Heltec Lora32 V2 flashing leaves blank screen and orange LED-blink

[kristianrl]

I have bought two Heltec Lora 32 V2 (not V3 - I didn't notice it when I was shopping) as my first Meshtastic-devices.

It started up succesfully with Heltec's pre-loaded firmware.
I flashed it using the Meshtastic web flasher. I chose Heltec V3 (although my device is V2), with the log entries as shown below.

However, once I powercycled, it blinked quickly and intensely on the orange LED, and the LED is on at a very low level. Nothing else is happening.

It is not entirely bricked, as I was able to re-flash with the same log and result. It looks the same as when I succesfully flashed my LILYGO TTGO LoRa32 V2.1.

Any ideas about what can be done to flash it to a working Meshtastic device?

esptool.js
Serial port WebSerial VendorID 0x10c4 ProductID 0xea60
Connecting...
Detecting chip type... ESP32
Chip is ESP32-D0WDQ6 (revision 1)
Features: Wi-Fi, BT, Dual Core, 240MHz, VRef calibration in efuse, Coding Scheme None
Crystal is 40MHz
MAC: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:a0
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Erasing flash (this may take a while)...
Chip erase completed successfully in 7.946s
Compressed 1938608 bytes to 1196388...
Writing at 0x0... (1%)
Writing at 0x1315a... (2%)
Writing at 0x1d0d9... (4%)
Writing at 0x27fec... (5%)
Writing at 0x32685... (6%)
Writing at 0x3e332... (8%)
Writing at 0x49389... (9%)
Writing at 0x51ed6... (10%)
Writing at 0x5b0b8... (12%)
Writing at 0x6b4ac... (13%)
Writing at 0x7dc99... (14%)
Writing at 0x83565... (16%)
Writing at 0x89741... (17%)
Writing at 0x8e838... (18%)
Writing at 0x93ef9... (20%)
Writing at 0x993e4... (21%)
Writing at 0x9e911... (22%)
Writing at 0xa3ca8... (24%)
Writing at 0xa8f08... (25%)
Writing at 0xae5d2... (27%)
Writing at 0xb3d78... (28%)
Writing at 0xb902d... (29%)
Writing at 0xbe74c... (31%)
Writing at 0xc42a6... (32%)
Writing at 0xc97ae... (33%)
Writing at 0xcee48... (35%)
Writing at 0xd444a... (36%)
Writing at 0xda350... (37%)
Writing at 0xdf953... (39%)
Writing at 0xe4aa3... (40%)
Writing at 0xe9b0a... (41%)
Writing at 0xef8e3... (43%)
Writing at 0xf50b4... (44%)
Writing at 0xfaaa6... (45%)
Writing at 0x100358... (47%)
Writing at 0x105e1e... (48%)
Writing at 0x10ae6c... (50%)
Writing at 0x10ff90... (51%)
Writing at 0x114ea8... (52%)
Writing at 0x119dd2... (54%)
Writing at 0x11ed9f... (55%)
Writing at 0x123f45... (56%)
Writing at 0x12900c... (58%)
Writing at 0x12e0fa... (59%)
Writing at 0x1337f0... (60%)
Writing at 0x138e29... (62%)
Writing at 0x13e408... (63%)
Writing at 0x14368d... (64%)
Writing at 0x14865c... (66%)
Writing at 0x14d52c... (67%)
Writing at 0x153250... (68%)
Writing at 0x1587f6... (70%)
Writing at 0x15d9da... (71%)
Writing at 0x162cd1... (72%)
Writing at 0x167b51... (74%)
Writing at 0x16cc39... (75%)
Writing at 0x171cb7... (77%)
Writing at 0x176fce... (78%)
Writing at 0x17c528... (79%)
Writing at 0x182188... (81%)
Writing at 0x18773b... (82%)
Writing at 0x18d89d... (83%)
Writing at 0x194372... (85%)
Writing at 0x19dfb0... (86%)
Writing at 0x1a6402... (87%)
