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Flashing with the CLI

caution

Make sure not to power the radio on without first attaching the antenna! You could damage the radio chip!

For ESP32 devices if the device already has a version of Meshtastic installed using the OTA firmware upgrade tool in the Android app is the friendliest path for users. OTA firmware updates are not yet available on Apple platforms.

If your ESP32 device does not have Meshtastic pre-installed flashing Before you flash your device start by verifying connectivity with the device being flashed. Outlined below are steps that can be taken to verify connectivity and, if necessary, to install the appropriate drivers. If you end up needing to install drivers be sure to reboot your computer afterwards to verify the installation is complete.

note

The T-Beam 0.7 board is an earlier version of the T-Beam board, and due to changes in the design in subsequent iterations this board uses a specific firmware file different from the other T-Beam boards.

firmware-tbeam0.7-1.x.x.bin is the correct firmware. firmware-tbeam-1.x.x.bin is incompatible. For all other T-Beam boards firmware-tbeam-1.x.x.bin is the correct selection.

Command Line Interface Instructions​

Install Prerequisite Software​

Check if you have python3 and pip installed with the following command

python3 --version
pip3 --version

If python3 is not installed, install with

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3

If pip is not installed, install with

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Install esptool​

pip3 install --upgrade esptool

Confirm Communication With Chip​

Connect the radio to your computer using a data USB cable. Confirm your device is talking to your computer using the following command:

Command
esptool chip_id
Expected Output
# You should see a result similar to this:
mydir$ esptool chip_id
esptool.py v2.6
Found 2 serial ports
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting....
Detecting chip type... ESP32
Chip is ESP32D0WDQ6 (revision 1)
Features: WiFi, BT, Dual Core, 240MHz, VRef calibration in efuse, Coding Scheme None
MAC: 24:6f:28:b5:36:71
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Warning: ESP32 has no Chip ID. Reading MAC instead.
MAC: 24:6f:28:b5:36:71
Hard resetting via RTS pin...

cd into the directory where you unzipped the latest release. For example:

Example
cd ~/Downloads/firmware/

Install/Update Firmware​

Install or Update the device that you have by using the following commands according to your operating system:

caution

Be very careful to install the correct load for your board. In particular the popular 'T-BEAM' radio from TTGO is not called 'TTGO-Lora' (that is a different board). So don't install the 'TTGO-Lora' build on a TBEAM, it won't work correctly.

Install​

Command
./device-install.sh -f firmware-BOARD-VERSION.bin

Update​

Command
./device-update.sh -f firmware-BOARD-VERSION.bin

Select Firmware​

Browse to the previously downloaded firmware and select the correct firmware based on the board type and frequency.

caution

Be very careful to install the correct load for your board. In particular the popular 'T-BEAM' radio from TTGO is not called 'TTGO-Lora' (that is a different board). So don't install the 'TTGO-Lora' build on a TBEAM, it won't work correctly. If you flash the incorrect firmware: It may appear to flash correctly, but if your device has a screen it might stay blank. On-board radio peripherals might be damaged because of GPIO pin direction, but you should just try to flash with the correct version.

Flash Firmware​

Select Flash ESP. It may take a minute or two. Once complete, "Done! Flashing is complete!" will be shown.

Connect and Configure Device​

After flashing the Meshtastic firmware to the device, you can proceed with the initial configuration.

Connect and Configure Device