Meshtastic - Blog Posts

Pin layout and GPS wiring diagram.

Apparently my son's radio still thinks it's Christmas

My daughter and I successfully sent and received test texts to one another once everything was setup.

If you are going to use a GPS with your unit you will need to enable the GPS mode and then set the rx and tx pins that you have soldered to on the circuit board of the radio. Here they're set to 48 and 47, respectively.

The final one (for now) is done, just need to Bluetooth it and test it out.

Second one ready to go!

After filing the 3D printed buttons down and removing the other shelf, the pressure on the power and reset buttons was relieved enough to tighten the screws and finish assembly. This one is ready to be Bluetoothed to a phone.

Everything packed in but still getting too much pressure against the reset button, so that will need elevated before I can tighten the housing down

I removed the other shelf thinking that it would relieve the pressure on the power and reset buttons, but this turned out to be wrong.

I've removed the bottom left "shelf" that the radio sits against that blocks any wiring from the radio to the GPS. Hopefully, this will fix the issue with the radio not properly sitting in the frame. Keep in mind, if you aren't going to wire a GPS unit to the Heltec V3 then you'll not have to remove the "shelf"

I apparently live in a soldering replacement tip black hole, so when I need a new tip I have to buy a new iron. The Chicago Electric soldering iron ($3.99 @ Harbor Freight) and the Weller soldering iron ($19.99 @ Ace Hardware) appear to be the exact same, aside from color. I've looked online and haven't found any specific manufacturer for thr Chicago Electric iron aside from "various Chinese" production companies, while the Weller is produced by Apex Tool Group, LLC out of Apex, NC. Still yet, the packaging for the Weller says it's made in China. Here's to hoping that the tip on the Weller is a bit better quality and doesn't deteriorate as quickly as the Chicago Electric one.

I filed it down! I'm not an electronics guru so it took me a bit to realize that I just need to manipulate the environment in which the Heltec V3 is going to occupy inside the radio frame. I'm considering using hot glue to help secure the radio in place now that the shelf/lip is gone. We'll see once it's in place, but in the meantime, I need to get a replacement radio.

The radio frames made by Tony G on printables.com truly are well designed and if anyone is thinking about building meshtastic radios I would highly suggest downloading any of his designs that suits your needs.

I would have only one fix for this radio frame though, it's this blasted lip/shelf where the heltec v3 is supposed to sit. The design prohibits the connections for the hot and ground wires to the GNSS radio to sit. Granted, I'm not good at soldering but I was good enough to ruin my radio trying to find a way to get the wires soldered in a way that would work. But I think I have a solution.

Ruined one of my Heltec V3's by soldering and resoldering the connections for the hot and ground wires trying to get it to fit into the radio frame.

Backs are printed!

Frames completed after 17.5 hours.

All done printing the faceplates!

Finally!

As always, there's an adhesion issue, but at least I have it printing again. I started over after adding painter's masking tape which appears to be working...for now.

It has me pinpointed

Got it updated and connected to my phone but it's the only one in the area. Need to build a mesh

Finally figured out how to get guy's firmware to flash properly.