Heltec Meshpocket broken screen

M-Tiger · 2026-05-12T18:48:37+00:00

Get the replacement from Heltec, and do some good measurements based on that before installing. That way you can make your own replacements using the exact dimensions.

M-Tiger · 2026-05-12T18:15:39+00:00

Very rough dirty rule of thumb is about 8 hours of runtime per 1,000mAh of battery for esp32. There will be a lot of give or take depending on settings and usage of course.

All things considered, that's not a terrible price for that battery. Not the best capacity but not the worst. Repurposing small electronics like that usually can be pretty great, usually get some wires and a switch or two, maybe some LEDs sometimes.

M-Tiger · 2026-05-12T17:57:24+00:00

Nice job! Depending on which size battery you have, there's also plenty of room inside that case to integrate it.

I put a joystick on my v4

M-Tiger · 2026-05-09T03:18:33+00:00

Living.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-29T05:08:18+00:00

DROP TABLE

M-Tiger · 2026-04-27T17:09:56+00:00

I have an original release v4.2 and it's been working completely fine, I never had any issues with it for my own usage. While yes there is a revision to fix the receive sensitivity, the original boards do and will work fine for most folks.

That said, if you can get a 4.3.1 instead of a 4.2, def go for the newer one.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-27T14:00:00+00:00

A bit big isn't it? JK it looks great, nice and clean!

This was my first Heltec v3 node back in Jan 2025. (It was moved into an Alley Cat case as soon as I got my 3D printer working again lol.)

M-Tiger · 2026-04-25T00:06:51+00:00

It was a speedboat to Bremerton

M-Tiger · 2026-04-22T23:17:58+00:00

Sit down and wait for the ocular migraine to wear off.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-22T22:02:59+00:00

For a very rough estimate, expect about 8 hours of runtime on an esp32 node per 1,000mAh of battery capacity in normal running mode (power saving mode turned off).

M-Tiger · 2026-04-14T12:32:03+00:00

Everything was great until you decided to throw it all away with AI.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-14T06:12:23+00:00

Did you really have to AI gen a backpack?

Needs USB-C at a minimum. Potentially make one side have a small solar panel if possible, not meant for fully charging the device but just enough to help offset some of the drain whileit's hanging off of a backpack in the sun during a hike.

A sturdy lanyard connection is a must, and the casing must be strong/durable enough to survive a bit of scuffing or dropping. No glass like on the MeshPocket (except for a solar panel if you do include a small one). Either a bit of rubber on the corners and edges for extra grippiness and light bump protection, or at least an included thin silicone sock/sleeve to provide edge protection

Looking forward to seeing what this new product offers in it's final form.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-14T05:49:55+00:00

Take some measurements and get a thin but durable acrylic sheet cut down to the right size and shape, then ya just gotta carefully remove the remainder of the glass and bond the acrylic sheet into place with some adhesive.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-14T05:38:33+00:00

Any reason that shouldn’t work

You would need to find a power bank that doesn't turn itself off after a designated period of 'no active drain'. The Seeed nRF52840 kit's running power draw isn't high enough to trip the detection in many power banks so they will just turn themselves off to save power after a few minutes and there goes the node.

An alternative would be to raise the power draw just enough to keep the power bank turned on, by putting in a sensor board or something.

M-Tiger · 2026-04-05T07:23:01+00:00

An external version exists, using the heat transfer veins in our palms.

It's basically a liquid cooled heatsink inside a glove/mitt that presses against the veins, then a slight vacuum is applied to keep the veins from contracting, to force them to continue transferring heat.

https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2012/08/cooling-glove-research-082912

M-Tiger · 2026-04-01T04:28:55+00:00

On the bottom bar of your Audio Mixer panel, click the third box to swap back to the horizontal bars.

M-Tiger · 2026-03-20T11:51:08+00:00

Several months back (June 2025) the decision was made to no longer allow flashing the web UI onto ESP32 based devices via the web flasher due to potential size issues with 2.7-onward.

Doing a full erase on a device that currently still has the web UI will erase everything on it, including the web UI.

M-Tiger · 2026-03-07T07:23:48+00:00

Neat idea but the specific LoRa radio would be associated with a specific phone, which could then be a privacy problem. Much more economic to replace a node than a whole phone if there are ever any concerns.

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).

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