I’ve been hearing a lot about LoRaWAN and Meshtastic over the past few years. It’s basically a decentralized peer to peer radio network that allows you to communicate w/out the internet or cell phone towers as long as you are within range of a node. There aren’t any nodes out near where I live, but I wanted to play around with the tech so I ordered a LILYGO T-Deck Plus with Meshtastic firmware pre-installed. This seemed like a pretty “turn key” solution for playing around with limited time.
I got it today, and I’m not sure if I got a dud, or I’m doing something wrong but I can’t seem to get it to turn on reliably. I’m not sure if I need to do the setup via the device or via a computer/phone connected to the device. It’s plugged in and drawing power (.2A at 5.1V) but doesn’t do much of anything when I turn it on (at least, I think I’m turning it on - It’s not clear which of the switches/buttons is the power). It did flash an LED at me a few times when I pushed the trackball, and it even booted into the Meshtastic configuration screen, but then the screen when dark, and there didn’t seem to be a way to get it back.
Now it’s not doing much of anything, regardless of the button/switch combos I try. I’ll do a bit of research before contacting support, but I think my unit may be DOA.
Initial impressions of the device:
- It looks cool… sort of retro cyberpunk
- Feels a little flimsy
