I Am Finally Using LoRA! And I love IT!! LilyGO T-Deck Plus

[@toddbu-WK7L]

This is fantastic! I've been wanting a device like this for remote control of my LoRa devices around the house. Now I just have to wait for LilyGO to get these back in stock.

[@VolosProjects]

i have also similar idea, to control some devices outside my house using lora.

[@theuktoday4233]

I have one T deck in my 2nd floor flat window and managed to send messages to it from my other T deck1.8 miles away today.

[@madcow3417]

The t-deck and the watch have been sitting in my cart for a while. I haven't found a project that really calls for them, they're just neat.

[@VolosProjects]

yes, neat devices :)

[@williamna5800]

I cannot imagine getting only 350 meters. I'm in heavy woods and get over 1/2 mile most of the time (with tuned 906Mhz antennas) and have one link shooting over 11 mile LOS from mountain side to nearby town. Also, esp32s are fine for personal carry where can be forever charged, but for network nodes you pretty much have to ditch the ESP unless you put a a massive panel on each one. Much better to use the nRF devices without screens and gps which will last weeks between charges, so even a tiny solar panel can keep charged in the winters.

[@bhairavi-maa]

Interesting info, thanks

[@VolosProjects]

right now device dont have anthena , just peace of wire glued to case.. i am planing to install anthena, what anthena you recomend?

[@Maxjoker98]

Wow, that t-deck device looks really cool! And the UI is beautiful! I really wish I had the time to port Linux to such a device - The ESP32 S3 already has Linux support, all I would need to do is set up a device tree and create a display driver(-shim: You can use the FreeRTOS/ESP-IDF based drivers from Linux by writing an IPC driver. It's really easy!).

[@VolosProjects]

that is very interesting, i never used linux but i realy like this idea.

[@Stabby666]

While technically you can just about get Linux working on an ESP32 there's really no reason to do it. You have to deal with a MUCH longer boot time, less performance, and you can't really do much unless you add an SDCard for the filesystem. With a device like this you really want the instant boot-up and ability to run one optimised app. Nobody wants to be using vi, or running MySQL on it 🤣🤣

[@Maxjoker98]

@@Stabby666 No, the ESP32 has a native port, boot times are "fine"(maybe 15s or so). And of course you're running everything natively, so applications like vi run just fine(at least vi from busybox :P). The user experience is way better than I expected(SSH+shell is about as quick as any other machine). Oh, and buildroot builds really tiny images, you have plenty of space left on the flash for other fun things. Interestingly enough, even though the ESP32 S3 doesn't have a full MMU, it still can execute code directly from SD-cards and NFS(somehow). I happened to know that the ESP32 S3 Linux port runs in parallel with the FreeRTOS(Yes, not emulated by, natively in parallel on a second core! You can run one OS on one core, and another on another on the ESP32!). This makes porting drivers easier(you can just IPC to another core that already has a working driver; This is what makes Wifi work under Linux even though there is only a blob driver for FreeRTOS), but also can be used to handle real-time tasks(by using the FreeRTOS directly, and just interface with Linux via the IPC). In conclusion, I would say that for a lot of tasks the ESP32 S3 running Linux is fairly capable. Disclaimer: I did some work on the ESP32 S3 Linux port ;)

[@Stabby666]

@@Maxjoker98 Yep I've watched some videos of Linux on the ESP32 out of idle curiosity in the past. Ok, 15 seconds isn't "terrible", but it's obviously orders of magnitude longer than the usual 1 second without an OS. I'm not sure if it can work in low power modes - essentially only the RTC active waiting for an interrupt to wake, and if it has to reboot. I mean it's kind of cool, but I can't see any point in it except "because you can" :) Something like a Pi Zero works out cheaper as it has the SDCard and ports etc built in, and also has video out (with acceleration and video decoding), much more power, and standard software for less.Again, no hate, but I don't see a use case.

[@mega-nerd]

Thanks for the example repo! I have been messing with meshtastic, looked at that firmware, and have some of my own ideas I wanted to explore.

[@elektron2kim666]

I really like my ESPNow functionality and will upgrade to LoRA some day. I get GPS data much faster from MicroPython/UIFlow, so I hope you make a video about that too.

