP multicast.
You can also directly use the UDP API to send packets between mesh devices, even if the gateway is down.
I am trying to use Bynk to toggle the built-in LED on and off. It works ok on the Argon acting as the gateway but not on the Xenon on the network. Same exact code. I selected the device in Blynk as the Photon being the Gen 2 devices are the options. Is there something I am missing? I am using Blynk on a Boron as well and it works fine (its not part of a mesh though, just stand alone.)
I figured out it is rather simple to make the Xenon’s work with Blynk. It make a lot of sense after I thought outside of the box for a moment. You setup your Argon or Boron gateway to run Blynk. The widgets on your phone will be talking only to it. On your gateway device you publish events to the particle cloud. On your Xenon’s you subscribe to the events. I just setup an example using an Argon and Xenon with the Blynk app to toggle the built-in LED on and off and it works great!