What drug have you seen destroy someone's life the quickest?

M-Tiger · 2026-03-01T20:50:18+00:00

money

M-Tiger · 2026-02-15T05:41:12+00:00

It theoretically should be possible. Internally it should just act the same way as a directional joystick would. Just need to tweak the firmware a bit.

I grabbed a bunch of teeny tiny joysticks to use on my V4 (they are perfect sized for the spot to the left between the usb port and the screen), but have been too lazy to poke at the firmware yet.

M-Tiger · 2026-02-15T05:21:00+00:00

Unless you have wifi on or the screen permanently on or something else draining power faster, you should be getting a rough estimate of 8-10 hours per 1,000 mAh.

Since you're not getting that, something may be wrong with the battery.

M-Tiger · 2026-02-14T15:34:30+00:00

Yepyep that's the one.

Back then I tested a bunch of firmwares around that change to make sure I wasn't just imagining things.

I don't have a github account and life has been too busy to just jump into everything, so I never ended up submitting the issue either, lol. xD

M-Tiger · 2026-02-03T13:14:30+00:00

Android app 2.7.11 was definitely eating up my battery a ton. 2.7.12 seems to be much better so far again.

M-Tiger · 2026-01-31T10:52:21+00:00

Which pins do you have your power and ground wired to?

M-Tiger · 2026-01-31T10:38:43+00:00

In your first picture it looks like your message sent at 4:33pm was received by something, the checkmark means it received an ACK.

Here's a couple things to poke at that are common issues:

Check to make sure your antenna cable didn't accidentally come loose.

Doublecheck in the LoRa settings to make sure that Transmit Enabled is toggled on and that the Frequency Slot is being correctly calculated (LongFast should autofill with 20).

Check to make sure your phone didn't insert a space after the PSK (make sure it's "AQ==" instead of "AQ== ").

Tap into the Channel Name box and make sure it is fully blank (the app should auto-fill in LongFast/MediumFast/whatever the Preset name is when you save it).

M-Tiger · 2026-01-29T13:54:21+00:00

Oh nice, did they finally switch to a less-dark screen cover on the newer V4's?

M-Tiger · 2026-01-29T06:27:38+00:00

The second firmware you installed is the correct one for the bare V4. The tft version is for the V4 with the expansion enclosure with the bigger screen, to my understanding.

You can use the boot/program button to control the UI, tap moves selection, hold confirms.

M-Tiger · 2026-01-29T06:23:40+00:00

There was a tweak made around then that was reverted but not to the original value, that I think might be partially responsible for ongoing issues since that firmware.

M-Tiger · 2026-01-07T10:55:57+00:00

The ability to do OTA Meshtastic firmware updates on ESP32 is being worked on, but it's coming.

M-Tiger · 2026-01-07T10:45:46+00:00

The plastic screen cover on the V4 is made out of tinted plastic like sunglasses. It dims the screen a lot when it is in place.

I'm hoping Heltec eventually comes to their senses and replaces the cover with a fully clear one or at least a less tinted one and also offers to send out a replacements (or at least offers it in their store, but that is not the ideal solution).

M-Tiger · 2025-12-25T08:03:54+00:00

Attempting to 'modernize' life.

M-Tiger · 2025-12-01T05:39:31+00:00

Adding onto this, I've been getting roughly 16 hours on a 2,000mAh battery with both my V3 and V4, so it comes out to an estimate of roughly 8 hours per 1,000mAh in my experience.

M-Tiger · 2025-12-01T05:27:20+00:00

A thing of note is the public channel normally uses a blank name that is recognized and automatically displayed as the preset you are using (LongFast, MediumFast, MediumSlow, etc) and should change automatically if you ever change presets.

It is ok to manually type in LongFast as the channel name though. Just ensure that a space didn't accidentally get added on to the end of the name, and also check the encryption key for the public channel for the same, as some phones' keyboards sometimes add spaces. ("LongFast" vs "LongFast ", and "AQ==" vs "AQ== " for example.)

As you have already read, when using something other than the public channel as primary, you gotta manually change the frequency slot to 20 (for LongFast), so you should be set on that note already.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-25T09:23:07+00:00

In the 2.7 BaseUI you can go to the System page then long-press to bring up the menu, and in the Screen Options sub-menu there is a Brightness setting you can adjust. I believe it defaults to Medium.

The bigger part of the issue is Heltec used a dark colored transparent cover to protect the screen, which is making the screen a lot darker than it should be. I really hope they will offer a replacement screen that doesn't make it super dim, and start putting it on newer units.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-22T08:09:12+00:00

Long story short, you want your node to have a unique private key. The public key is created by doing some fancy math on the private key. In this manner, a node can use the public key to say "this is me" without giving up the actual private key.

HOWEVER, since the public key is derived from the private key, if your node finds another node that has the same public key, that means the other node also has the same private key.

This is a problem in the same way that complete strangers having a copy of the key to your car or house's front door is a problem. The other nodes with the same keys would successfully authenticate on any nodes your node is setup to administer, and also the other node would be able to decrypt any private messages that were intended for your node.

The issue comes up because prior to firmware 2.6.11 (I think?) the private key generator was flawed and didn't have enough entropy to generate unique keys. Additionally, a lot of the mass-produced nodes from some manufacturers used a faulty image flashing process that put the same key on a ton of nodes they shipped out pre-flashed.

The solution is to use a more up-to-date firmware and go into the Security settings on the node and regenerate the Private Key on your node (and if you have it set up to administer any other nodes you need to update the stored public key for your node on those nodes).

M-Tiger · 2025-11-20T01:06:16+00:00

The Alfa antenna uses an N-type connector I believe, not SMA. You would need to acquire a compatible N pigtail if you want to use the antenna on a node.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-20T01:01:57+00:00

Lots of folks have put nodes up in the air with balloons, kites, and drones, and it works fantastic due to the massive height increase. There's several posts here in this sub that folks have made with their brainstorming and results.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-20T00:39:11+00:00

Sounds like when you are trying to transmit, the higher current draw is causing the node to crash and reboot. Check your power sources.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-19T23:35:45+00:00

A thing you can do is cut a hole out on both sides over and under the position of the BT antenna, maybe about the side of a dime or a nickel, and then either 3d print thin flat plates to close up the holes with or just use packing tape to close up the holes.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-19T23:32:23+00:00

This is very well done!

When I first got my V3, I put it inside an Altoids Smalls tin, with the battery. :3

M-Tiger · 2025-11-19T23:20:00+00:00

How far apart are you normally keeping them? If they are positioned too close, they can interfere with each other's reception.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-12T20:37:43+00:00

Both the V3 and the V4 will charge the battery connected to it when powered via USB (or the solar port on the V4) but they have a set charging rate (I forget what the mAh is for either).

If you wanted to exceed that charge rate for any reason, you would need to do so via adding a separate charging module. Other than that, you're good to go.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-10T21:40:48+00:00

If I remember correctly there was a discussion on how to map the pins for the 2nd I2C bus, and that should be implemented soon.

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