I read somewhere on the goTenna website that “shouts” will not relayed on relay nodes yet it seems to be happening with a relay node I have setup. When I send a shout using my area node, the white LED flashes briefly, then the relay node white LED flashes briefly. Is the relay node relaying my shout?
The LED will light to show that it received a message. Do you have a phone paired to the relay node?
Relaying is what differentiates Shouts from Emergency chat. Messages sent in the Emergency chat will relay out across nodes to reach as many people as possible (though I believe it still has the 3-hop/4-device limitation that 1-1 chat does currently).
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Thanks for trying but your answer doesn’t help me. My “relay node” would NOT be a relay node if I had a phone paired to it. It would be an “area node” if I had a phone paired to it. I’m talking about a stand-alone relay node with no phone paired to it (as described on the goTenna website; turning it on and NOT connecting it to a phone, and leaving it connected to continuous power). The website says that “shouts” are NOT relayed through stand-alone “relay nodes” yet mine seems to be doing it. The info on the website says only 1-1 chats, group chats and emergency chats are sent through stand-alone relay nodes and not shout chats, but mine seems to be relaying shout chats too. I’ll send my question to the support folks and see what they say.
Even a un-paired Gotenna acting as a relay node still flashes when it see the shout traffic.
Think of it as it flashes for all heard messages. At the moment the message is coming in the unit still must determine if it is a shout, emergency shout, 1 to 1 or group chat message then decide if it will re-transmit it.
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Excellent! This answers my question. So, even though it “heard” my shout, it doesn’t retransmit (relay) it because it determines that it’s a “shout.” Am I right?
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That is correct. Basically, the unit must receive all traffic to determine what to do with it.
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Perfect. Thanks again!
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Weird question, but why aren’t shouts transmitted through relays? It would be nice to test coverage. I’m sure there’s a reason it was designed that way, but just wondering.
I believe the reason why is to keep “chatter” to a minimum. That way shouts aren’t eating up bandwidth, and are limited.
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Even when a unit is paired to a phone, it will still relay other people’s messages as long as they aren’t Shouts (1-1, group, and emergency messages relay while Shouts do not). As others have already stated, the light will flash anytime a node receives a message no matter what type it is, but it doesn’t mean that it relayed that message.
The only things pairing a phone does is enable that unit to display messages on the paired phone (at least ones meant for the unit to show. You won’t see 1-1 or group messages that don’t include you) and respond to pings on that devices GID. An unpaired unit has no set GID, and therefore can’t respond to pings (assumption that fits the behavior). All other functionality remains the same.
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Perfect. Thanks for your help.
Dennis
This is correct but I would point out that the Gotenna need not be connected to the phone to have a GID. During the pairing process the GID is selected and set to the device. From that point on it retains the GID until you cause it to be erased by using the unpairing process or overwritten by adding a new GID.
If the Gotenna is put in relay mode it gets a random GID temporarily.
EDIT: For clarity unpairing is not the same as simply disconnecting the Bluetooth connection. There is a process you must go through to unpair.
What is the process for unpairing? I’ve found that no matter what I do, my GoTennas remain paired to the last device they were paired to until they are paired to a different device. In other words, there’s no way to unpair short of re-pairing, which is a pain. If I put a device in relay mode, it will act both as a relay AND as if it’s still paired to the last device it was paired to. So the relay will not forward messages for that device because it saves them thinking that it is still paired. And worst of all, it gives delivery confirmation. If I re-pair that device to the GoTenna that was acting as a relay for a time, all of the stored messages will download all at once, like a good, paired GoTenna should. But I don’t want it paired! How does one truly unpair a device without overwriting by pairing with another device?
Go to Settings and select unpair. That should do it.
Edit: make sure the Gotenna is connected before unpairing.
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Then power the GTM down after unpairing in the app on your cell device.
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