now waiting for the printet shell . and hope everything, also battery will fit inside
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Open a bug report on GitHub for the battery issue. This device doesnāt have an axp chip so it should be similar to other devices that lack one and uses samples to calculate a battery voltage/%
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Pulled both d2 diodes from my units, untouched one took the latest alpha no problem. Havenāt tried to esptool chip_id afterward, but my first unit will not comm to anything over USB. Period. Iām feeling like Iām going to have to replace it to update to latest.
Good news, though, despite that issue, both devices will send messages to each other using the android app. Web client seems to not play nice for me.
Tdeck has the potential to be meshtasticās flagship one device solution, dev seems to be moving faster on it than other devices, and itās receiving a lot of attention. Iām still all in.
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this is the very cheap 6M GPS i installed on the tdeck.
it comes with a quite big gps antenna .
the neo6M model with antenna, for around 2,5ā¬
i also ordered the 8M to try later
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i like the t-deck, so i gave it a housing.
i had thingiverse 6131064 printed, but the print did not come out fine. i used it anyway.
some small relocations and managed to stuff the gps, antenna and a too small battery (500mAh 9mm, 10mm did not fit ) inside. need to get some bigger battery, best would be some+ 2000mAh
the trackball is hidden under the bridge part of the housing, and this part can be presses to press the trackball. it only functions as a button this way, no ātrackā, which is yet not necessary under meshtastic anywayā¦ i will get some nicer prints and see what bigger battery i can fit insideā¦
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Ugh, my post linking to the better enclosure got removed apparently because spam, so Iāll just describe how to get there. On the official t-deck site, thereās a review.
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@kilroy print came out really wellā¦ a little thicker than the official case but I definitely can stuff a lot more into it.
The 3000mAh battery almost fits, so Iāll have to find a way to mod the STL. @OE1KBC do you mind sharing your CAD files?
Assembled
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it would be so nice to get 2pieces 18650 fit inside ā¦ or maybe 3 
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This is looking really good!
What sort of battery life are you guys getting?
How is the range?
Is the Meshtastic support good enough for mere mortals to have a play with now?
I would love to order a couple if theyāre (mostly) functional!
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Running firmware 2.2.3, my T-Deck seems a little inconsistent, especially compared to my T-Beams and T-Echos. Using the defaults, the display didnāt want to remain on long enough to interact with the device. I set ādisplay.screen_on_secsā to ā60ā, and it seemed to sort that issue. The biggest issue I have with it is the inconsistent USB connectivity. I was able to get esptool.py to communicate with the chip when it was new, after going into bootloader mode (hold down the trackball and power on while plugged in). Firmware updates now only work via the Web flasher, which appears to presently be down. I assume somebody is updating it to reflect the latest 2.2.4 firmware. But this problem isnāt really unique to the T-Deck, as Iām having a similar issue with my Heltec Wireless Tracker.
It also has the battery voltage listed as ā6.48 Vā, which canāt be right. Iām guessing I need to calibrate it.
Maybe someday Iāll get a case for it, and it will leave my bench. With a 3000mAh battery, it typically dies after about a day of playing with it.
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mine is running usable fine on 2.2.2 mostly default settings. just changed the channel and activated gps pin43
touchscreen is working.
additional gps is working, sending and receiving text messages.
only after some longer time not using it, the screen turns off and it needs to restartā¦
i have not activated wifi yet.
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Is the Meshtastic support good enough for mere mortals to have a play with now?
Can you play with it now, yes. Iāve got two of these and have no trouble with sending and receiving messages solely from the device. I would say theyāre as functional as T-Beams at the moment.
BUT, keep in mind that the UI is no different than what youāve seen before on the T-Beam or other devices. It is not the client software so when you receive a message it still wipes everything off the screen to show that to you and navigating with the trackball or screen swipes is hard to map to the design of a few buttons.
I saw one proposal on github for enhancements to the firmware to add client-like UX. Itās new but has some traction, so read through the proposal and give it a thumbs up.
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Iāve been seeing some inconsistent behavior with the web client too, but also with another web updater for another project. I wouldnāt be surprised if it has something to do with browser security or whatever library people use to make the connection or a recent OS update. Thereās too many points of failure to trust that method of communication. meshtastic CLI tool works fine for me though.
Another issue could be that USB-C is really new for serial comms so weāre all either seeing inconsistent behaviors or getting lucky. Iām still working through my pile of cables to weed out the ones that are flaky or plain oleā donāt work, and I even have trouble using anything but an actual USB-C port on my computer.
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I canāt speak to battery life yet, though the battery indicator on the display appears to be for looks at the moment. My 3000mah lipos have never gone dead in them yet. Range, though, I can speak to. Last weekend, I and my wife went for a hike and did a simple first test using the tdeck and the android client at both ends, using only the antenna that shipped with the tdeck, we had normal operation at 0.6 miles (0.965km) with open line of sight while housing the tdecks in their original boxes. I feel like we could have done even better if circumstances had allowed a further test.
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Looks like the flasher is back up (yay!), but I donāt see the T-Deck listed. Is my brain broken? I could swear it was on the list last week. I must be wrong about the T-Deck being supported there.
At some point, while playing with remote node administration, my Python package manager (pip3) prompted me to upgrade the Meshtastic package. I did so, and then it allowed me to communicate with the T-Deck using āesptool.pyā, once, and update the firmware using ādevice-install.shā once. Inside bootloader mode, naturally. Now, itās back to timing-out whenever I try to pull the āchip_idā and it wonāt allow me to downgrade the firmware. But itās booting 2.2.4 now. Wish Iād remembered to export the yaml firstā¦
What youāre seeing now is an older version of the code, and not the original flasher before the issue happened. It should be updated tomorrow.
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Yes, but 3 different size 18650 3.7V
Think. You walk and decide, one to flashlight one to t-deck, or if You can charge all You can use 3. One old 1.2Ah and two 2.5Ah
just finished encasing my 2nd t-deck. pictues below. i chose a different 3d-print (also qoted above) with more room for bigger battery.
its a 4000 606090 6mmx60mmx90mm. Antennas are from company WIMO.
i connected a neo8M gps to pins 43/44, but this one got hot (+170Ā°C) immediately after powering up the tdeck . so i disconnected and soldered a m6-gps to the connectors. dont know what was wrong / bad soldering or maybe incompatibleā¦the M6 gps is working fine. i had to remove the speakerā¦
i like this bigger case , since it can be closed with 4 tiny screws, but like the smaller one more since its more handy. i will see how much runtime the improvement of 2000mAh will bring.
there are several things that could be done in firmware:
devices are running 2.2.6 and 2.2.7
first of all: screen brightness please for outdoor use ā¦
Messages , some kind of messages inbox, to be able to see more than the 1 last messsage.
correcting GMT to local time in Display
and maybe making possible to somehow add a āvirtual nodeā with gps coord. to show in the devices node list to give a direction to home-base or point of interest for hiking or soā¦ or is somtehing likt this possible by web-config?? have not tried yet
when no gps connected, the display has some misalignement in the āno gpsā letters
maybe an extra clock screen ?
the 2.2.7 device seems to get stuck after some time and has to be restartetā¦
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sorry i dont have cad files, i just downloaded the file and had someone print it for me
and made it fit the battery with a knipex i think that would be an option on yours too
runtime was around 4h with gps (+50mA) and a 2000mAh battery.
i expect more with a 4000mAh.
Range is as expected, quite the same results that i have with a RAK device, same antenna.
maybe i could be less range with pcb antenna.
today i sent and received test messages at 7km distance , but complicated topography.
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