WCB Network

WCB Network

NaviCore joins your WCB system over ESP‑NOW (no Wi‑Fi AP, no router — peer‑to‑peer). This is how it reaches remote Maestros, remote WCB boards, HCR/MP3 over WCB, and how the config tool's Via WCB bridge works.

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Credentials

All four network values are stored in the config file (/config.json on LittleFS) and editable from Config → WCB Network in the tool. The compile‑time values in wcb_config.h are only the factory defaults for a fresh board.

Setting	What it is	How to find it
MAC octet 2	2nd octet of the shared WCB MAC scheme	query a WCB: ?WCBM
MAC octet 3	3rd octet	?WCBM
Password	ESP‑NOW network password (≤39 chars)	?WCBP
Quantity	Total WCBs in the system	?WCBQ
Device ID	This controller's ID on the network	see below

Query any WCB over its own USB serial port with ?WCBM, ?WCBP, ?WCBQ to read the values your system already uses, then enter the same ones here.

Device ID

By convention an RC controller claims device ID 20 — the WCB "special‑peer" slot. This keeps IDs 1–19 free for regular WCBs and gives the config tool's Via WCB bridge a single, known target (it always addresses the RC at ID 20). The field is editable for unusual multi‑controller setups, but leave it at 20 unless you have a reason not to.

⚠️ WCB network changes require a reboot. The WCB client initializes once at startup. Saving new credentials writes them to /config.json on LittleFS, but the running radio keeps using the old values until the board restarts. The tool shows a "dirty / needs reboot" indicator to reflect this — use REBOOT (or power‑cycle) after changing them.

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Remote Maestros

Remote Maestro commands are broadcast on the Kyber path: NaviCore sends one packet, every WCB receives it, and any WCB that has Kyber forwarding enabled (?KYBER,REMOTE, or ?KYBER,LOCAL,S<port>) and a Maestro port configured forwards the raw bytes to that Maestro serial port. Both are required on the receiving WCB — without them the broadcast is silently dropped. There's no per‑slot WCB/port routing to set up on the NaviCore side.

Because it's a shared broadcast bus, every Maestro must have a unique Pololu device number (set in Maestro Control Center, and matched in the Maestro Locations panel). The device‑number filter is what stops every Maestro from reacting to every command. See Actions Reference.

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HCR & MP3 over WCB

• HCR over WCB is unicast to one WCB ID (1–20) plus a serial port (1–5) on that receiving WCB, which pipes the bytes to the HCR device.
• MP3 over WCB is unicast to one WCB ID; that WCB's own MP3 driver (set up there via ?MP3,S<port>) does the serial work.

Set both destinations in their respective config tabs. See Actions Reference.

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"Via WCB" remote management

NaviCore continuously broadcasts lightweight telemetry on the WCB network so the config tool can discover and monitor it without a USB cable:

• a periodic heartbeat (~0.5 Hz) and channel snapshot (~5 Hz),
• event‑driven trigger and mode‑change notices the instant they happen.

When you enable Via WCB in the tool (while tethered to any WCB), it relays GET_CONFIG / SET_CONFIG / TRIGGER / monitoring to the RC at device ID 20. Big config payloads are fragmented to fit ESP‑NOW packets. Firmware flashing still requires direct USB.

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Status & liveness

• The tool's WCB Status panel polls which boards are online (GET_WCB_STATUS).
• CLI #L11 prints the same up/down list over USB serial. See CLI Commands.
• A failed network init at boot lights the status LED orange.

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