Heltec LoRa32 firmware

The Heltec LoRa32 is an RNode-class board: it runs the upstream RNode firmware, installed and updated with rnodeconf (which ships with Reticulum) rather than a Ratspeak PlatformIO build. There is no separate Ratspeak firmware to compile for this board; the source is upstream markqvist/RNode_Firmware.

New to building from source? Start with the Overview for prerequisites and toolchain setup.

Looking for the easy path?

To flash in your browser instead, see Flashing the Heltec LoRa32.

warning

Attach an antenna matched to your frequency band before powering or testing the board. Transmitting without one can damage the radio module.

1. Install rnodeconf

rnodeconf is part of Reticulum. Install it with pip:

pip install rns

2. Flash with the auto-installer

Plug the board into USB and run:

rnodeconf --autoinstall

The utility detects your board, downloads the correct RNode firmware image, flashes it, and provisions the EEPROM with the right transceiver and default settings. Follow the interactive prompts.

3. Verify or update later

rnodeconf -i        # show device info (firmware version, board model)
rnodeconf --update  # update the firmware in place

Building the RNode firmware from source

rnodeconf flashes a prebuilt image. If you want to compile the firmware itself, build the upstream project with arduino-cli:

git clone https://github.com/markqvist/RNode_Firmware.git
cd RNode_Firmware
make prep-esp32
make firmware-heltec32_v3   # or heltec32_v2 / heltec32_v4 for your revision

Then flash your build and provision it with rnodeconf. See the upstream repository for the full build and firmware-signing process.