GM Nostr! Happy Tuesday!
Thinking of adding a Lilygo T-Deck to my #meshtastic nodes. Completely self-contained (so no secondary device needed).
Discussion
Saw a review on it looks great I like all in one also been thinking about it
I have it and it’s pretty cool with the new UI. Still very buggy though… also get a big battery! I have 2000mAh but that won’t last more than a couple of hours.
Hmmm...really? That's disappointing...I really want something that will last at least one day before it needs a recharge.
The RAK units I have now have been up for days (one on my desk right now has been on for 44 hours, and is at 53%...and I think I've restarted it a few times as well).
While I like the idea of a keyboard (well, I love the idea of a keyboard and a self-contained device) the battery life of the RAK is really tough to beat (and again a great "selling feature" of those units and #meshtastic in general)
Yeah the t-deck is kinda power hungry like a cellphone.. would go for 5000mAh or more if I had to buy a new battery now.
Also when buying a battery, check the polarity… bought on with a connector on it that was not correct and almost fried my t-deck
Hmmm...good advice...did you print your own case? (Thinking if you have a large battery, that it might not fit in the available cases).
Yes I’ve printed a case created by AllyCat, she has created a lot of cool cases also that can fit thicker batteries, you can find them on makerworld.
Well, I ordered the T-Deck Plus (figured the GPS module would be good to have, and you also get the battery). And they had 10% off for black friday, so that essentially paid for shipping.
I can always print a new / different case if needed...but will see what "stock" gets me (thinking it'll likely work for my use case).
😃 Will keep you posted on my progress...
Ah nice! great option.. I bought everything separately because I wanted to do it as a small project.. but the t-deck plus is a great alternative indeed.
Do you have a source for the new UI? I see everything has been pulled from GitHub--so not sure if the dev has given up, or what the current status is of that build?
I have build it my self from source code. I work in IT (not a programmer) but still wasn’t that easy to figure out.
You can find out how to do it here: https://meshtastic.org/docs/development/firmware/build/
You need to clone the tft-gui-work branch and build that to get a firmware that contains the new gui.
Thanks - this is helpful. Might have to try this at some point, although I expect others will likely continue to develop for the T-Deck platform...may actually wait a bit (and use the current nodes I have for a bit) and see how things come along--may even be some additional devices with keyboards and I think that's where #meshtastic is headed...while it's cool to link to your cellphone and have a low-power node with a battery that lasts forever, the true utility here is to have something fully self-contained in a single device....
Good choice to play around with.
Get it
Interesting...the new ROM that folks have been talking about is no longer readily available (although I did find a copy).
Hoping that isn't a stillborn project--still, the T-Deck is such a great form factor, even with the standard #meshtastic interface it still will likely be an improvement over a typical "box".