Rivian Geo via Meshtastic

The Autonomous Deezwatts Meshtastic Sync Service

Tucked away in my Rivian’s center console, a Raspberry Pi acts as the silent tracker, a $25 lojack for my $80k+ truck. Every minute, the script springs to life, polling for precise geo data from a Meshtastic Wio Tracker Pro whenever the vehicle is in motion. This telemetry is serialized and streamed directly to a GCP bucket as JSON, creating a persistent, cloud-based record of every Michigan mile.

import meshtastic
import meshtastic.serial_interface
import json
import os
import glob
import time
from datetime import datetime
from google.cloud import storage

# --- Configuration ---
BUCKET_NAME = "deezwatts-meshtastic-bucket"
LOCAL_DIR = "./pending_uploads"
POLL_INTERVAL = 60  # 10 minutes in seconds
# os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"] = "/path/to/key.json"
# ---------------------

os.makedirs(LOCAL_DIR, exist_ok=True)

def upload_to_gcp(data, filename):
    """Attempts to upload to GCP, returns True if successful."""
    try:
        client = storage.Client()
        bucket = client.bucket(BUCKET_NAME)
        blob = bucket.blob(filename)
        blob.upload_from_string(
            data=json.dumps(data, indent=4, default=str),
            content_type='application/json'
        )
        return True
    except Exception:
        return False

def sync_backlog():
    """Checks the local folder for files that failed previously."""
    backlog_files = sorted(glob.glob(os.path.join(LOCAL_DIR, "*.json")))
    if not backlog_files:
        return

    print(f"Found {len(backlog_files)} pending files. Attempting sync...")
    for file_path in backlog_files:
        filename = os.path.basename(file_path)
        try:
            with open(file_path, 'r') as f:
                data = json.load(f)

            if upload_to_gcp(data, filename):
                os.remove(file_path)
                print(f"  Synced and cleared: {filename}")
            else:
                print(f"  Cloud still unreachable. Stopping sync.")
                break # Stop trying if the first one fails
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"  Error reading {filename}: {e}")

def run_task():
    """The core polling logic."""
    print(f"\n--- Starting Poll: {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')} ---")
    interface = None
    try:
        # Connect to radio
        interface = meshtastic.serial_interface.SerialInterface()
        nodes = interface.nodes

        timestamp = datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
        filename = f"nodes_{timestamp}.json"

        payload = {
            "polled_at": datetime.now().isoformat(),
            "nodes": nodes
        }

        # Try Cloud
        if upload_to_gcp(payload, filename):
            print("Success: Data sent directly to GCP.")
            sync_backlog() # If cloud is up, clear any old local files
        else:
            # Fallback
            filepath = os.path.join(LOCAL_DIR, filename)
            with open(filepath, "w") as f:
                json.dump(payload, f, indent=4, default=str)
            print(f"Offline: Saved {filename} to local buffer.")

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Connection Error: {e}")
    finally:
        if interface:
            interface.close()

def main():
    print(f"Service started. Polling every {POLL_INTERVAL/60} minutes.")
    print(f"Monitoring device and GCP bucket: {BUCKET_NAME}")

    while True:
        run_task()
        print(f"Sleeping for {POLL_INTERVAL/60} minutes...")
        time.sleep(POLL_INTERVAL)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        main()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        print("\nStopping service...")

To make this a professional background service, we will create a Systemd Service. This ensures the script starts when the Rivian is powered on, restarts automatically if it crashes, and logs all its output to the system journal.

Create the Service File

Open a terminal and create the following file (you’ll need sudo):

cat > /etc/systemd/system/deezwatts-meshtastic-sync.service

Paste the Configuration

Here is the meat and potatos of the service file.

[Unit]
Description=Deezwatts Meshtastic to GCP Sync Service
After=network.target

[Service]
User=sween
Group=dialout
WorkingDirectory=/home/sween/deezwatts-meshtastic
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/sween/deezwatts-meshtastic/sync_script.py

# Environment variable for GCP Credentials
Environment="GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/home/sween/deezwatts-meshtastic/deezwatts-bucket-key.json"

# Restart logic
Restart=always
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and Start

This raspberry pi is powered by the Rivian’s 12v system and is always on when the vehicle is on.

# Reload systemd to recognize the new file
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Enable the service to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable meshtastic-sync.service

# Start it right now
sudo systemctl start meshtastic-sync.service