915MHz ESP32 LoRa 32 V3 Board + 915 MHz Antenna for Heltec Meshtastic

The boards I received worked when powered up and communicated with each other, sending packets and connecting. I then tried to get the Arduino IDE set up so I could program them for my purpose. I run Mac OS X and I also run Windows 10. In both cases I have been unable to get the hardware manager installed for the Arduino IDE using the board manager process. I reached out to Heltec and all they did was send me a link to the install instructions, which I already had, was following, and getting errors on loading the JSON file. I then decided to try the GIT process but that fails as well with errors referencing an AzureIOT process. I’ve posted this problem on GitHub but as of right now there is no way to actually access and program these boards. So if you want to run their default sketch and send “hello” over and over then this board is for you. As far as I’m concerned these are a complete waste of money and time. I couldn’t be more unhappy with this purchase and DO NOT recommend them. If Heltec decides to respond to my issues and resolves the problems on either or both the Mac or Windows side regarding their failing install instructions then maybe I’ll update this review. Otherwise, these things are useless and a waste of time and money. Update: the hardware works fine and I don’t have any issues with it. But, the customer support is ridiculously bad. If you want to use these boards I recommend you first try installing the board managers and libraries using their “install guides”and see if they work for you. If they don’t work expect to get lame feedback like “clear your browser cache”, or “delete all the files in your Arduino library directory”. They sell products for Makers and programmers yet assume their customers are tech-ignorant. If finely blew off their board manager and library instructions and loaded form other sources. Things are now working fine for my boards, but not because Heltec helped in any way. Update: Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa... After much frustration and research I’ve found the problem with installing the libraries. It turns out that my ISP, or someone up the chain from them, is blocking access to several (or all, but that would be a bug testing project) Chinese URLs. I found this because I have other products from China and was unable to access them as well. So, the problems I’ve had are based on this side of the Pacific and are apparently not Heltec issues at all. I’ve changes my rating to Five Stars. Customer support was still a challenge, partly due to the lag time associated with time zones, but they did try, more or less. And I can’t blame them for the time difference...

Does most everything very well. Built a simple LoRa based sensor system. Detects door motion, temperature, humidity, relays the data through a complex building which WiFi only worked less than 10 meters!! (lots of metal). very happy with power control, low power and libraries in support of most everything. Only issue was the Enterprise Wifi just doesn't work. Normal WPA2 Wifi does but most business use needs Enterprise to work.

Purchased these to play around with Meshtastic and they work well! Meshtastic flasher is a breeze once you get the device communicating with your PC. In my case I had to install SiLabs universal windows driver software, which is mentioned on the Meshtastic website under their "flashing" instructions. Also note these appear to be the slightly newer V2.1 boards, noted on Meshtastics website, so make sure to select that when flashing software. No battery is included, but you can operate them from a USB power supply without a battery. Have not played with them much more than sending messages to a couple phones in the house yet, but they seem to communicate and link via blutooth just fine. All in all, a good value for boards, especially for the shipping speed. AliExpress will beat the prices in most cases, but this is pretty darn close to their price and shipping is FAST, especially compared to 1 month+ long "China Post".

These are very nice modules, easy to program for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LORA access, but they shipped with antennas that are way out of tune for 915MHz, these operate in the GHz band since their SWR is so bad compared to correctly tuned ones. I will continue to buy these, without antennas if I can, maybe not from this merchant, but the antennas that ship with them should be discarded and replaced with known good ones.

Fired up a chirpstack raspberry pi image and wrote my own sensor code and they work ! Lorawan is cool, but these devices are awesome. I was easily able to get 1000 feet indoor to indoor link !

I'm using these as a remote temperature/humidity sensor gateway. The sensor node will be battery operated, so I wanted low power consumption. The other node will be used to report temp and humidity via WiFi as a web server. using Arduino IDE to program the ESP32 and that seems to work fine. Hint: Search for YouTube videos for step-by-step instructions to get the Heltec nodes up and running.

I ordered my first set of these back in July of 2020; however, they were the V2 version. Since then, I have re-purchased them seven times because they are just fantastic, IMO. I re-purchased them by going to my previous orders here on Amazon and clicking on my last purchase of them. Well, this time, I did the same and what came was the V3 version. It is very different from the V2 version and CANNOT BE USED AS A DIRECT REPLACEMENT!!! - The pinout is different, so I need to re-design the PCBs that worked with V2. - The APIs used with the libraries are different, so my programs that were written for V2 do not compile. - I like that they have moved on to USB-C, but that is different too. The V3 boards are very likely an improvement over the V2 version, but they are not a replacement. At a minimum, the link from the orders page should not fool one into getting a different version that is not a direct replacement for the previously purchased article.

These devices are well built and function as intended once they are flashed with the latest Meshtastic firmware. The price is low enough to promote experimentation while the user decides whether to implement a more exotic configuration. PC knowledge and internet access is mandatory.