Hi I have followed the install procedure for a 64 Windows 10 laptop and a Linux Mint laptop. Both hit problems. My problem in windows 10 is everything seems to work well up - no errors and flashing completes. If I open the logs I just see the error message access denied to com3. Twice I got a blue flashing light on the board even with this message. I thought this may indicate that the bluetooth was up. But I could not find the board from my phone. Often the blue led would not flash at all.
On linux I get an error trying to install esptools - error module esptools not found. This could be an issue around my haviing python2.7 and 3.6 installed on my laptop. But the workaround of python -m pip did not work for me.
I cannot find any posts on access denied. Any thought appreciated.
On Windows 10 I experienced Access Denied issues as well when using the ESPHome flasher util ; I found that physically switching the port the cable is would resolve it; even post-flashing I got Access Denied, so I ended up just rotating between the two USB ports on the front of my desktop after flashing
Not sure about the access denied message in ESPHome Flasher however ESPHome Flasher can’t be used to view the logs anymore as the debug message serial baud rate was up’d to 921600 from 115200. You need to use a terminal program like PuTTY which allows setting 921600 as the baud rate. I have created a pull request to change the readme https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/pull/139/files
Hi Thanks for all the ideas. No success so far. If I flash and then open Putty serial nothing happens - no new screen appears. I am not sure I understand the USB port switching - I have no battery attached to my board so it seems to just need re-flashing. I may not be following either of the ideas correctly of course.
So currently, I can see the board in device manager and appears fine. If I flash my 865Mhz, version 1 that seems to work.too. No lights appear however on the board (should I see leds working?). View logs gives the access denied error but if I hit RST then it does give me the following:
Unexpected error: could not open port ‘COM3’: PermissionError(13, ‘Access is denied.’, None, 5)
[11:22:44]Ϩ_#j%^g((G;##Ei"0prkt#ic% 0#{coFGJ|p#cK/%v J*QKmlwz#n{##pk#yJ#ets Jun 8 2016 00:22:57
[11:22:44]
[11:22:44]rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
[11:22:44]configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
[11:22:44]clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
[11:22:44]mode:DIO, clock div:2
[11:22:44]load:0x3fff0018,len:4
[11:22:44]load:0x3fff001c,len:1044
[11:22:44]load:0x40078000,len:8896
[11:22:44]load:0x40080400,len:5828
[11:22:44]entry 0x400806ac
I have a second board - maybe I should try that? Thanks for your help. Much appreciated.
An update. I have re-flashed again and checked the android app. I do see the bluetooth signal from the board is working. But I cannot get Putty to show an output so I cannot find the pin code for the bluetooth. Is there another way to get the pin. I have the screen with the board but I have not soldered it on yet. Thanks.
alas - the code only is printed on the screen and on the serial port.
Ah! Thanks for the info. Although I have not soldered my oled screen yet I did try just sliding it onto the pins and holding it in place. Nothing appears. Is there anything I can read about setting up the screen. Thanks again.
What board do you have and what firmware are you flashing?
Hi, this is what I bought: TTGO T-Beam ESP32 433/868/915Mhz WiFi Wireless Bluetooth Module ESP 32 GPS NEO-6M SMA LORA 32 18650 Battery Holder With OLED from AliExpress. It is described as revision 1. I purchased the 868/915Mhz version for the UK. As I recall it was supplied by Development Board Factory Shop. The firmware file from the zip file download: firmware-ttgo-lora32-v1-EU865-0.6.3.bin. I thought v1 and revision 1 were linked but I also tried the v2 equivalent.
Thanks for asking - this is my first experience with using ESP32 devices.
Hi just an update. I have succeeded in getting the firmware installed using my Linux laptop and re-running the command line steps as though meshtastic was already installed. I had to chmod /dev/ttyUSB0 to stop the accessed denied error and that allowed me to use Putty serial at 921600. There I managed to find the bluetooth code so I have connect to my Android meshtastic app.
My ongoing problems are the screen - this still shows nothing even after I have soldered it in place. The Putty output seems to say screen=on turned to dark? Is there a way to check the screen. I checked the voltage across vcc and gnd and that was right. Should I see something GND/SDA?
