Alpha tester thread (1.1.8 device code ready for alpha testing) šŸ™‚

UPDATE: donā€™t install 0.8.1 unless you have a tbeam. Someone reported a bug with a ttgo lora and it would affect any board without external ram.

Ok seems pretty solid to me, might as well release it to you brave souls. I think it fixes the loss of BLE paring bug:

Major changes:

  • @aHVzY2g added support for the ttgo-lora-v2-1-1.6 device (which is apparently different from the other ttgo-loras :wink: )
  • The problem of ESP32 devices forgetting their BLE pairing should be fixed

ok - in addition to that device release - there is also an app release up for alpha/beta test users:

You can use this android app to update the device code over BLE. ONLY DO THIS FOR TBEAMS in this build. the enclosed firmware wonā€™t work on other ESP32s.

Changes since 0.7.93:

  • @lgx made the node info nicer, showing last time we heard from the node, and correct battery levels
  • @Mango-sauce improved the Chinese translations
  • @zjwhitehead Fixed text wrapping on the settings screen
  • Misc minor fixes so the app will work on Amazon Fire devices
  • Remove accidental google play requirement (though still required to use the phoneā€™s GPS - if a big deal put in a bug and we can do it some other way)
  • BLE scan tweaks so it will also work with NRF52 devices
  • Fix a few autobugs (mostly for Samsung devices)

ok 0.8.2 of the device code is out to fix the problem @thomslik noticed on any board that wasnā€™t a tbeam. Iā€™m not going to bother releasing a new android load with it right now. So if you donā€™t have a tbeam, donā€™t use the built-in BLE update for now :wink:

3 Likes

actually - alas, after 36 hrs, one of my three phones just got prompted to re-pair so the bug isnā€™t fixed by the easy ā€œjust update to pull in a bunch of OS fixesā€ ;-). Iā€™ll work on it again tomorrow.

No one needs to install this device load (though it is harmless). The android load has good fixes though.

2 Likes

Loaded 0.8.2 onto my tbeams and running 0.8.02 on my Huawei (running Android 7.0) I found the setup went well. Texts, maps work and all the new info additions were present. I have stopped using 5.1.1 - it was not working well with 0.8.02 - I sent in a few bug reports which I think you can delete.

On my Huawei it seemed that to send a text to both tbeams I had to select them in turn and wait for the message to be sent. I had one text error: we donā€™t yet have our myNodeInfo but this cleared after a few minutes. Otherwise App worked very well.

1 Like

loaded 0.8.02 android application on S20+ 5G, running Android 10, and upgraded unit FW OTA. unit is a tbeam V0.7
now battery level is 207% :slight_smile:
there is also an antenna symbol with a ?
will see if the BLE behaves

1 Like

thanks! tbeam 0.7 voltage sensing isnā€™t in yet:

left the unit running for a day and BLE did not forget the pairing.
will run more test later.
btw, i read of up to 8 days running on one battery, but i am getting 24 hrs or so with a good quality 2500mAh cell
will test the current later on at the bench

well, connected to the bench PS and wow. this unit is power hungry. consumption oscillates between 100 and 200mA but at start it goes above 400. no wonder the battery lasts a day or less.
and btw, battery level on the android app went back to 254% so all is good :slight_smile:

Hi

your battery usage looks aligned with my TBeam v1.1. With a 3000mAh battery I am getting just short of 48hrs

Paul

Filed a bugreport from Blackview BV5500-plus running Android 10.0 Q and Meshtastic Android version 0.8.02 with username Myr_BV55.
Program operating absolutely fantastic but 2 small remarks:

  • OTA update T-beam 1.0 to 0.8.1 (as presented by blue button, does not present 0.8.2 yet) was very very slow. Progressbar advancing at mice speed (5 minutes for about 2 mm) and after doing something else or sleeping phone) it had not moved but another mill. When I sent a message, the progress bar had disappeared but couldnā€™t continue update (grey button) without quitting and restarting app. Restarting app gave blue button and pushing on it continued the upload progress bar where it was before, but upload continued at same slow speed. In total I restarted about 15 times to get to the end of the update progress, which retruned ā€˜failedā€™. So Iā€™ll flash 0.8.2 direct over USB.

