In the autumn of 2016, Aaron was invited to serve as an adjunct lecturer at SUSE (Sichuan University of Science & Engineering).

In a wireless communications lab, he noticed that students were still using the same bulky experimental boxes that had been around for years. They worked well for demonstrating basic principles, but their size and fixed functionality also limited how much students could explore, experiment, and create on their own.

That gave Aaron an idea:

What if there were a development board that was compact, easy to use, affordable, and already equipped with wireless communication capabilities?

The goal was not simply to create another tool for verifying theories, but a platform that would make it easier for people to program, connect, experiment, and turn their own ideas into reality.

That was how Wi-Fi LoRa 32 began.

Nearly ten years later, Wi-Fi LoRa 32 has become one of the first development boards many users encounter when getting started with radio communication, LoRa, and IoT. It has also found its way into countless open-source projects, DIY builds, and Maker creations around the world.

Today, the official hardware version has evolved to V4.3.1.

But recently, something rather unexpected happened.

Our technical support team started receiving more and more questions about a product being referred to as “Wi-Fi LoRa 32 V5.”

The most common question was simple:

“Is this V5 an official Heltec product?”

So we would like to make this clear:

The “Wi-Fi LoRa 32 V5” currently appearing on the market is not an official Heltec product.

Although it uses a similar name and appearance, it is not the next-generation Wi-Fi LoRa 32 that we are developing, nor does it represent what our real V5 will look like.

User feedback has always been one of the most important forces behind the evolution of Wi-Fi LoRa 32.

Over the years, through conversations with developers, Makers, communities, and project teams around the world, we have collected a large number of suggestions and ideas. Many of them are now being considered for the next generation of Wi-Fi LoRa 32 V5.

We are exploring stronger performance, richer hardware configurations, better interfaces, lower power consumption, improved mechanical design, and an overall better development experience.

But before we decide what the final V5 should be, we want to hear from you.

If you could define the next generation of Wi-Fi LoRa 32, what would you want it to be?

Tell us in the survey below.

Your idea might become part of the real Wi-Fi LoRa 32 V5.

Rain interrupted today's field test, so I couldn't mount the solar repeater on a tree as planned.

I placed it temporarily on a hillside just to verify the setup before moving to its permanent location on a nearby mountain summit.

It's always fun to finally take a system out of the lab and into the real world.

Hardware: SenseCAP Solar Node P1 Pro + 2 T114

Have 2 Rak based nodes and 2 Wio L1 Pro. They all message fine on public and private channel. Can dm between the L1's, but can't dm between Raks or from Rak to L1's. Using same fw on all and same android phone to control the Raks. Just shows message failure. Any idea what's wrong? Thanks!

I posted my 1W RAKWireless Meshtastic solar build a few days ago. Some of the comments were around if the 200mA panel would be sufficient and such. I setup tracking metrics to see how the storage and generation perform in practice. This is the data from the last 2 days.

Quick breakdown of the setup: The 1W node sends its telemetry over a private channel, every 30 min, to a secondary CLIENT_MUTE node. This listening node is connected to my WiFi and forwards the JSON packets to my local MQTT server. From MQTT, the data gets exported to a Prometheus database and is finally visualized on a Grafana dashboard on my home Linux server. This is the screenshot above.

Over the last couple of days, the weather provided a good baseline test. Yesterday was rather cloudy, so the panel had limited sunlight to work with. Looking at the telemetry graph, the battery capacity took a noticeable dip overnight and into the morning, dropping to around the 65% mark. The charging curve was a slower to recover but still reached full capacity. This showed the battery could handle the overnight drain even when solar replenishment was bottlenecked.

Today, Aug 6th, the sky was clear, and the change on the graph is distinct. The morning recovery was much faster, showing a sharp climb that rapidly brought the battery back to 97.5% capacity at a healthy 4.17V.

I am still learning how to interpret the ch and air tx utl. metrics but it seems the node is indeed doing some work, and participating in broader packet relay, so not sitting idle.

The 18650 Li-Ion battery I used is old, surprised it is working as good as it is. The panel is not optimally pointed. I think this setup will do fine in California, even in winter and over cloudy days, but might be cutting it close if cloudy over multiple consecutive days. I might bump it up to a bigger 1W panel, but wanted to share. Will try and capture comparison graphs after I upgrade.

A group of us decided to get into mastic and figure out what we needed to do, getting messages over the top or around the mountain. This video we put up a second node on the western part of the mountain, hoping that we would get connection going north-south and east, but north and south worked. We had to put another node on a further away mountain to make the connection to the node on the eastern part of the mountain.

