outdated lilygo lora v1
Meshtastic and LoRa has landed on my mastodon feed a few times as of lately; @tommi@pan.rent mentioned briefly wanting to buy a LYLYGO T-echo Plus and @edent@mastodon.social also got received some units before FOSDEM.
This inspired me to go down to my basement and dust of my old… LILYGO TTGO Lora version 1. Looking up the SX1276 LoRa chip documents it looks like it is from around 2020.
Which unfortunately is now obsolete and not supported by the Meshtastic firmware.
This board is still in production but for various reasons not recommended for new purchases or for unattended installations. Firmware support is phased out. If in doubt, choose the Lora T3S3 board.
Using esptool --chip-id it reports
Chip type: ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 (revision v3.0)
Features: Wi-Fi, BT, Dual Core + LP Core, 240MHz, Vref calibration in eFuse, Coding Scheme None
Crystal frequency: 40MHz
I didn't know this initially and just flashed the latest firmware, but I quickly learned that my device was simple to old and I had to go quite far back to find a supported meshtastic firmware version that was still supporting the device.
Here are my quick notes from testing the last supported versions:
- 🔴 2.5.5.e182ae7 Beta bad performance and wifi dropout [link]
- Last build which includes LILYGO Lora v1 after being removed in PR-4957.
- 🟢 2.4.3.91d6612 Alpha OK [link]
- 🟡 2.4.3.efc27f2 Alpha untested due to being revoked [link]
- 🟢 2.4.2.5b45303 Beta OK [link]
- 🔴 2.3.13.83f5ba0 Beta too old to talk with meshtastic android app [link]
# flashing example via esptool
sudo esptool --chip esp32 --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 80m 0x0 firmware-tlora-v1-2.5.5.e182ae7.bin
I spent way too many hours on trying to get reliable connection with my wi-fi. Trying out different antennas that I had laying around and positioning. But for whatever reason the USB cable was the biggest factor.. I had to switch to a super short one and then my connection was stable… what?
Anyway I got it mostly working and could see some nodes around me. I also tested it at work. But whatever I tried I couldn't get any messages to go to any other nodes.
Click on the images to view them in full size.
LoRa is really cooooool due its decentralized nature. I am considering whether I could setup a repeater node somewhere close to my house + get a mobile unit. But that will easily cost me ~140 USD in total to get those units and I am not sure if I feel ready to splurge on anarchist technology without even knowing what purpose it will have to me.
In case you are curious about meshtastic; I ended up watching these videos
Hacker's Guide to Meshtastic: Off-Grid, Encrypted LoRa Meshnets for Cheap!
Gadgets For People Who Don't Trust The Government
Meshtastic off-grid radio: Fantastic? Waste of Plastic? Or...
465 Rutgers University Confirmed: Meshtastic and LoRa are dangerous
Also ended up finding a “local groups” page on the meshtastic group; I would recommend checking it out to see how active your local community is!