Sheep Counter with LoRa / Meshtastic — Deployment Guide

1. Connect reCamera to your computer via USB-C or Ethernet
2. Connect the XIAO ESP32-S3 LoRa node to reCamera's UART port (/dev/ttyS3):
   • XIAO TX → reCamera RX
   • XIAO RX → reCamera TX
   • Shared GND
3. Enter your reCamera IP address (USB default: 192.168.42.1) and SSH password

Deployment stops the reCamera's default Node-RED service. After deployment, SSH into the camera and tail the log to confirm it's running:

ssh recamera@192.168.42.1
tail -f /var/log/sheep_counter.log

You should see detection events like EVT,IN,1,0,1,123 appearing when sheep cross the gate line.

1. Connect the XIAO ESP32-S3 to your computer via USB-C
2. Open the Meshtastic Web Flasher in Chrome/Edge
3. Select XIAO ESP32-S3 as the target device and flash the latest stable Meshtastic firmware
4. After flashing, open the Meshtastic Web Client to configure:
   • Serial Module → Enable → Baud Rate: 115200 → Receive mode: passthrough
   • Detection Sensor Module → Enable → Monitor GPIO: 490 → Detection high → Alert message prefix: SHEEP
   • Set a unique Node name (e.g. SheepGate1) so you can identify it on the mesh
5. Pair the XIAO with a Meshtastic-compatible LoRa receiver (phone app or local node)

Once configured, trigger a test crossing by briefly pulling GPIO 490 HIGH. You should see:

• A "SHEEP" alert on your Meshtastic phone app within 30 seconds
• The raw EVT,IN,... line appearing in your Meshtastic channel as a text message

• Docker and the Docker Compose plugin installed on the gateway (docker compose version prints a version).

• The gateway can pull python:3.11-slim and install Python packages (paho-mqtt, meshtastic) from PyPI on first start. A PyPI mirror is applied automatically on networks in China.

• The MQTT broker IP is reachable from the gateway on port 1883. Use the broker's LAN IP; 127.0.0.1 points to the container itself.

• If the gateway was set up with the earlier install.sh of this solution, stop and disable its two systemd services first. They run from /opt/sheep-gateway, restart automatically, and hold the Meshtastic serial port that the new container needs:

  sudo systemctl disable --now meshtastic-bridge ha-bridge
  sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/meshtastic-bridge.service /etc/systemd/system/ha-bridge.service
  sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  

  /opt/sheep-gateway is no longer used and can be removed with sudo rm -rf /opt/sheep-gateway.

1. Connect the LoRa receiver node (a second Meshtastic device, e.g. reComputer serial or a plugged-in USB Meshtastic radio) to the gateway computer

After deployment, verify both containers are running:

ssh recomputer@<gateway-ip>
docker ps --filter name=sheep- --format '{{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}'

sheep-meshtastic-bridge and sheep-ha-bridge should both show Up. The first start installs Python packages and takes about a minute longer than later restarts.

Import the ha_dashboard.yaml file into Home Assistant:

1. Copy assets/gateway/ha_dashboard.yaml from this solution package to your HA config directory (with the remote target, the deployment also uploads it to ~/sheep-gateway/gateway/ha_dashboard.yaml on the gateway)
2. In HA: Settings → Dashboards → Import → select the file

Your sheep counter is live! On the dashboard you will see:

• IN / OUT / INSIDE — real-time counters since the last dashboard reset
• Last event time — timestamp of the most recent gate crossing
• Daily history — 24-hour trend graph

Quick Verification

1. Wave your hand in front of the camera (or walk past the gate line) to simulate a crossing
2. Watch the EVT,IN,... line appear in /var/log/sheep_counter.log on the reCamera
3. Within ~30 s, the IN counter should increment on the HA dashboard

Tips

• Mount reCamera at an angle to the gate so sheep cross the virtual line cleanly
• Adjust the gate-line position in the counter config if your crossing rate is low
• The LoRa heartbeat (HB messages every 15 min) keeps displays in sync after radio gaps

Next Steps

• Project source & documentation
• Add a Meshtastic phone app to get mobile alerts in the field