LORA V4 Won't switch to bootloader mode

[jferrari6803]

I just received my V4 board and went to load Meshtastic firmware. The board is in debug mode. I tried two different computers, two different cables ( both of which worked on V3), pressing the prog button while plugging in, pressing program and reset … Nothing is working.
Any suggestions? I thought about kerosene and a match, but that only works once.

[UniquePete]

It would probably be most helpful to post these sorts of V4 teething issues to the thread below. If we all post our experiences to a single thread while we’re working out what’s going on with he V4 board, it’ll be easier for those new to this game to see what’s going on, what is working and what isn’t working, and we’ll likely converge on a generally satisfactory solution more quickly.

Lora 32(v4) and arduino setup

Hi I updated Heltec ESP 32 Series Dev-boards in Arduinos board manager (old version 3.0.2, new version 3.0.2) but after update i dont have new v4 board on the list. So i downloaded .zip from github https://github.com/Heltec-Aaron-Lee/WiFi_Kit_series and pasted it where my current lib was: C:\Users\XxX\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\Heltec-esp32\hardware\esp32\3.0.2 But now i cannot compile it atr all: compiler cannot find partitions.csv, bootloader.bin and other files. Any one know good…

[jferrari6803]

Thanks, but I don’t have an Arduino. I just want to get to bootloader mode and flash Meshtastic firmware.

[UniquePete]

I think the reference there is to the Arduino IDE, which is just one way of uploading software (and not necessarily anything to do with Arduino hardware). Often a problem has nothing to do with the specific development environment and even when it does, people are often interested in alternatives that are working. It may be that a solution that works in one development environment provides a missing piece of information that helps in a completely different environment.

I guess I’m assuming that the common factor here is the WiFi LoRa 32 V4 platform—that is what you’re referring to isn’t it? Whether the different problems we’re seeing at this early stage are more related to hardware or software is anyone’s guess…

[bns]

I’ve successfully flashed mine, but not tried Meshtastic. It’s currently in a box as I’m moving houses so can’t try it out. I have had success with the button combo to put it into bootloader.
You may try pulling GPIO0 to GND while plugging in the board - effectively the same as holding down the PROG button but who knows.

[nmcc]

but I don’t have an Arduino

It may seem like semantics, but you do as understood in the wider sense.

The hardware is relatively generic but was designed first & foremost to work with the Arduino development eco-system.

Meshtastic uses PlatformIO & VS Code to develop & compile using the Arduino SDK.

On a good day, this wouldn’t matter, you’d go to the Meshtastic Flasher web page and it would all automagically happen.

But you have v1 of new hardware and it’s not fully baked yet, even to the level that the grease monkeys can’t get it going without some effort. So for you to make progress, having some understanding of what is going on under the hood will likely help you faster.