BlueRa is a cross-platform application public message board application using the LoRa protocol in an infrastructureless manner. It connectes to an rf95modem-enabled companion device using Bluetooth.
At this point, there are no releases of prebuilt binaries. Therefore, you have to build the app yourself. To get started, you have to install Flutter. To do so, please follow the official instructions. After that, continue with the following steps.
If you want to built BlueRa for iOS, you have to launch the Runner.xcworkspace in Xcode, select the runner target and provide your Team ID under the signing section to make sure, that Flutter uses the correct signing identity. After that is done, you can close Xcode and proceed.
Currently, Flutter is available for Android Studio and Visual Studio Code. Simply import the projekt to the IDE, connect your device with your computer and run the project. The IDE should handle all dependencies and signing for iOS and so on. If not, the error messages should be sufficient to track down the issue and solve it.
Flutter is also usable using the CLI. Therefore, connect your device with your computer, go to the project folder, get dependencies and install the app:
cd <path>/BlueRa
flutter pub get
flutter runOn first start, you are asked to give yourself a username. After that, you will see an empty home screen. This is where your channels will appear.
You can also change your username by tapping the dots in the home screen and selecting "User Settings".
In the top right corner, tap on the dots and select "Bluetooth Settings". Here, you have to connect to a RF95 modem. Scan for available devices and connect to the found RF95 Modem.
On the home screen, tap the "+" button in the top right corner. If channels are available, you can join them by tapping on the name. You can also create own channels here.
By chosing "LoRa Settings" in the home screen, you can select one of the modes serving your use case best.
If you attend at least one channel, they will be shown on the home screen. Tap on a channel and you will be able to send messages to this channel. Note, that you have to be connected to a modem for chatting. The connection state is shown in the app bar on the top of the screen. By tapping the leave button in the top right corner of the chat screen, you can leave a channel.
The connection state is somewhat whacky. If you encounter some problems with messages not or multiple times appearing, try to reconnect. It can also be helful to restart both, the app and the modem.
The intended behaviour is to persist the local user. This seems to be broken as of now. It is possible that the app will ask you again for a username for some reason.