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Lilygo T-Deck: 2.8-inch IPS LCD display, mini keyboard, and ESP32 processor
- nfriedly 3y agoThe M5Stack Cardputer is another interesting device along these lines: https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-cardputer-kit-w-m5stamps3 https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-cardputer-kit-w-m5... (I don't have one of these, but I do have one of their other devices that seemed pretty nifty. Haven't done much with it yet, though.)
- shermozle 3y agoM5 kit isn't very reliable and their documentation site is down more often than it's up. Lilygo are good though.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoI have to take issue with that. I shipped a bunch of devices based on M5Stack Tough for automotive use (in a truck) and feedback is that everything works great.
- evanjrowley 3y agoHAMs are using it as a MeshCom terminal: https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/ https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/ Halfway through this video is an example, contrast it with the iOS app shown before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWtqm7lbYoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWtqm7lbYoo This is a deeper dive into specifically the T-Deck and Meshtastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1hvsYEX7WE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1hvsYEX7WE
- hackcasual 3y agoLilygo were the ones to make the device the original meshtastic was built on (T-Beam)
- KennyBlanken 3y agoThe ESp32 is many things - a suitable mobile battery powered uC is not one of them. It has insane peak power draw from its radios, much more so than any other wifi uC, and it's horribly energy-inefficient when not sleeping.
- scottjg 3y agoout of curiosity, which wifi microcontrollers are better for battery life?
- ComputerGuru 3y agoESP8266 as a daughterboard on a real microcontroller like an STM32. Or a Nordic device like the nrf7002, but I haven’t used that personally.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoNordic Semiconductor nRF devices barely sip power. We did lots of wearable devices with BLE interface at my last job and Nordic was our go-to. Sorry, I just realized you said wi-fi, not BLE.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoThe Lilygo/TYGO ESP-32 boards I've used also have horrible battery life while deep sleeping (which is a bummer because they put out some cool boards that seem ALMOST perfect for battery use cases)
- perbu 3y agoThe chip itself is fine. If you have the wrong board it will be bad. You need to pay attention to the power supply on the board. I've got a weather display (epaper, refreshes every hour) that I need to charge every 18 months or so. If you find the right board they're pretty much perfect.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
- nicpottier 3y agoLilygo makes a ton of really fun ESP32 dev boards. I've used various ones in projects and it is pretty crazy what you can get for not much money. They are constantly churning out new, weird form factors: https://www.lilygo.cc/collections/new https://www.lilygo.cc/collections/new
- ritonlajoie 3y agoI'm building a macro keyboard (4 keys) and was looking for keypads with a display for ages. It seems they are doing it !
- stavros 3y agoThis might be relevant to your interests: https://www.stavros.io/posts/keyyyyyyyys/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/keyyyyyyyys/
- matheusmoreira 3y agoHow good is the keyboard? I want one of these Linux handhelds so much but they all have these clicky push button keyboards. This one looks different, like the old mobile phone physical keyboards which were actually usable.
- lelanthran 3y ago> I want one of these Linux handhelds so much but they all have these clicky push button keyboards. As someone who has programmed ESP32s, I doubt that they can run Linux. The ones I have (Risc-V versions) just don't have the RAM necessary, nor a memory management unit. Maybe once they start coming with 32MB of RAM and an MMU it'll feasible to put a stripped-down Linux kernel on it.
- AlotOfReading 3y agoZephyr is similar to Linux inasmuch as a small RTOS can be. Runs on ESP32 pretty well and it's even a Linux foundation project.
- asqueella 3y agoTo be fair, “as much as a small RTOS can be” means “not at all similar” from a perspective of someone who wants a Linux handheld with a keyboard. 640KB memory might be enough for everybody, but not for what most take for granted on Linux.
- ComputerGuru 3y agoAFAICT it’s the BlackBerry keyboard a lot of other projects use.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoWish that uconsole handheld used it...
- squarefoot 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- gfaure 3y agoThis is the hardware that I wish Beepy had: https://beepy.sqfmi.com https://beepy.sqfmi.com By the way, does anyone know why all of these devices use the Arabic BlackBerry keyboard? Was there a particular surplus of this layout?
- evanjrowley 3y agoThe Beepy is just as capable. The T-Deck is only serving as an interface to the Meshtastic LoRa node. A Beepy can run a Meshtastic companion app and connect over Bluetooth, just like the T-Deck.
