Heltec WIFI LORA V3 as Lora Gateway

Theengs OpenMQTTGateway
1

Hello,

I’m currently trying to load this onto a Heltec WiFi LoRa V3 board. My goal is to just have two board communicate to each other as a presence detection sensor. I’m currently trying to get it working and seem to be getting some errors. I’m in the US so I plan to use the 915mhz and not the 433mhz that it appears the V3 is not able to use. Using the board description below, I’m able to get the board to turn on and connect to the WiFi. If I enable the display or the ZGatewayLORA descriptions, It no longer boots and causes the device to keep rebooting. Any assistance is appreciated.

[env:heltec-wifi-lora-32v3-915]   ; Heltec ESP32 v3 Board with SSD1306 display
platform = ${com.esp32_platform}
board = heltec_wifi_lora_32_V3
lib_deps =
  ${com-esp.lib_deps}
  ${libraries.wifimanager32}
  ${libraries.lora}
  ${libraries.ssd1306}
build_flags =
  ${com-esp.build_flags}
  '-DNO_INT_TEMP_READING=true'
; *** OpenMQTTGateway Modules ***
;  '-DZgatewayLORA="LORA"'
;  '-DLORA_BAND=915E6'
  '-DGateway_Name="OpenMQTTGateway"'
  '-DLED_SEND_RECEIVE=25'
  '-DTimeLedON=0.1'
  '-DLED_SEND_RECEIVE_ON=1'
; *** ssd1306 Display Options ***
;  '-DZdisplaySSD1306="HELTEC_SSD1306"'
;  '-DLOG_TO_OLED=true'         ; Enable log to OLED
;  '-DJSON_TO_OLED=true'
;  '-DLOG_LEVEL_OLED=LOG_LEVEL_NOTICE'
;  '-DDISPLAY_IDLE_LOGO=false'
;  '-DDISPLAY_BRIGHTNESS=80'
;  '-DDISPLAY_METRIC=false'
custom_description = LORA communication 915Mhz using arduino-LoRA
custom_hardware = ESP32 HELTEC LORA32
2

Hello,

Display with the LORA gateway is not supported unfortunately, you should remove those lines:

;  '-DZdisplaySSD1306="HELTEC_SSD1306"'
;  '-DLOG_TO_OLED=true'         ; Enable log to OLED

Regarding ZGatewayLORA, we haven’t tested with this board so you may have to adapt the configuration and pins to make it work
Especially those:

Here is a proposal from arduino-esp32/variants/heltec_wifi_lora_32_V3/pins_arduino.h at b98255d8d1be7280e767f15a8c759e13e00f4b4a · espressif/arduino-esp32 · GitHub

#define LORA_SCK  9
#define LORA_MISO 11
#define LORA_MOSI 10
#define LORA_SS   8
#define LORA_RST  12
#define LORA_DI0  14
3

I will modify my code to do what you mentioned. I’ve now spent a bit of time with the V3 and some LoRa Libraries, but it appears the Sx1262 LoRa chip on this board is causing some problems.

Additional, It may be possible that the LoRa library is not compatible with the SX1262 IC as there appears to be some compatibility issues with it compares to the SX127x chips.

1 Like
4

Hi,

New are and bought this board as wel… Did you git it to work?

I tried flashing with the precompiled binaries, but with no luck so far:

esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --chip esp32-S3 --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dout --flash_size detect 0xe000 boot_app0.bin 0x1000 heltec-wifi-lora-32-868-bootloader.bin 0x8000 heltec-wifi-lora-32-868-partitions.bin 0x10000 heltec-wifi-lora-32-868-firmware.bin 
esptool.py v4.5.1
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting....
Chip is ESP32-S3 (revision v0.1)
Features: WiFi, BLE
Crystal is 40MHz
MAC: dc:54:75:d0:16:c0
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Changing baud rate to 921600
Changed.
Configuring flash size...
Auto-detected Flash size: 8MB
Unexpected chip id in image. Expected 9 but value was 0. Is this image for a different chip model?
5

I ended up getting a LILYGO LoRa32 instead. The LoRa chip on the heltec wasn’t compatible with this project and I didn’t feel like attempting to rewrite a bunch to MAYBE make it work.

