Is it normal or is there some problem?

[joesatriani1]

Hi everyone, I have a Heltec V3 on which I installed the Meshtastic firmware (LoRa Italia) 2.7.15.567b8ea. After the update I noticed that my messages are never delivered. I can receive, but I basically can’t send. Do you think it’s a firmware issue? Can I do a full reset without losing configurations or keys? What would you do? Thanks.

[joesatriani1]

Am I alone in this forum?

[fifieldt]

How far away are the nodes you are talking to?

[joesatriani1]

1-2 Nodes are direct 10 Km.... others 1-2-3-4 hops...

[roberthadow]

Hello @joesatriani1

I know this sounds like I'm spending other people's money, but I recommend every user have two devices. For the second, just the booard and the little antenna. No battery, no case, no bling.

Then you can experiment. Send messages one node to another. Watch the behavior of two nearby devices you know work. Then you aren't dependent on the kindness of strangers.

[joesatriani1]

Ok but.... Is it possibile to make a reset without lose all?

[roberthadow]

Hello @joesatriani1 --

You say you cannot get out 10 kim.

Okay. Level 1 troubleshooting.

• Receive, transmit or both?
• Are all the radio settings default?
• Are you able to transmit on Channel 0 ("longFast")? Do you get a cloud with a checkmark?
• What gain is your antenna? If you don't know, describe the antenna. See below.
• Is the 10 km line of sight? If I gave you binoculars could you see the other antenna?
• How far have you been able to transmit? Others have transmitted 1,336 km, It was under perfect conditioins. YMMV.
• Do you have an Adroid device? If so, connect your Heltec. Navigate to Settings > Position. Is there a Latitiude, Longitude ad Altitude registered? If not, toggle "Fixed Posiion" On. Click "Set from current phone settings." Save. Navigate to Nodes list. Have a look at recenly received nodes. How far away are they? With their radios, that's from how far away they reached you, They may have more EIRP. At least now you have a general idea of what your topography can support.
• Have you set up Channel 1?

(A) Yagi-Uda
(B) Stubby
(C) Small whip
(D) Tiny loaded
(E) DIY dipole
(F) 915 MHz whip
(G) RH901S

Level 2 trubleshooting will require a VNA.

[joesatriani1]

• Receive, transmit or both?

I often receive, but I rarely transmit successfully.

• Are all the radio settings default?

Yes, I’m using the default settings. I’ll share a screenshot of the radio settings later.

• Are you able to transmit on Channel 0 ("logFast")? Do you get a cloud with a checkmark?

In my area I use the medium-fast preset, and I only get the checkmark about one time out of a hundred.

• What gain is your antenna? If you don't know, describe the antenna. See below.

I’ll share a picture of the antenna later.

• Is the 10 km line of sight? If I gave you binoculars could you see the other antenna?

The 10 km was just an example — what I meant is that I can almost never successfully send messages, even to nearby nodes.

• How far have you been able to transmit? Others have transmitted 1,336 km, It was under perfect conditioins. YMMV.

I don’t know.

• Do you have an Adroid device? If so, connect your Heltec. Navigate to Settings > Position. Is there a Latitiude, Longitude ad Altitude registered? If not, toggle "Fixed Posiion" On. Click "Set from current phone settings." Save. Navigate to Nodes list. Have a look at recenly received nodes. How far away are they? With their radios, that's from how far away they reached you, They may have more EIRP. At least now you have a general idea of what your topography can support.

Yes, I have an Android device, and I also tried with an iPad.
I set a fixed position

• Have you set up Channel 1?

What is Channel 1?

[roberthadow]

Hello @joesatriani1

Troubleshooting generally

It only takes one broken link in the chain to stop you from getting your intended results, in this case an operational radio. That's why there are so many questions. If there are two broken links, then things are tremendously more difficult. That's why the help desk, me in this case, needs answers to everything. It's why many queries on this Github go unanswered. Github-actions asks for logs. Then the rest of humans ignore the thread until there's enough data to make a diagnosis.