  • after restarting Meshtastic 0.8.02 or waking phone up from sleep or bringing it from background to foreground, the first message being sent is well received by all devices (connected different Lora32v2 and another Tbeam1.0 and running 0.7.9, 0.7.10 and 0.8.2 devices together OK), but on the message screen on the departing Android (this phone) comes up double.

Filed a crash report from Blackview BV8000-pro running Android 7.1 and Meshtastic Android version 0.8.02 with username VK07. Was running Meshtastic Android version 0.8.02 on both phones and connecting to Tbeam running 0.8.2 while all four devices were running 0.8.2 (all flashed over USB)
Besides this, all good, iā€™m really impressed!

1 Like

galaxy a8 2017, 0.8.02, firmware 0.8.1 tbeam 433
Default setings

the map is updated only after restarting the application.
(maybe you should make the refresh button so that the data in the application is updated.)
the signal level is also displayed incorrectly (if there are difficulties in moving to%, it may need to be done in db or else)
the text in Russian is incorrectly formatted in the application tab (ā€œsend a reportā€)

bug report recently sent.

1 Like

thanks @luxonn - that does look ugly ;-). Weā€™ll fix sometime in the next 2-3 weeks.

1 Like

Can do, and can try iOS as well

Hi yaā€™ll - brave alpha testers requested for testing:

THIS IS AN ALPHA RELEASE (with an especially big changelist). If you are not an alpha tester you probably want 0.8.2 instead.

0.9.1 - Fix #266 (the ā€˜esp32 loses BLE pairingā€™ bug). Other benefits:

  • Bluetooth is 4x faster
  • substantially lower RAM and FLASH consumption (which makes plenty of IRAM space to leave wifi always enabled)
  • Eventually will allow the same BLE implementation on NRF52 and ESP32 targets - because NimBLE can run on both platforms
  • BLE ā€˜handlesā€™ are assigned in a stable fashion, so eventually (after widely deployed) the nasty ā€œforce service refreshā€ hack needed on Android clients can be removed.

This was a lot of work and (unexpectedly) sucked up the last 1.5 weeks of development time. Iā€™m going to take a 1 or 2 day break (while waiting on reports from you brave alpha testers). But after the break Iā€™ll reply to the forum posts and email questions that have piled up during this slog of a bug. Iā€™ll also fix the few (and easy) bugs remaining in the 1.0 release bucket, so that hopefully we can get this release out and then start work on the cool new features/ideas/cleanup weā€™ve discussed for ā€œafter 1.0ā€

NOTE You will need to re-pair once :smile: after installing this new load (because it is keeping different device signing data than the old Bluedroid based implementation)

7 Likes

Just updated one of my devices. Messages are no longer getting through.

When both device where updated they started working again.

Didnā€™t do a rigorous test but sitting at my desk it seems like it is taking longer for the messages to be received, and much longer for a ACK to come through.

1 Like

433 firmware
works good. messages seem to be transmitted better in poor reception areas

1 Like

App Firmware - 0.8.03
Device Firmware - 0.9.1
Hardware - TBeams

Cleared app data and ā€œforgotā€ Bluetooth connections just as at starting measure. App connected up beautifully and messages flowing freely. The only issue I had was it took a long time for the location to be displayed on the map even with the node having had GPS lock for 5 mins or so. Does the message payload include location and battery status etc? I assume when you send a message all those parameters get sent as well and the map should update? Also the last known connection time on the People tab I assume should update with a message ACK being received but it doesnā€™t appear to.

Excellent work and so far the Bluetooth connection is stable as!

1 Like

essentially the only changes in this release (compared to 0.8.2) should be bluetooth related. Nothing in the protocol/app etcā€¦ changed.

1 Like