[FEAT] Ability to enable/disable a channel

[habr05]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
There are only 8 slots for channels. For those who travel or for channel-rich mt areas, would be nice to have ability to store >8 channels and to be able to enable/disable them on need to basis.

Describe the solution you'd like
Allow for adding/storing more then 8 channels. Option to disable/enable a channel → that would have to show/hide nodes (and related data) discovered on that channel. If all 8 channels are configured, attempt to enable another channel would disable (replace) channel at position 8. Ability to create and manage channel sets would be a bonus.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Manual (QR code) channel import/export.

Additional context
RPi+LoRa with MM is becoming my preferred node. Awesome work!

[Yeraze]

I've been thinking about this.. Soonish, I'm thinking I may:

• Add a "channel database", where you can store keys and info on channels without actually activating them on the device.
• Add the ability to decrypt incoming messages against the channel database.. To allow you to receive messages on more than 8 channels.
• Add an ability to easily remap a live channel against the channel database (e.g. Load a saved channel onto the device).

The only part I don't have a great solution for yet is how to manage the UI on the Channels interface .. Should the deactivated channel just disappear? Remain in the UI as read-only?

• I'm going to have to do a lot of work with how I'm currently managing "Channel #", since we'll now have packets and messages that don't map to any live channel number.

[madeofstown]

As far as terminology goes, I like the sound of Virtual Channels.

Virtual Channels can be assigned to firmware channels.

Virtual Channels are the default method for creating a new channel from the Meshmonitor WebUI. When the number of firmware channels is less than 8, MM assigns the newly created Virtual Channel to the next available channel slot.

Virtual Channels can be hidden from the Channels interface.

Nodes discovered on Virtual Channels would need to store a special value to indicate which Virtual Channel they came from so they could be quickly filtered from the DM and Map Interface.

Would be very difficult to implement clearly with Virtual Node Server clients. Would require reserving at least one of the 8 firmware channels and managing "reverse-proxying" on the Meshmonitor Virtual Node Server. It would also leave the App users without a way of knowing which Virtual Channel individual nodes were discovered on.

[habr05]

After some thought I'll suggest to stick with a maximum of 8 active (listening/decoding) channels. Have a checkbox by each channel to activate/deactivate it → that would show/hide all channel related info from UI/VNS and do all the magic (disable & re-index) on MT side. Actual disabling (not just hiding) a channel in MT is important if you have LOCAL_ONLY selected for Rebroadcast Mode in device options.

To expand channel capacity:
Create channel presets (drop-down?), each preset containing maximum of 8 active channels and frequency settings → would be an equivalent of scanning (channels) QR code with Replace selected. As mentioned in original post, this is what I'm doing now with printed QR codes to program different presets. I load them as needed for different events/locations.

Having a "channel database"/"Virtual Channels" or what I call a Master Channel List is where you only store (and manage) channel details. It would be used as a source to select from for presets. The default (index 0) channel in the preset would act as a filter for a list of channels available to pick from.

[habr05]

I just noticed that there is an option in MM to Disable a channel... Will have to give it a go.