- pkage 3y agoBeepys have a pretty big issue with randomly shorting out due to a design flaw, according to the Discord forum anecdata. It happened to mine, unfortunately. A very capable little device before it cooked itself, though—having a raspberry pi in your pocket is a lot of fun.
- CTOSian 3y agoThere is a fix for the U2 issue : https://beepy.space/t/shorted-tps61030-u2/21 https://beepy.space/t/shorted-tps61030-u2/21
- evanjrowley 3y agoThank you for pointing this out. I had no idea. Seems like the kind of thing that all Beepy users should be made aware of.
- gfaure 3y agoBut the backlit screen does make a difference in usability, one has to admit?
- theodric 3y agoI received a Beepy with a plain US keyboard but uneven keyboard backlighting. When I ordered a new Q10 keyboard from AliExpress, I got one that was left half Arabic/English and right half US-English. My T-deck came with the Arabic one. Seems like there are a lot of Arabic parts out there.
- andromeduck 3y agoMakes me want a blackberry again :(
- kjs3 3y agoI still point to Blackberry as a good example of 'good enough is about perfect' technology. There were always things that I might like to have that weren't there, but rarely was there a have to have that wasn't.
- cloudedcordial 3y agoNostalgia certainly hits hard! In the early 2000s, someone showed me how they ran an ssh terminal on their Blackberry. They were amazed how a device that size could do real work.
- vaxman 3y ago[flagged]
- theodric 3y agoCan you provide more information about this? I couldn't find any references online.
- anigbrowl 3y agoCan you not do this? If you know of a specific allegation, by all means post it. Otherwise it's just FUD. The chip docs are freely available and very detailed, so if there is something suspicious it ought to be possible to provide a good writeup.
- vaxman 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- vaxman 3y agoDan, an obviously insulting tone was used while inappropriately putting a demand (not request) to me that I have no legal interest nor actual requirement (even under your Guidelines) to satisfy. The allegation that my comments are “unsubstantive” (not having any factual substance) is false and is not proven by my lack of response. I deny that any of my comments were made insincerely or in bad faith. Further, the allegation that my comments are “flamebait” is disproven by the fact that only a few people have ever replied to any of my comments. By the way, their frustration with my refusal to engage and their decision to bring you in to admonish me is not going to help relieve their situation over having such allegiance to untrustworthy Chinese products. The takeaway for Y Combinator is simple: Since at least 2022, it has been a daily staple of the mainstream news media (6am cable business news, newspapers, magazines, ….) to cover the CCP stealing the intellectual property and hacking the national security interests of the United States and its allies. It is bad for a website calling itself “Hacker” News to allow posts about the virtues of Chinese microcontrollers equipped with China-written microcode and/or American microprocessors with China-written UEFI as if the events of the past few years had not taken place, but many will simply assume that you are slow to react, as so many businesses caught in the crossfire are. However, going further and moderating comments on those posts that espouse caution seems to cross a line that is not a good one for Y Combinator to cross. Y Combinator could easily find itself labeled by the mainstream media as a “hacker website” that is an example of how the CCP has infiltrated its hacking technologies into American infrastructure and that cuts directly to your credibility as a VC to take companies public or merge them with already public firms. For more general information on the underlying subject, consider typing the name of your favorite Chinese microcontroller followed by the word “backdoor” into Google —you might even find a recent thread here on Hacker News and note that I had NO participation in it! You might also direct your attention to “APT41 MoonBounce UEFI” and follow that rabbit hole, but don’t forget the China-based startups staffed by conscript-aged personnel that have settled on old (6th gen) Intel processors (whose ME unit is known compromised) for their incredibly popular line of micro "servers". In any case, I am offended and since your Guidelines do not actually prohibit on-topic comments made in good faith simply because some (probably biased) user poses an unsatisfied “accuracy challenge” (maybe out of denial while they neurotically keep sourcing cheap products not unlike those that bought from Huawei all the way up until the final import-restriction here in the US), I believe it would be appropriate for Y Combinator to reset the “downvotes” applied to my comments and remove your admonishment (and this response) from the post.
- slim 3y agoFor some reason, this thing comes with an Arabic keyboard. Which is pretty bad ass
- RF_Savage 3y agoThey are likely using the easiest to source Blackberry keyboard they can find.
