Touge radio flasher

Which radio to buy

Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4, the 28 dBm high-power version. Six decibels over the 22 dBm one is roughly double the LoRa range, and it's the biggest hardware lever there is. Listings that don't say which they ship are usually the 22.

The V4 also has a u.FL 2.4G ANT connector, so the 2.4 GHz fast lane (position and push-to-talk between nearby cars) can get a proper antenna.

A Heltec V3 works too. Its 2.4 GHz side is on a fixed spring antenna with no connector, so the fast lane gets whatever that gives you. LoRa is the same.

GNSS isn't on the bare V4. It comes on the V4 expansion kit. Without it the radio uses the phone's position.

After flashing

1. Open the Touge app and pick the radio. After a fresh install the phone has to forget the old pairing and pair again, PIN 123456.
2. Join the ride in the app. That puts the ride key on the radio, which sets up both LoRa and the 2.4 GHz lane.
3. An update keeps the pairing and the ride, so after an update there's nothing to do.

If it won't connect

• Use a USB data cable. A lot of cables are charge-only and the radio never shows up.
• Close anything else holding the port: the Meshtastic app on this computer, a serial monitor, another flasher tab.
• Force bootloader mode: hold the BOOT button (labelled PRG on some boards), tap RST, let go of BOOT, then press Connect again.
• A V3 talks through a Silicon Labs CP210x USB bridge. Windows 10 and 11 normally install the driver on their own; if no port shows up, install the CP210x VCP driver. A V4 uses the chip's own USB and needs no driver.
• Chrome and Edge on a computer support this. Firefox and Safari don't. Chrome on Android hasn't been tested.

Source

The firmware is Meshtastic plus the Touge fast-mesh module. Source, build steps and issues: github.com/MrBlahhhh/Touge-mesh-firmware.

The exact source for each build is linked under Firmware once a build is selected.