[@tubeDude48]

As always, you've outdone yourself! 👍 GREAT! 😀

[@VolosProjects]

Thank you :)

[@richonguzman]

Great (will try to implement an evolution of this messenger into LoRa APRS Tracker ;) )

[@VeniceInventors]

Welcome to the LoRabbit hole! If you can, adjust the spread factor to 9 and bandwidth to 125KHz and you should get much better range, or SF12 for maximum range but it's much slower. If you're using RadioLib there's a lot of settings you can play with but those two (and transmit power) are the most important. If the range still isn't enough for your environment, add a compact 5dB gain antenna, (test it with a VNA to make sure it's a good one).

[@VolosProjects]

wow, thank you for this advices. I will try, i am total noob in lora. What range i can achive wits some compact anthena?

[@improvids8405]

With the small rigid 5cm thumb antennas you should be able to get at least 1km in urban environments and 10 to 20km line of sight depending on your elevation. With the foldable 20cm high gain antennas you can get much greater range because the reception is improved and LoRa works well with noisy signals

[@VeniceInventors]

(improvids is the YT account on my phone) I wanted to add that the most important aspect of an antenna is its tuning, ideally it should match the frequency and impedance as much as possible or some/most of the energy will be reflected instead of transmitted. It should have an impedance as close to 50 Ohms as possible and an SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) as close to 1 as possible. I usually have to buy several antennas to find one which has an SWR

[@JohnnieMartynov]

This is cute! 😍 I want it! ❤

[@nikthefix8918]

Awesome Volos! Lilygo will be selling these in pairs...

[@VolosProjects]

feel free :)

[@zweiwing4435]

I need help to upgrade my T-Deck Plus.

[@martingerhardsoos]

I wished that you can impvove UI for Meshtastic Guys :-)

[@viniciusk-max37]

I just bought two of these on Aliexpress. What do you recommend to make them communicate using Meshtastic over a distance of 5 miles?

[@WA4OSH]

Volos, what frequency band are you using? In Europe, North and South America, we use LoRa APRS on 433.775 MHz. I have a T-Deck GPS and a T-Deck plus.

[@VolosProjects]

I think 868 mhz

[@JTechFocus]

To make it perfect, it could be recharged by sunlight, like some Garmin devices.

[@de-bodgery]

Build this to work with VESC controllers as the dashboard and programming interface. Much of this is already done in the VESCexpress.

[@de-bodgery]

LORA could be used for GPS tracking data so you don't need cell service for this.

[@Robert-cd5zr]

This is not the normal UI of the T-Deck, what firmware is this

[@VolosProjects]

@@Robert-cd5zr this is mine code, i usualy program esp32 devicea

[@Robert-cd5zr]

@@VolosProjects Great work it looks good

[@Alyvz]

It really looks like Blackberry Bold 9900.

[@ramsin.]

Hi Volos, great work, man! Would it be possible to run this on the t-deck (not plus)?

[@VolosProjects]

i dont own regular t-deck, if it has LORA , than probably yes

[@-someone-.]

It’s sold out 😢

[@Xavier_Everwhere]

These two device can commmunicate Using LoRa😂😂

[@asifmahmud5437]

bro please help...i need your help.. about your last year project " ESP32 Car Dashboard/Controller "❤❤💔🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@IndependentNewsMedia]

Goo bless.

[@Xavier_Everwhere]

Believe me im indian😅 I know what it means the of it L___ 😂

[@bhairavi-maa]

Im always going to associate LoRa with that now 😂

[@SirrTinkles]

why use this?

[@VeniceInventors]

It's really useful when you go hiking in areas with no cell signal, in case you need assistance or want your team/friends to come look at something you found. In many cases you could use a CB radio, but you may need a HAM license to use a CB radio which also does text messaging, and the advantage of text is it sticks around so you won't miss it like you would voice if you aren't next to the radio, and when you need to be silent, you still can communicate with text. LoRa with a proper antenna and settings can reach over 30 miles line-of-sight with only 1W of transmission power and typically 1 to 5 miles with obstacles.

[@hendetta]

I ride with a motor bike group and although we have cardos to talk with i plan to experiment using the mesh on my tdp for emergency situations where there are no cell signals way up in the twisties or deep down in the valleys.

[@ClarksvilleTN]

Off grid communications. When everything else is down like cell and internet , this will still work

[@enterprise7585]

It's about 70$, you can buy some used cell phone ;-)

[@ramsin.]

Totally different purposes/functionality. There's no tracking with this, even if you do Lora over bluetooth, there's still that possibility of being tracked. Aside from that, the hardware keyboard for on the go....not bad. Great work @volos!

[@RichardNobel]

(T-)DECKBERRY instead of BlackBerry ^_^