- andromeduck 3y agoI wonder if these are still being produced or if there's just a really big stockpile somewhere - it's weird that they're still showing up so many years later.
- meta-level 3y agoI consider this post a birthday present and didn't even try to resist the buy-instantly-reflex.. BUT. What I'm still missing is an audio jack. I've been searching for a long time now for a device of this mobile friendly form factor (i.e. battery support), with a couple of buttons and knobs, a small display and audio in/out. Like a TE Pocket Operator, but fully programmable (using typical C++/Rust/Micropython programming environments). I'd really love to deep dive into rapid prototyping some audio generator or effect processor I can take with me, but don't want to design and build a device for this first. Maybe you guys have seen something like this before and can give me a hint?
- andrewstuart 3y agoYeah it should have audio. Next best is using Bluetooth, depending on what you’re trying to build.
- blkhawk 3y agoJust add one yourself? I mean it even has a speaker cable. That said an esp32 isn't that good for audio just from a practical standpoint.
- mkl 3y ago> That said an esp32 isn't that good for audio just from a practical standpoint. What are the problems with it for audio? The microphones and speaker on this and the T-Embed [1] suggest it's partly intended for that. [1] https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-embed https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-embed
- reassembled 3y agoMy recollection is that by default the ESP32 DAC isn't very high bit depth and so the sound quality is limited. It is recommended to interface it with an external DAC chip via I2S in order to achieve higher than 8bits per sample (maybe 12bit? Someone please correct me).
- 3y ago
- hellotomyrars 3y agoI got way in to Meshtastic when I was doing some group backwoods camping in national parks. Satellite was really the only other option at the time for long range, highly reliable communication and is so expensive! I got some t-beams and was super impressed by how well they worked. The interface at the time was very clunky and the software was in its infancy. In practice the devices were only usable in the context of showing their GPS location/distance from each other because the iOS support was specifically non-existent. That said I wanted them just to make sure if someone was gone for a long time, you’d know if they were okay by proxy of them moving and be able to find them if needed. It worked for that as a bare device. The software has come a long way and I’ve been really impressed even though I haven’t been in a situation to take advantage of it again. I’ve got one of these on order though because it just tickles me.
- livueta 3y agoI've also used Meshtastic a bunch for backcountry stuff, and coming from vhf/uhf radios, I gotta say I fucking love nonsynchronous comms in that setting. Being able to set my phone down and go filter water or whatever, then come back to a text message that the other group made the pass and will be there in an hour (or, like you said, just their moving arrow), is so much nicer in practice than having to monitor an analog voice channel. That wasn't really a benefit I was expecting when getting into it, but it's one of my favorite aspects in actual usage. I will gladly put up with some level of jank (2/11 t-beams have unressurectably died mysteriously over time) for that kind of QoL improvement. (That said, I still carry a backup ht)
- weinzierl 3y agoThe Meshtastic iOS app is fantastic. Many commercial apps could take a leaf out of their book. (I cannot speak for Android because I never tried it.)
- chazeon 3y agoIs ESP32 enough for me if I want to SSH onto some machine?
- perbu 3y agoyes. I ran ssh clients on the Original Palm pilots in the late 90s. This was way before ssh v2, which increased complexity a fair bit, but the processor here should be more than powerful enough for ssh.
- nxobject 3y agoFor what it’s worth, if you’re interested in general-purpose computing, I was thinking of installing framebuffer DOSBox or something to get a nice Turbo Pascal hobbyist experience.
- anigbrowl 3y agoAlong the same lines, has anyone here tried their T-watch product? https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-watch-s3 https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-watch-s3
- jmiskovic 3y agoI have the T-Watch 2020 collecting dust on the shelf. Biggest downside is the battery which can't last a single day (and has to be charged through USB micro port with a flimsy plastic cap). The "speaker" and microphone are both very low quality. Other than that the hardware works as advertised. It's a complete ESP32 device in a very small form factor that could be repurposed as home automation interface. Software support is quite bad. The arduino examples are mostly useful to confirm the HW is working. The provided OS with UI and gestures is not robust or pretty. It's best to drop to the toolchain that espressif provides, and there are some repositories that make this easy. Last I saw, there's no good foundation to start writing "apps" on top off, you have to treat it as bare metal embedded system and start from scratch. This is where I shelved it, after about two weeks of board bring-up with MicroPython and C++.