Finally the Android app is mostly ghosted - the device is paired but the map still only shows the global map. Channel options are ghosted as is send text. Do I need to set up a second radio before I can use these pages? Thanks.
re: screen being black
If you bought the screen separately - double check the pinout silkscreened on the screen, there are some that have vcc and gnd swapped. Also - if the software finds the screen it will print the following messages early in the boot (on serial)
I2C device found at address 0x34
axp192 PMU found
I2C device found at address 0x3c
ssd1306 display found
done
Meshtastic swver=0.6.4, hwver=1.0-US
re: app showing global map
I bet this is because your device hasn’t gotten a GPS lock yet. leave it outside a few minutes until the red led starts flashing.
You are also uploading the wrong firmware for the t-beam I believe. You need to use the firmware file that is along the lines of firmware-t-beam-EU865-0.6.3.bin not firmware-ttgo-lora32-v1-EU865-0.6.3.bin.
ah yes! That makes perfect sense. Thanks dafeman.
Oops big time. Thanks to both of you. I just seemed to stop going down the file list as soon as I saw EU865 Lora32 - the logo on the board. No excuse really - thanks for spotting it. Once you make a mistake it can be difficult not to keep making it.
Will try all your suggestions today and let you know.
Okay - a lot of success. Android map now showing the unit in current position - looks very accurate. Texts and QR not ghosted. What is QR for?
Only screen is still missing and I do not see I2C device on Putty screen in serial. So maybe I have a miss connected board. Thanks for all your help.
Good to hear! Have a look half way down here https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-device/wiki/Hardware-Information
The screens often come with VCC and GND either mapped to pins 1 and 2 respectively or vice versa. If your screen is labeled VDD, GND, SCK, SDA to 1-4 respectively then it should line up nicely with the T-Beam pins 3.3V (1), GND (2), 22 (3), 21 (4).
Hi Thanks for the link. I bough two T-beams and on both the OLED looks exactly as it should VCC, GND, SCL, SDA. But I put a voltameter on the OLED. VCC/GND was 3.3 and so were GND/SCL and GND/SDA. That sounds wrong to me - why is there a volatage across GND/SCL or SDA? Thanks.
Hi now that I have more experience and Putty serial is working well I have more info on the screen not working.
If I do a reset with Putty serial online I see:
I2C device found at address 0x34
axp192 PMU found
I2C device found at address 0x3c
ssd1306 display found
But the screen does not light up and I see no logo. Do you think the OLED is faulty? Thankshi feh123 I replied shorter to your other post in the topic #support https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/screen-not-working/225/6 : on T-beam, pins 21 & 22 are I2C pins which have pull-up resistors making them carry 3V3 in relation to GND, so it’s right that you will measure 3V3 on them. When there is I2C communication on this I2C bus, these 2 pins get shorted out by the talking I2C device, but one won’t be able to measure this, since it happens at several x100’s of kHz. You might be able to see the pulses on an oscilloscope.
The bottom side of your screen contains components also, which cannot touch any components on the T-beam, so it might be a go idea to put some insulation between them so that crystal is not shorted out. The other components on Tbeam are lower than the IC’s, so that should be no problem, and I would not stick anything on top of the ESP32 because it can get hot and needs airflow.
I noticed that Liligo is now selling a version 1.1 update of TTGO-T-beam boards with some slight changes (see my regularly updated excel sheet)
I don’t have this T-beam version yet, which has board marking T22-V1.120191212 and silkscreen print for SDA (22) and SCL (21) as well as a warning silkscreen print to watch out for the battery polarity!
They put back an N6M gps, added some components around the gps, and seem to have added an LED on GPIO4, next to the charging LED which has changed place. Now, once the O-led display is in place, there is no way you can see these two LEDS, it appears from the picture…
BTW the connection diagram on the V1.1 sales page still has the same erroneous inversion of SDA-22 and SCL-21, as was in the V1.0 schematic.
(the added silkscreen for SDA and SCL on the board seems correct!)
But that should not be the reason why your screens do not work, if you’re sure you wired them up okay.
Good luck!
@eriktheV-king thanks for all the info. Yes I have just bought the V1.1 - I need a few as I am certain to break them hiking.
You mention the possible the cause of my problems with the screens. I have the screens working now - I re-soldered them as I had them slightly bent towards the board. I did not realise this could be the cause - I was just checking my soldering before giving up with the screens. So you are right - my soldering was not too good.
All this info about the boards is great - thanks. Re using the radios for hiking - is there a write up somewhere on best way to use them? Thanks again.