If you don’t have the V3 version of the heltec, then it should be easier for you.

6

I have a V3. Didn’t look at it when buying.

Anyway, just ordered a lilygo v2.1. that should work if I understood correctly.

7

Yes, the Lillygo one will work. It’s just a different LoRa wan chip on the Heltec that isn’t supported by all LoRa libraries. It would be possible to get it working (to my knowledge) but would need different libraries.

8
9

Hi all.
I’m a noob, I just received my 3 boards yesterday. I bought it, because I want to receive waves that 433 Mhz OOK can’t transmit, due to distance. But i saw this project just after my purchase. I saw this board was not totaly compatible (OLED issue ?).
I have a problem, all examples I want to test in Arduino IDE is a fail. Only Wifi_Kit_32_FactoryTest is working. All the others have an issue with librairies. Il find librairy, I install it, but this librairy call another librairy etc etc…
Florian, can you tell me if your project can works on my board please ? By the way i’ll buy Lilygo TTGO if needed…
I create a new domotic box. Actualy I turn on Domoticz with ConBee II zigbee and RFLink 433 from nodo-shop. I want to catch the orders from Domoticz in my brand new RPI 4 turning on HomeAssistant.
So I need:
either another RFLink from Nodo-shop
either this openMQTTGateway turning in 433Mhz OOK on my Heltec card.
Can you tell me what I need to install in Arduino IDE exactly, to be clear. ?
Can you tell me how to proceed to flash my Heltec Wifi LoRa 32 V3 (3.1) with “heltec-rtl_433”
Because when I try to do it since the web-install, I have this error :
Failed to initialize. Try resetting your device or holding the BOOT button while selecting your serial port.
I push on “PROG” button but no way…

1 Like
10

Hello,

Heltec LoRa 32 v3 has a LoRa SX1262 chip, this chip does not support OOK
So you can’t receive 433mhz OOK protocols with this board.

11

Ok, thanks for your answer. I can make LoRa so…
At the begining, I bought these 3 boards to make 1 receiver and 2 transmitters.
1 transmitter for my letterbox at 30m from my house (with a door sensor)
1 transmitter for my garage’s door at 30m also from my house (with a door sensor)
1 receiver connected to HomeAssistant.
According to you, it’s possible ?

12

Yes, this is possible with LoRa

13

Nice, this board was born/sold for this… :laughing:
I have not yet managed to get these cards to work in LoRa, whether from Arduino IDE or by trying to flash them with ESPtool… Do you have a soluce to flash them easily ? I’d like to make a range test for begining.
With the exemple “WIFI_LoRa_32FactoryTest”, flashing is a success (set up with the good band 433), but on the heltec’s screen I have : “Starting LoRa failed !”
Serial monitoring tell me that:

ESP-ROM:esp32s3-20210327

Build:Mar 27 2021

rst:0x1 (POWERON),boot:0x8 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)

SPIWP:0xee

mode:DIO, clock div:1

load:0x3fce3808,len:0x44c

load:0x403c9700,len:0xbe4

load:0x403cc700,len:0x2a68

entry 0x403c98d4

Serial initial done

you can see OLED printed OLED initial done!

Starting LoRa failed!

14

So, I flashed my Heltec with “meshtastic_wifi_lora_32_V3” with successfull ! It’s very powerfull and I have a lot of settings and also MQTT !
I don’t regret my purchase ^^
It’s a concurent system but it works with my boards. If you want to take a look : https://meshtastic.org/

15

Heltec v3 is not yet supported, just need to add the corresponding environment

1 Like
16

Default LoRa.h don’t support sx1262

1 Like