- buzzert 3y agoIs that battery life based on screen-on time, or standby time? Wondering if that can be optimized in any way.
- stavros 3y agoI had one of those (maybe not the S3) and it stayed in a drawer because I realized I don't have the time, inclination, or skills to basically write an entire OS for it.
- polonbike 3y agoI guess the website was hug to death by the post ? I can't wait to have a look at this new ESP32 product, given the praise in the comments here.
- sschueller 3y agoIt's this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005692235592.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005692235592.html
- japanuspus 3y agoOne of the commentators on the Lillygo page mentions that this is perfect hardware for "Meshcom"[0], which is "a project to exchange text messages via LORA radio modules." This was the first use case that came to my mind, and MeshCom seems like a well-executed implementation. [0]: https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/ https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/
- freetanga 3y agoWould it be possible to run some hack to get WhatsApp on it? (A tizen version or via a separate matrix server?) It could be a great gift for early teenager asking for phone and justifying it with “missing out on chat with friends”
- bdavbdav 3y agoI think a locked down cheap phone would be a path of significantly lower resistance.
- sschueller 3y agoI wonder how long until RIM sues them. These are old stock blackberry keyboards and RIM has patents on them. Last time they killed a 3rd party keyboard for android phones.
- nirav72 3y agoThe RIM copycat keyboards are mass produced and can be bought individually for DIY projects from places like AliExpress. So if anything, RIM should go after those Chinese makers. Of course good luck to Rim
- reerdna 3y agoYou can turn this into a pocket "lisp machine" by following the instructions on http://www.ulisp.com/show?4JAO http://www.ulisp.com/show?4JAO - although I don't think this can make use of the LoRa interface (yet). The hardware is cool, but its just a PCB and the edges of the display are vulnerable. I would recommend 3D printing a case to protect it, especially if you are planning to bring it around with you. There are .stp files for one in the official github repo.
- alexisread 3y agoYou can also do Forth, which does support lora https://arduino-forth.com/article/FORTH_FlashForth_LoRa_TheLoRaSystem https://arduino-forth.com/article/FORTH_FlashForth_LoRa_TheL... It's relatively straightforward to build this out with an SPI screen using FabGL, not sure about the keyboard, though FabGL supports ps2.
- chrisjj 3y agoIt’s a great choice as a self-contained Lisp computer; see: http://www.ulisp.com/show?4JAO http://www.ulisp.com/show?4JAO
- throwaway71271 3y agoNice! But I don't think qwerty keyboards are cool for tiny computers, I was experimenting with chord and even morse code keyboard https://punkx.org/calc https://punkx.org/calc for a mini computer with 0.96" display for my daughter, and its actually much better than those tiny buttons. I think we have to challenge the input modes more.
- 0xEF 3y agoAt the risk of being shouted down, this is another one of those products that looks great on impulse buy, but when you try to use that tiny keyboard and screen to do any real work with it, the chore of use becomes apparent. I developed my own version using a Featherwing Keyboard awhile back. As much as our brains want to compare it to the old Blackberry we once had, trying to write a quick sketch is so much different than sending the occasional sms with that keyboard. It was a clunky, cramped experience to say the least.
- dark-star 3y agoI have used BlackBerry phones extensively when they were all the rage, and I was more productive on their keyboards than I ever was on any smartphone keyboard, Android or iOS, that came after.
- 0xEF 3y agoI definitely did not share your experience. Still don't with modern touch screen keyboards, which I am currently forced to use. I'd love to chalk it up to having large hands, but that is not the case, as my hands are not big by any standards. I've never felt it was natural to type with one or two thumbs, but we tend to trick ourselves into thinking this is fine because, lets be honest, what's the alternative? We can't all whip out a folding keyboard every time we want to send a text on our mobile. That said, when it comes to making a lilliputian computer/microcomputer, there are physical limitations to design if we want to keep typing with our 8 fingers as the keyboard gods intended, so I understand the resurgence of the Blackberry-esque keyboard for pocket devices. I just can't call it a comfortable way to compute.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- brk 3y agoSame, FWIW. Just the other day I was thinking how it would be great if we could get back to real keyboards, now that smartphones have gotten so big, we have options for folding screens, etc. The pure touchscreen format made sense in the days of iPhone 1, but I'm not sure it still does today.
