EDIT: OK, it was really just the issue that the stock firmware is not doing anything useful. I assumed it's like a phone or a flipper zero where you have some stock firmware that works but you could flash custom things too, which would be an advanced use case. Here apparently the basic use case involves flashing. :)
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Hi, I got this device, I wanted to test it together with a T-Deck Plus (which I haven't received yet), after I had read an article about Meshtastic. I was under the impression that I could communicate with other Meshtastic users using the T-Deck Plus, but since I didn't know anybody yet, I got the Heltec V3 with the idea to receive texts sent from the T-Deck Plus for testing. Even if this wouldn't work, I thought it'd be nice to have such a device that could apparently also be used to connect a PC via USB-C to interact with the Meshtastic network.
I haven't really gone deep into it yet, but when I received the Heltec V3 device, I tried to make it do _something_ (in fact right now I am just trying to properly turn it off, as it turned itself on after connecting the battery as part of the assembly and I read online there is supposed to be some menu in which it can be turned off).
I found some docs online but they all seem to talk about custom programming with Arduino IDE. I wanted to keep the stock firmware right now though, not dive into flashing custom code, and just turn the thing off, because I got it in the mail and wanted to assemble it to have it ready once I get the T-Deck Plus, and look into how to do more advanced things with it later on. (Yes I could disconnect the battery again but it was a pain to fit the thing together so I really don't want to take it apart again now, and it's not logical to me that there would be no easy way to turn a device off that has a battery...)
My issue is that it came without any manual or PDF and I can't figure out how to access any menu at all. When I turn it on, it shows the Heltec logo and then briefly a WiFi list, and then it shows "LORA MODE 0". There are only 2 buttons, the bottom one is reset, and I can't figure out the behavior of the top one either:
- If I just press the top button quickly, then the screen shows ":/4039" (the number is different every time) and below it "est OK", and after 1 second it turns blank and the only way to get it to display anything again is to reset it.
- If I press the top button for a few seconds, then screen changes from "LORA MODE 0" to "LORA MODE 1", and if I do the same thing again, it shows "battery: 4175" and below it "ADC test OK" for 1 second and then again it turns blank and the only way to get it to display anything again is to reset it.
- I noticed, while I was writing this post, suddenly it came on by itself, blinking white and showing "WiFi XX", "WiFi Scan Cnt:7 Rssi:-53", "time: 121" and "LoRa error". Then I tried pressing the top button again and the screen again went blank.
I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to access any of the menus I find described online, like "Device Settings -> Shut down" that someone mentioned in the reviews on Amazon.
Is the device broken or did I just not find the right instructions yet? If so, where would I find them? I am wondering if I have to flash some firmware first (how?) but if that were the case, then I don't understand why right now it already does things (so it clearly has some firmware)?
Thanks in advance for your help!