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RELEASE_NOTES_v8.3.md

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v8.3 — LoRaWAN keyless bridge/relay/mesh + carry-overs

Builds on v8.2.1 (MeshCore timestamp fix). Adds a keyless LoRaWAN (LoRa sync 0x34) protocol plus two carry-over fixes. Bench-validated on hardware 2026-06-14: the full LoRaWAN feature set, both clock-learn paths, and the complete Reticulum block — RNS↔RNS raw repeat (byte-identical), RNS→MeshCore tunnel, and MC/MT→RNS log-and-drop — all verified on air, plus the v8.2 routing regression set (do-no-harm confirmed: MT/MC traffic never enters the LoRaWAN path).

New — LoRaWAN (sync 0x34), keyless

Select LoRaWAN for either radio in the captive portal. The bridge operates only on the cleartext PHY frame — no keys, no payload decryption:

  • Metadata capture tap — decodes the cleartext MAC header (MType, DevAddr, FCtrl, FCnt, FPort, FRMPayload length; JoinEUI/DevEUI on join-requests) to the serial log (evt=RX proto=LW …).
  • Metadata summary to mesh — emits a one-line summary onto your Meshtastic/MeshCore mesh (BRIDGE_LW_SUMMARY_TO_MESH, default on).
  • Transparent LW↔LW relay / dedup-bounded flood — re-transmits raw 0x34 frames between radios and bridges (BRIDGE_LW_RELAY); a localized transparent bridge modeled after the Tasmota LoRa & LoRaWAN Bridge.
  • MT/MC → LoRaWAN is a deliberate log-and-drop (no-lw-encoder): keyless firmware cannot inject content into LoRaWAN.

Also new

  • POSITION clock-learn — the bridge now also learns wall-clock from a Meshtastic POSITION_APP time field, closing the cold-boot 1969-timestamp window left by v8.2.1 (which learned only from MeshCore).
  • Transparent in-protocol Reticulum repeat (RNS↔RNS) — with both radios on Reticulum, an inbound RNS frame is re-transmitted byte-for-byte (range-extension repeater) instead of being dropped (BRIDGE_RNS_INPROTO_REPEAT, default on).

Known limitations

  • LoRaWAN is single-channel per radio (no LoRaWAN channel hopping) and does not honour Class-A RX windows — a localized capture/relay bridge, not a gateway.
  • The flood "mesh" is dedup/TTL-bounded (each bridge repeats a unique frame once); there is no in-band hop counter (mutating the frame would break its MIC).
  • LoRaWAN content decode/encode needs per-device session keys — see Deferred.

Deferred → v8.3+ (8.3.1 patch)

  • ABP/OTAA key-based decode of the operator's own devices → MT/MC/custom, and encode (MT/MC → LoRaWAN).
  • Reticulum MT/MC → RNS encoder + fragment reassembly (today MT/MC→RNS is a clean log-and-drop).

Build flags (all default 1; override in platformio.ini)

BRIDGE_LW_CAPTURE · BRIDGE_LW_SUMMARY_TO_MESH · BRIDGE_LW_RELAY · BRIDGE_RNS_INPROTO_REPEAT (Bench-only: BRIDGE_BENCH_AUTOSAVE on the bench_* envs skips the captive portal — never in a release build.)

Compatibility

BridgeConfig schema v4 unchanged — no NVS migration; v8.2.x configs load as-is. LR1121 / co-processor code remains out of scope.

Downloads (build at tag time)

  • xiao-dual-sx1262-v8.3-vanilla-factory.bin — full image, flash @ 0x0 (fresh/erased device → captive portal).
  • xiao-dual-sx1262-v8.3-app.bin — app image, flash @ 0x10000.

Full notes: CHANGELOG.md · Design: V8.3-SPEC.md · Bench protocol: BENCH-v8.3.md. Flashing instructions: see the v8.2 release.