Connectivity Level 1 troubleshooting

• You have set your country/region. You have set your position. On the Android Node list, does your device show at the top of the list? Click it.
• Is the text just under Details, "Meshtastic__bbbb_", where bbbb is the last four characters of the Node ID? If so, you haven't set the device name ("owner"). Navigate to Meshtastic Settings > User > Long Name. It will say "Meshtastic__bbbb_", You can name the device anything you want. I suggest that the last four characters be the same as the last four characters of the Node ID. I suggest that the short name be the same. I make mine all caps. Save.
• You set a fixed position. Presumably, you set latitude, longitude, and altitude, either manually or by using your Android or iPad's GPS. Now, when you look on the map, do you see your node? Is it where you think it should be?
• On that map, do you see any other nodes?
• On the Android node list, your node should appear at the top of the list. Does it show an altitude? That means the latitude and longitude are probably set correctly too.
• Do you see other nodes on the list? Does it tell you how far you are from other nodes? If you haven't been to the User screen and configured your long and short names, others will see you as "UNK" and you won't see distances.

LoRa Antennae Level 2 troubleshooting

• Have you identified the Hirose U.FL antenna connector? Is is damaged?
• How many times have you connected/disconnected the antenna? The U.FL is designed for 30 mating cycles. It is fragile.
• Have you operated the unit without antenna? If so, its output should be checked with an oscilloscope.
• Are you using a U.FL to SMA pigtail? The board-mounted U.FL connector is invariably male, the U.FL cable-end is almost invariably female.
• What kind of SMA connector is at the end of your pigtail? There are four. There needs to be a suitable mate on your antenna. Some screw together quite nicely, but are quite useless.
• Is your antenna marked with a freqency or with a catalog number from which you can determine its design frequency? In the photo below are five antennae. Three would likely screw onto your pigtail quite nicely, Only one is marked 868 MHz. It has a male SMA connector (with pin).
• A common error is to use an antenna salvaged from an old router. The frequency is wrong and the connector is an SMA RP (non-standard) connector.
• One may assume that a new antenna marked 868 MHz with the proper plug should work. Nevertheless, it shoud be checked for defects with a VNA. Unmarked antennae can work just fine too, but you need a VNA to see if it is for the right frequency.
• If the antenna is okay, then one should check the pigtail.

It's a question of time and money.

How much is your time worth? If it's fun for you to troubleshoot for two hours, fine. Otherwise, the logical choice is to buy a unit with parts that the manufacturer has determined are correct for one another. Perhaps the manufacturer has flashed the unit with the latest stable firmware and configured the unit for your locale. Then perhaps the unit was powered up and seen to operate.

My previous advice to buy a second, bare bones device stands.

[joesatriani1]

Hi, thanks.
Yes, my device appears at the top of the list.
I haven’t changed the node name, so it’s still the default one.
Yes, when I open the map I can see my node and many others.
I manually set latitude, longitude, and altitude.
I’ve never disconnected the antenna, so I don’t think it’s a connector issue. As I mentioned, I can receive messages, but I’m not very close to other nodes.

[roberthadow]

Maybe I'm superstitious. Humor me. Try changing the name of your device to " Joe BBBB" and the short name to BBBB where bbbb is the last four of the default name and the device ID. Save.

How far away are the other nodes on the map? Guess, based on your knowledge of the area. How far away does it say they are away on the node list?

[joesatriani1]

I changed the name. Imagine I have a node just 3 km away, but I receive it with 3 hops. I don’t understand this—no message goes through successfully. All of this started after I updated it; before, I could send messages without any problems.

[roberthadow]

@joesatriani1 Sorry for being such a pedant, but...

If you control two radios, then you know exactly how far one is from the other. If the owner of another radio dithered its position, you don't really know how far away it is.

Accept that your radio is probably better at receiving than transmitting.