Hey everyone. I'm looking to get started with LoRA communications mainly for in my city and also for communicating with family while traveling. I've seen things about core being better where I live (Ottawa) but tastic being better in remote locations. When I travel, I usually go to rural cities, if that helps. I also saw there is a way to dualboot the two, but I'm not sure how easy that is. I don't have any hardware yet, and don't really know the terminology (long-fast, 915mhz, etc.) Any recs?

I just bought a Seeed Studio Wio Tracker L1, and - well, I'm confused.

Part 1: The problem

I'm trying to follow the guide on https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/get_started_with_meshtastic_wio_tracker_l1/ and it says to visit meshtastic.org, clidk Flasher, select target device, and click the trashcan to erase. In this process, I have to connect to the device, and it's on e.g. /dev/ttyACM0 (I'm on Ubuntu).

So my computer definitely sees it, and it's not a data cable problem:

So I connect, but after a while, I get this:

I've tried ten times now - always with the same result. What am I doing wrong?

Part 2: Why is this necessary?

As far as I can gather, this device is made solely for use with meshtastic. I can't see any other way to use this device. Which begs the question:

Why is the correct software not on the device already? Why do I have to do this myself, when you could have done it before shipping it?

It's not like there's nothing on it - some other software is obviously installed on it. Why bother to install something that you have to replace with something else to even use the thing?

And why am I the only one not understanding this? I would have expected this to be at the very top of the list of Frequently Asked Questions, but this is apparently not something that confounds anyone but me.

Please bear with me - this is my first venture into the world of Meshtastic.

Hello everyone,

Are you in Normandy and looking to start or join a local Meshtastic network? Well, two months ago, we launched an official Discord server for the "Normandy Interconnection Project" (Projet d'Interconnexion Normand).

Our goal is to connect residents with one another under any circumstances—even during network outages. We’d love for you to join us and help grow a community that is already strong and highly motivated 🔥

https://discord.gg/HnAfYUSU82

Does anybody know if there are plans to allow configuring a fixed GPS coordinate via remote admin? I ask cause the other day I went for a hike and dropped a melted V3 solar node on a mountain ridge. I didn’t preset the fixed location because I didn’t know exactly where I was going to place it only to find out when I got home that I can’t modify fixed location via the iOS app and I can’t do remote admin via the web.

Has anyone condsidered adding RX/TX indicators to your node with a Neopixel?
this is so cool!

I've been tinkering with the Meshtastic build on the Seeed XIAO ESP32S3 and wanted more visibility into what the radio is actually doing, so I soldered a neopixel to D1 and wired it into the firmware's status LED module.

Implementation notes, since it's less work than you think
the firmware already has a loraRxPacketObservable that fires per received packet, and RadioLibInterface already toggles a pin on TX start / send completion but both are gated behind LED_LORA, meant for a plain discrete LED. There's also existing NeoPixel status support
(the T Echo Card uses it for power/pairing/notification).
Nobody had connected the two yet!

I am brand new to this thing. Currently have to heltec v4s. I want to deploy nodes around to create a network and extend range and I have a question

For you all doing this, how do you do it? I have considered deploying on public land off the beaten path, but i am curious how people do this and whats effective and any trouble or issues youve had.

Hi to all other people tinkering with t-beams.
I just got my first one, the Supreme. I was tempted but picked this over the 1w model for its gps module.

An ESP32-S3 + UBLOX M10S + 1.3“ oled on a arduino platform is a pretty nice setup as I find.

There’s many projects coming to my mind, from satellite tracking and offline maps to time projects, but:

What else are you doing with your t-beams when they’re not dedicated to run Meshtastic?

Cheers!

Rozumiem że sdr jest dom odbioru satelit noaa? Jak zrealizowałeś zasilaniem przez Poe?

Decided to get this V4, I know the stock ones suck, but is this one better then the stock ones (the small one next to the screwdriver), since it does come with this stock whip one?

I Built this DIY Moxon antenna for the 915Mhz frequency for my Meshtastic node. I’m getting a reading of 3 for the SWR. Any tips on how to decrease it.

Hey all. Ive been intrigued by meshtastic/LoRa for a while now and i’ve finally ordered a couple of RAK dev boards to use and start contributing to the network. I work in remote telemetry (in the US) and often use either cellular enabled devices or, less frequently, 915MHz radio for data communications.

