I ordered one of these way back. By the time it actually arrived I had got hold of 2 Seeed T1000-e's which do essentially the same thing but (in my opinion) superior in essentially every way. Better GPS, easier updates, massively longer battery life, real wired serial (they bring out pins for magnetic popo-pin connection, not just 2), better LoRa antenna. Only redeeming features of the heltec are slightly lower price and if you happen to prefer the round form factor over a flat 'card'. Since a lot of messing about and newer version of meshtastic, I can get some more run-time out of the heltec as a 'dumb tracker' that just beacons position at a set interval, but the kids will be getting t1000-e's and the heltec will either be given away to a friend if one has a real use case for it, or adapted to a much bigger enclosure.
I hear you. I have used the heltec capsules a few times in the field now and they are not very reliable. Battery life it just too poor. I am building a new base station with a RAK Wisblock and might use that same system with some small 3d printed cases to give out to my kids. I haven't seen those Seeed T1000's before, they look pretty cool. Have you had a chance to test them in real world conditions? I might need to pick one of those up...
Ironically i had the same thought about the battery swap. and also had a use case to have a battery pack. informative device unboxing video. look forward to more videos.
Nice, that's a great idea! I have one of those batts, seems like a pretty tight fit. U modify the case at all? I feel like I might need to grind a little off the screws posts...
Not sure if that's it. Meshtastic seems to be compatible with all the global constellations, provided the receiver is. It could be just the specific receiver they are using may not be compatible so they had to compile there own version that supported it but bypassed the settings... I have no idea tho, just guessing...
That is a hard question to answer simply as local topography plays a significant role. If you are in a relatively flat area and have a good external antenna you can go many miles. I live in SoCal which is far from flat and have picked up stations directly 20-30 miles away when I had my unit outside in a tree. However, I would say the typical range you could expect is a few miles for most stations. Again this is highly dependent on the local terrain and if you are using the stock antenna or not...
Wish they'd done a bigger battery, not used esp32, and just jad usb c charging. Dont want to bring a dedicated cable to charge this while backpacking. Or a small USB C female adapter instead of the male side cable. Keep looking for a good way to have text comms among my group on long hiking trips. Radios are cool but you've got to be paying attention or you miss it and we're all ADD as hell.
Had the same issue with GPS, unfortunately, I tried to flash it with the firmware on heltec website, but I guess it broke something as I can't get it connected to the Bluetooth at all, I can still access the flash web page though.
huh, that's weird. I also flashed one of my 2 devices with the firmware I found on Heltec's site and it still worked fine. I have read about people having some inconsistent devices delivered to so I am betting the QC on these isnt too great. Something else to think about, the WiFi and Bluetooth modules are shared and can't both be used at once. If your device is in WiFi mode the Bluetooth will not work. Not sure thats the issue but something to look at... Otherwise I would contact them and send it back. Good luck!
@TechTinkerHobbyist I managed to get it working again finally, after a thousand random flashes. Add to that the GPS is working as you mentioned even when it shows as disabled. Appreciate your video man.
@@TechTinkerHobbyist not yet, my order of two is still pending, i said that because the battery is bigger and is dust and waterproof IP65 and the form factor is really great and has meshtastic support, you can check review on YT.
I ordered one of these way back. By the time it actually arrived I had got hold of 2 Seeed T1000-e's which do essentially the same thing but (in my opinion) superior in essentially every way. Better GPS, easier updates, massively longer battery life, real wired serial (they bring out pins for magnetic popo-pin connection, not just 2), better LoRa antenna. Only redeeming features of the heltec are slightly lower price and if you happen to prefer the round form factor over a flat 'card'.
Since a lot of messing about and newer version of meshtastic, I can get some more run-time out of the heltec as a 'dumb tracker' that just beacons position at a set interval, but the kids will be getting t1000-e's and the heltec will either be given away to a friend if one has a real use case for it, or adapted to a much bigger enclosure.
I hear you. I have used the heltec capsules a few times in the field now and they are not very reliable. Battery life it just too poor. I am building a new base station with a RAK Wisblock and might use that same system with some small 3d printed cases to give out to my kids. I haven't seen those Seeed T1000's before, they look pretty cool. Have you had a chance to test them in real world conditions? I might need to pick one of those up...
I finally got it on Amazon!
Ironically i had the same thought about the battery swap. and also had a use case to have a battery pack. informative device unboxing video. look forward to more videos.
Thanks!
I manage to fit Nitecore 16340 NL169 950mAh to existing original case. Now I got 5:37 hours of battery life!
Nice, that's a great idea! I have one of those batts, seems like a pretty tight fit. U modify the case at all? I feel like I might need to grind a little off the screws posts...
@@TechTinkerHobbyist Yeah, I shaved off 1 mm from the screw posts and 1 mm from the internal surface where the new battery contacts the case.
The Amazon page says it has Glonas positioning system, not GPS. Probably that’s why all GPS settings are not relative to this device.
Not sure if that's it. Meshtastic seems to be compatible with all the global constellations, provided the receiver is. It could be just the specific receiver they are using may not be compatible so they had to compile there own version that supported it but bypassed the settings... I have no idea tho, just guessing...
I would love a 3D printed case option
Working on trying to get a 3d printer then its on :)
what was the practical/usable range in miles/kilometers on these units?
That is a hard question to answer simply as local topography plays a significant role. If you are in a relatively flat area and have a good external antenna you can go many miles. I live in SoCal which is far from flat and have picked up stations directly 20-30 miles away when I had my unit outside in a tree. However, I would say the typical range you could expect is a few miles for most stations. Again this is highly dependent on the local terrain and if you are using the stock antenna or not...
Wish they'd done a bigger battery, not used esp32, and just jad usb c charging. Dont want to bring a dedicated cable to charge this while backpacking. Or a small USB C female adapter instead of the male side cable.
Keep looking for a good way to have text comms among my group on long hiking trips. Radios are cool but you've got to be paying attention or you miss it and we're all ADD as hell.
agreed 100%
Had the same issue with GPS, unfortunately, I tried to flash it with the firmware on heltec website, but I guess it broke something as I can't get it connected to the Bluetooth at all, I can still access the flash web page though.
huh, that's weird. I also flashed one of my 2 devices with the firmware I found on Heltec's site and it still worked fine. I have read about people having some inconsistent devices delivered to so I am betting the QC on these isnt too great. Something else to think about, the WiFi and Bluetooth modules are shared and can't both be used at once. If your device is in WiFi mode the Bluetooth will not work. Not sure thats the issue but something to look at... Otherwise I would contact them and send it back. Good luck!
@TechTinkerHobbyist I managed to get it working again finally, after a thousand random flashes. Add to that the GPS is working as you mentioned even when it shows as disabled. Appreciate your video man.
awesome, great to hear u got it going!
Just buy a sensecap T1000 e
that's pretty cool, I'll have to check it out. Have you used one, any good?
@@TechTinkerHobbyist not yet, my order of two is still pending, i said that because the battery is bigger and is dust and waterproof IP65 and the form factor is really great and has meshtastic support, you can check review on YT.