Newbie tbeam screen issues

1

hi guys i am having issues getting this board working
i have a ttgo tbeam v1.1 esp32 868/b/holder 868mhz with oled ive tried to install the software but screen doesnt light up?

any ideas

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2

Ensure the bin file you chose in the ESP flasher is actually that of the board you have. ie make sure its the tbeam version and not lora etc.

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3

Yeah I’ve select the correct one and can see the thing responding on the flasher when I press the reset/power button .

Starting to think the display may be faulty

4

Could be hardware, has the screen ever worked (maybe with firmware it came with?)

How good is your soldering? Got a multimeter? do continuity check between pins of the oled and pins on the board.

Also check for DC voltage across the VCC and GND OLED power pins once powered up (be careful not to short circuit them)

Edit: Also check your pinout - I understand some oleds have pins that do not line up with the board correctly, can be resolved by making small wire jumpers to hook up pins to correct counterpart.

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5

You can check the serial log to see if the device is ok or not. How to use Putty to access the serial log is described on this page:


You can also install the Python API as described here:

That will also install a meshtastic commandline executable that you can use to access the serial log.
In a shell try:
meshtastic --help
for available options.
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6

Are you able to provide a photo of the board? Perhaps someone might see something to assist further?

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7

Thanks guys I’ve wise putty and the board works I’ve connected via Bluetooth to it with meshtastic

8

Also some screens have different pinouts. If you purchased the screen separately from the unit check that carefully.

9

I chose to dive into this project using the t-beam boards because I want the GPS positioning feature.

However, I have to say I’m getting very frustrated with the boards that I’ve bought. Of the three that I have ordered from two suppliers (one on Aliexpress, the other on Banggood), only one has a reliable OLED display. Another one did not turn on from day one, and the last one flickers.

I realize that when I do bring them out on the field to actually use them for off-grid comms that I’ll be relying mostly on the phone app, but the failure rate of these displays is annoying and a waste of my money.

I have verified connectivity using a multimeter and re-soldered a few times.

Is there is a supplier that provides these boards with the displays already attached and are reliable?

10

I purchased mine from amazon, and the screen is deffo faulty.
there are boards out there with the screen and pins attached. not sure it will solve the faulty screen issues but at least you could send the whole board back

11

I had an issue with one of mine where the display wasnt functioning well. I still had some excess solder flux between the pins for the display.

With the battery removed try cleaning up around the pins and wipe away any flux. A tooth brush with rubbing alcohol works well.

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12

@satkiwii
Thanks for that tip - it does make a difference, even if for a while…
Both displays managed to light up perfectly after a few rounds of brushing with alcohol, but left alone longer, they went back to their defective conditions.
At least this convinces me that re-soldering the display boards is worth a try next.

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