I have a mesh of 3 nodes running at my QTH. I have had no problem seeing my IP camera across the mesh (although there is more to come on that). I am trying to get a phone system to span the mesh. I have 4 Cisco 7960 IP phones which I have switched to SIP (that's a whole 'nother story!!), a RASPBX plugged into Node1 and 1 of the phones plugged into Node 1. I intend to plug another phone into Node3. The problem is in provisioning the phones. They know TFTP, not HTTP. How do I get these phones provisioned and known to RASPBX? Thanks for any help.

Please take a look at the video section under "HSMM-MESH Info."
http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/documentation/182-cisco-7940-with-asterisk-raspberry-pi
Same rules apply to the 7960 as they do to the 7940's

Sounds like you need to check the videos section again and watch another video (starting at 15.00); as that prompt is evidence of extensions not being setup on the pbx.
http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/documentation/170-asterisk-rpi-bbhn

I am finally getting around to configuring the phones, after everything loads line 1 shows up as a00a instead of what I called it in the config.

Line 1 Registration Information
line1_name: “3000”                        ; Extension number
line1_authname: “3000”                    ; Extension number
line1_shortname: “3000”                    ; Name that appears on the screen
line1_password: “Password”       

I left the line 2 entries blank.

Any ideas where I might be going wrong?

Thanks

I see exactly what the problem is.  You did nothing wrong.  I made typographic errors in the first zip file.  Use this link instead (http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/download/7940/NG5V-Cisco-11-12-2014.zip). I'll see about getting the link below the video updated.

Not at all as other people have had success. Furthermore, if you compare the configs that claim that they are for the 7960, they are infact the same ones as the 7940 configs. If you want, try adding the remaining four lines (ie. line3_name and et. al., line4_name and et. al., etc.).

Here are some other ideas for you to try out:

• What program are you using to change edit the configs? (could be a different character encoding scheme)
• Go here, and let me know if you are on SCCP, SIP, or MGCP.
• Verify that the TFTP settings on the phone are correct.
• Verify that the phone is indeed connecting to the TFTP server. Login to the TFTP device and check the log files. Also, change the value for line1_shortname to something else and see if changes the display name accordingly.
• Try not using a TFTP server and manually change the settings on the phone. (the Asterisk-on-a-Pi video shows a 7940 at the end. Behind the scenes: That was done manually through the phone and not via TFTP. Somehow I got the settings right for it to work.
• Here is a gold mine of Cisco SIP information: http://www.jtech.net/ip_phone_pages.aspx. Hopefully this can provide some pointers help you out.

Let me know how it goes.

Is there a way to direct IP dial using the cisco sip firmware? We have some granstream ATA's and like the option of dialing by IP if an extension has not been created yet.

I don't believe that this is possible but the post I found is pretty old. 

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/15276/how-dial-ip-address-cisco-sip-ip-phone

Bottom line(literally), feature not supported.