I have observed a concerning situation. A few people from the EU have contacted me asking for help with their meshtastic units. Apparently, many folks are preparing for a “shit hits the fan” scenario. They fear fuel shortages and blackouts when winter hits in the next month or so.
The usual complaint is that the app, firmware, and flasher do not play along well on 1.3. It might take a while for 1.3 to mature and stabilize.
I think we should create a page dedicated to the 1.2 branches, where links to download the 1.2 stuff are listed. I see such a page, but the problem is that iOS users cannot sideload apps easily AFAIK. Can we add a Meshtastic 1.2.x app separately on Testflight for iOS? I am not sure if shit will really hit the fan in the EU, but if it does we need to let these people have a stable way of communicating.
I am not using 1.2 personally. I am not saying 1.3 is buggy in parts, but perhaps as a whole, it is not consistent yet?
A lot of users are complaining about the flasher not working etc. I understand that things are being developed rapidly and this can lead to breaking changes. With all that said, can we host a 1.2.x iOS app on Testflight for users who wish to use it?
@CHAUPTMA Perhaps you can post your experience here?
1.2 is not a LTS version, it is an unfinished beta with bugs.
For every user on 1.2 there are fifty on 1.3. Every core contributor has moved on from 1.2
The 1.3 transition has been going on for 9 months and at every step opportunities to maintain 1.2 were available.
The classic/ble hybrid bluetooth stack on 1.2 is not compatible with iOS, there is a 1.2 version that will be available until the end of November. It has a little over one hundred downloads, so I just don’t see any real demand for 1.2.
You are welcome to keep the 1.2 page updated, but it is really just for ATAK until the forwarder is updated.
TL/DR: Don’t use 1.2.x except if you run ATAK. Again don’t use 1.2.x .
1.3.x is superior in every aspect to 1.2.x. 1.2.x will not work reliably with any Android app release and has an unfortunate choice of default radio parameters. Given the limited amount of people that work on firmware, apps and docs we can not justify maintaining or supporting 1.2 any longer. The only valid reason to still use 1.2 is the “atak” integration.
People having a hard time with 1.3 stems from last minute breaking changes to protobuf and partition layout. Given the plans to launch a stable 2.0 version in less than a months time, I still highly recommend to try the current 1.3 version and apps and don’t try to use a supposedly ‘stable’ 1.2 which it isn’t …
You are also welcome to contribute to fixing flasher bugs as well, the USB serial drivers for ESP32 do make it tough for a lot of users but that issue is the same with either version.
If you want to create a page dedicated to 1.2 branches on meshtastic.org, go ahead. PRs to the Meshtastic project in GitHub go straight to the public site.
If you want to put in the effort to make Meshtastic 1.2 work on iOS, you’re welcome to give it a shot. As our inclusive nature, we’ll accept the PR.
You’re right that Meshtastic 1.2 is end of life and if you’d like to help those still on 1.2 with their unique use case or to transition, that’d be appreciated.
I very much appreciate all your work for the meshtastic app and firmware, that’s great. kokroo proposed, that I post my experience here, I’m happy to do so.
We started begin of 2022 to build a Meshtastic network for off grid communication. The network consists now of approx. 20 LORA T-Beam devices and 3 RAK 4631 devices, which we use as routers placed at exposed locations. Our plan is to cover an area of approx. 20 km2.
We started with FW version 1.2 and had initially good results and stable communication. Some of our group upgraded to 1.3 and we faced the incompatibility issues between 1.2 & 1.3, but I took us quite long to figure out, that there is no mistake made by us, but the two firmwares are just not compatible.
Now, we want to get our network up and working, since winter in Europe might get a tough place and off grid communication could be very helpful. Few weeks ago we decided to go back to version 1.2, since with this one we had the initial good experience.
In parallel, I asked for advice, which version to be used in the forum and got mixed response. I understand, that version 1.3 is better in general, but still not bug free. From our point of view, if would be great, if until end November a stable FW and App version 1.3 would exist. To be a big plus for the winter, not all features need to be implemented, but stability and reliability of sending and recieving messages is essential.
It’s great tool with great potential and maybe its first proof of concept scenario right in front of us. Thank you all for your great work and support, that makes a big difference.
Do you have an example of something in messaging that is not working right? I see much less stability on 1.2 than 1.3 as it relates to messaging and routing, so while I understand sometimes people look to use an older version because it is more stable, that is just not the case here.
We have not yet evaluated the stability of 1.3 to full extend. Only few of our network upgraded to 1.3 and when we noticed, that there are incompatibility issues, we decided to go all back to 1.2.
My initial question concerning this topic was intended to learn, what might be the best version for us. The response was mixed. But now I get the impression, that it might be best to upgrade all devices and apps to 1.3 and give it a try. Would this be your recommendation?
Yes use the install script or the flasher for ESP32 devices, and the drag and drop method for NRF52 devices, there is a NRF reset uf2 in the firmware download now so you can clear any saved settings from the RAK devices before flashing.
Just a head up, today is the release of Meshtastic 2.0 - which means all prior versions of the device firmware are unsupported now. 2.0 is essentially the latest 1.3.x alpha, promoted to release status.