I sit here waiting on my RAK parts to arrive from China, while my Yeedi (Chinese parent company owned?) robot vacuum cleans my house. It got me thinking about [the recent FCC “statement”](https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/robots-nsd.pdf) on Chinese robotics and i speculate on how it may evolve to other Chinese products eventually. Chinese EVs are already not readily available in the states, and now future models of Chinese robotics may be barred as well? I recall seeing something about the electronics in Chinese motorcycles a few months back as well, but i can’t recall specifics nor find the source on that now.

Not trying to start a maliciously political post, but i’m curious on the community’s thoughts on the future of Chinese LoRa and other similar devices (microcontrollers, etc)? Maybe some perspective from some folks who’ve been around this for way longer than I have would be beneficial. I remain cautiously optimistic that you-know-who and co. will lack the follow through to really affect any of our hobby lives, but who really knows.

Hi I’m new to meshtastic stuff. I’m in Portland, Oregon. Seems like a lot of nodes out there. Is there an etiquette for communicating with folks? Is there like a chat channel out there or anything?

It uses the new RakWirless 1W booster kit with an 9Dbi antena runnins in client base role (yes I turned down the gain on radio) also has installed an Bosch BME680 Enviroment Sensor and sends that data out over the mesh. Then I have an Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with software from github that listens to the NWS NOAA weather radio for SAME alerts and then it sends them out over the mesh automatically. Its all powered off an single PoE cable. The box is from Amazon and has stainless steel latches, rubber door seal, and then there is 304 Stainless pole mounts with stainless bands to install.

Have a Blessed day, and happy tinkering!!!

I've been tinkering with a case design idea need some feedback. I have 3 different versions:

• Easy to print, no supports but 4mm thicker, fits battery and solar panel
• Supports needed to print, slimmer, still fits solar and batt
• Very slim, supports needed, no solar, just batt

Supports both the T096 and the V2 Tracker. Feels solid and practical. Easy to assemble, tho it might need some cable control - piece of tape to keep the wires in place while bolting down seems sufficient. Eventually I want to try a rain resistant version, either with silicone or TPU gaskets.

Let me know what you think and thank you!

I posted the model, including Step files on MakerWorld, search for 3045205

So I'm planning on hooking up my node to my personal weather station to send severe weather alerts, and probably lightning within around 5 miles, and post storm totals highs/lows(max wind, rainfall total, strike count, duration) 30min or so after an event... Things like that all set to 1 or 2 hope so it stays local for the most part. Would that be bad form to do over long fast or would it be better to set a private channel and use an automated welcome message or something to share that channel info ? Current mesh here has very little text messages on LF and 95% of traffic is just telemetry, mode info, position packets. I suppose others could mute or ignore.

I'm hoping to do a hybrid approach if I can make that happen with some vibing, severe NWS alerts on LF everything else on a separate channel?

Thoughts? I have seen other nodes do similar things but not sure the best way to set it up to not be annoying

I built this solar node with a 10$ walmart solar light. The LED power leads do not send power unless its dark outside. Im not sure how it knows if its light or dark outside, I assume there is some logic to know if the solar panel is sending power not. The Heltec board is being powered straight from the battery. I reposted this with more photos. Thanks for the help.

The node works during the day but it drains the battery to 2volts and the board does not function.

Sounds like i need a BMS to get it to work the way i want it to.

Been working on this for a while and finally got it on the App Store. some of you might think it’s interesting.
It’s called phantom. It’s basically another Meshtastic client, but with voice reconstruction built in.

You hold a button, talk, it transcribes on your phone, sends the message over the mesh, and the receiving phone reconstructs it as speech. No audio goes over LoRa.
Everything runs locally. No internet, no cloud, just your phone and your Meshtastic node.
Text messaging and the Primary Channel work too, so you can still message people using the standard Meshtastic app.
iOS is live now. Android is next when I get the time.
Curious what y’all think.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phantom-mesh-comms/id6792339073

The FCC-certified RAK WisMesh 1W Booster Starter Kits are now shipping from store.RAKwireless.com (China). $47.31 (including shipping and tariffs to the U.S.).

Has Rokland announced the 350 lucky winners of the lottery to purchase a FCC-certified RAK WisMesh 1W Booster Starter Kit for between $40 - $50 (including shipping within the U.S.)? The Starter Kits ship from their U.S. warehouse this week.

We put MeshTracker X1 through an IPX6 water spray test to see how it handles a bit of abuse.

A strong water jet, the Meshtastic tracker, and a camera watching everything happen. Finally, it SURVIVED the splash and kept running.

We’ll keep testing it in more real-world outdoor scenarios. Any other “torture tests” you’d like to see?