- weinzierl 3y agoI have their T-Echo and several T-Beam and T-Display-S3. I'm pretty happy with them so far, but have to admit that none of my projects is finished and so far I just have been playing around. I'm based in Germany and delivery from their German warehouse was pretty fast, some parts came from China but didn't take much longer. They don't ship batteries though so you have to get them elsewhere. This was a bit of a challenge for me because I had no prior experience with industrial type batteries and the market is confusing. I was also afraid of fakes that, in the worst case, explode in my face or burn my place down. I finally ordered some from the Netherlands which have not exploded so far. Anyways, I learned a ton for next to no money, so I can definitely recommend the devices mentioned above for educational purposes.
- andrewstuart 3y ago>> have to admit that none of my projects is finished and so far I just have been playing around No-one ever uses the microcontrollers they buy and they certainly don’t finish projects - that would be breaking the laws of nature. No, we buy these devices because we like the idea of making a project with them and enjoy the satisfaction that hitting the “buy” button gives. When the item is delivered (only a 50/50 chance if you bought it from Aliexpress), put it safely in a drawer and think happily about how your project would work if you ever did it. Which you won’t. You will feel an ongoing warm glow from your accumulated collection of microcontrollers and oddball electronics that you’ve bought and you’ll marvel at how little it cost to buy so much computing power that you’ll never use. You watch makers on YouTube to vicariously see projects finished. Then you get inspired and buy. Then you put it in a drawer. Then you go back to watching makers on YouTube. It’s the cycle of maker life.
- _joel 3y agoThis is the content I come here for.
- lagrange77 3y agoThat's exactly how it works.
- 3y ago
- m0th87 3y agoThis is almost perfect for my needs (communication and location sharing in areas without phone signal.) But it's missing GPS/GNSS. I'm not sure how niche that use case is, so more broadly I wish Lilygo offered something akin to Raspberry Pi hats -- i.e. some way to add extensions.
- Havoc 3y agoIs that a blackberry bold 9900 keyboard ? Had one of those IRL and they were glorious. Could this used as ssh terminal?
- nirav72 3y agoNot sure if there is a SSH client for the ESP32. But there is this that runs a raspberry pi zero w. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/beepberry-cures-lack-of-blackberry/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/beepberry-cures-lack-of-bla...
- alexisread 3y agoThese are quite the enabler for emergency comms, and ham-style radio. I think this can be used for disaster.radio, and can be used for meshtastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6NOm0Gdy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt6NOm0Gdy8 Andy Kirby has also been using it on the London Underground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFT-lXvd9TA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFT-lXvd9TA It looks like the UK meshtastic 'network' uses 868MHz, using cheap Heltec boards like this (oled version) as base stations: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404619594371 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404619594371 You also can easily connect your phone to the network via the Android or IOS app.
- bArray 3y agoGah, I just ordered one on impulse [1]. I've wanted to build out a WiFi PDA for quite some time now and I like this hardware. I'm quite liking the idea of running tulip MicroPython [2] on it, or going back to pure MicroPython [3] and writing some drivers. Apparently something like ampy can be used to upload/download Python files [4]. Threads could be quite exciting for running multiple programs at once [5], although I have no idea what it means for two programs to fight over GPIO! It does seem as though MicroPython can only utilise a single core [6]. [1] https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck?variant=43087936487605 https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-deck?variant=43087936487605 [2] https://github.com/bwhitman/tulipcc/tree/main/tulip/tdeck https://github.com/bwhitman/tulipcc/tree/main/tulip/tdeck [3] https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.html https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.... [4] https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/maker/projects/micropython-basics-load-files-run-code/fb1fcedaf11e4547943abfdd8ad825ce https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/maker/projects/micropython-basi... [5] https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/_thread.html https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/_thread.html [6] https://github.com/micropython/micropython/issues/8197 https://github.com/micropython/micropython/issues/8197
- jareklupinski 3y agoporting my Zamek password manager to the T-Track now https://github.com/jareklupinski/zamek https://github.com/jareklupinski/zamek i wonder where they get their hands on those little trackballs... after Blackberrys went out, the only way to get any reasonable qty of them was to buy a plastic bag of like 200 from some random vendor; i was never able to get my hands on a steady supply to turn Zamek into a product :(