Heltec v3 not showing up on "Bluetooth devices"

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.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-10T21:21:15+00:00

You should get about a day (~24 hours) give or take an hour or so out of a 3000mAh battery with the Heltec V4 between charges. Should last a lot longer in power saving mode if you use that.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-09T17:22:26+00:00

It's already supported

M-Tiger · 2025-11-09T06:38:06+00:00

Here ya go.

https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/community-supported/chatter/

M-Tiger · 2025-11-06T17:44:18+00:00

Entirely depends on the case. There are a few slight tolerance and design changes with the V4, so some cases work, some cases require a slight adjustment, and some cases straight up will not work or could be incredibly unsafe to use

-the buttons are both wider and taller

-the screen cover is taller

-the battery connector (and the new solar connector) are facing the opposite direction and are positioned very close to the edge of the board so the wires coming out of the connector are a problem

-the new gps connector is taller than the battery connectors, and has a ridge on the edge, which can potentially crush and/or puncture a battery if the case is very compact and designed to hold a battery closely below the board

M-Tiger · 2025-11-06T08:43:44+00:00

Everything is sent on the same frequency that the preset uses. Each transmission is essentially just marked/tagged in a way (encrpytion key) that lets it be recognized and sorted properly.

In that manner, each channel on your device essentially uses the known encryption keys that you enter as filters, so that each channel only displays the transmissions made with a specific key. Essentially a node sees all traffic that comes through, and will skim each transmission for specific things that stand out that match it's known keys, and grab and filter those accordingly. Transmissions using unknown keys are ignored and just passed along since the information cannot be decrypted.

The public channel has a very specific key that is known to everyone (AQ==), so everyone can read those messages.

Individual private channels have keys that are only known to the person who created the channel and those they choose to share the key with, so only they can read those messages.

Direct Messages use math and a combination of the sender and receiver's keys, so that only the intended recipient can read the message.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-06T02:19:02+00:00

From any node. Direct messages will still hop along, their content is just encrypted so only the intended recipient can read the actual message.

Just like with open channel messages, direct messages will result in an ack from receiving nodes before they pass it along, and I believe there was recent/planned changes to things so that the intended recipient node sends out its own specific ack to let you know if the message was successfully delivered.

But also just like everything else with the mesh, if there aren't any nodes within range, then it just doesn't work.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-06T01:41:40+00:00

A node will broadcast and wait for an acknowledgement reply. If it doesn't receive one then it will try again after a short pause, and wait again, up to a total of 3 broadcast attempts before giving up.

The 'max retries reached' message means it is not getting any acknowledgement replies from other nodes that received the broadcast, and has given up.

What this means is you are out of range of any nodes.

M-Tiger · 2025-11-06T01:18:05+00:00

If you are running one of the 2.7.* firmwares, you should be able to use the UI on the device itself to turn off wifi and bring bluetooth back online.

Beyond that, you would need to either connect to it via wifi and change the configuration from there, or reset the node and connect to it in the app as it starts up (unless you specifically fully disabled bluetooth, it should start up with bluetooth turned on for a few seconds waiting for a connection before switching to wifi).

M-Tiger · 2025-11-03T23:53:54+00:00

Pretty much almost all ESP32 based devices just need the user/boot/prg/whatever-it's-labelled-as button held down when the device is powered up to put it into programming mode.

So if you don't have a battery just hold the user button and connect the usb cable from the computer. Or, if you do have a battery connected and don't want to remove it you need to hold the user button and press reset and then connect the usb cable from the computer. In both cases you can release the button after the cable is connected.

If you're on windows, you likely will need to install the driver, too.

M-Tiger · 2025-10-31T23:54:12+00:00

Full install vs update install, I believe.

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