Writing at 0x1abad5... (89%)
Writing at 0x1b15bb... (90%)
Writing at 0x1b6dab... (91%)
Writing at 0x1bc2d0... (93%)
Writing at 0x1c31c9... (94%)
Writing at 0x1c8439... (95%)
Writing at 0x1cd943... (97%)
Writing at 0x1d338c... (98%)
Writing at 0x1d92d5... (100%)
Wrote 1938608 bytes (1196388 compressed) at 0x0 in 107.454 seconds.
Compressed 506704 bytes to 309041...
Writing at 0x260000... (5%)
Writing at 0x26abc1... (10%)
Writing at 0x279dd9... (15%)
Writing at 0x27f923... (21%)
Writing at 0x285295... (26%)
Writing at 0x28a709... (31%)
Writing at 0x28fd5b... (36%)
Writing at 0x295599... (42%)
Writing at 0x29a8f0... (47%)
Writing at 0x29ff85... (52%)
Writing at 0x2a57b1... (57%)
Writing at 0x2aaef3... (63%)
Writing at 0x2b02ab... (68%)
Writing at 0x2b59ef... (73%)
Writing at 0x2bb0d1... (78%)
Writing at 0x2c0954... (84%)
Writing at 0x2c9cfa... (89%)
Writing at 0x2d0fa9... (94%)
Writing at 0x2d6a47... (100%)
Wrote 506704 bytes (309041 compressed) at 0x260000 in 27.91 seconds.
Compressed 1048576 bytes to 852345...
Writing at 0x300000... (1%)
Writing at 0x305e76... (3%)
Writing at 0x309e6f... (5%)
Writing at 0x30de6a... (7%)
Writing at 0x311e65... (9%)
Writing at 0x31742e... (11%)
Writing at 0x344efb... (13%)
Writing at 0x348eef... (15%)
Writing at 0x34ceea... (16%)
Writing at 0x350ee5... (18%)
Writing at 0x354ee0... (20%)
Writing at 0x358edb... (22%)
Writing at 0x35ced6... (24%)
Writing at 0x360ed1... (26%)
Writing at 0x364ecc... (28%)
Writing at 0x368ec7... (30%)
Writing at 0x36cec2... (32%)
Writing at 0x370ebd... (33%)
Writing at 0x374eb8... (35%)
Writing at 0x378eb3... (37%)
Writing at 0x37ceae... (39%)
Writing at 0x380ea9... (41%)
Writing at 0x384ea4... (43%)
Writing at 0x388e9f... (45%)
Writing at 0x38ce9a... (47%)
Writing at 0x390e95... (49%)
Writing at 0x394e90... (50%)
Writing at 0x398e8b... (52%)
Writing at 0x39ce86... (54%)
Writing at 0x3a0e81... (56%)
Writing at 0x3a5336... (58%)
Writing at 0x3a932f... (60%)
Writing at 0x3ad32a... (62%)
Writing at 0x3b1325... (64%)
Writing at 0x3b5320... (66%)
Writing at 0x3b931b... (67%)
Writing at 0x3bd316... (69%)
Writing at 0x3c1311... (71%)
Writing at 0x3c530c... (73%)
Writing at 0x3c9307... (75%)
Writing at 0x3cd322... (77%)
Writing at 0x3d131b... (79%)
Writing at 0x3d5316... (81%)
Writing at 0x3da130... (83%)
Writing at 0x3df0e7... (84%)
Writing at 0x3e3eae... (86%)
Writing at 0x3e7ea9... (88%)
Writing at 0x3ebea4... (90%)
Writing at 0x3efe9f... (92%)
Writing at 0x3f3e9a... (94%)
Writing at 0x3f7e95... (96%)
Writing at 0x3fbe90... (98%)
Writing at 0x3ffe8b... (100%)
Wrote 1048576 bytes (852345 compressed) at 0x300000 in 76.258 seconds.
Leaving...

[kristianrl]

@thebentern , I can see that you committed to https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/tree/master/variants/heltec_v2.1 - have you had success with flashing a firmware to Heltec Lora32 V2?

[thebentern]

@kristianrl I have, but it has been a while since I have touched that hard, as it's pretty out of date and not a good performer. You can flash from PlatformIO in our development environment:
https://meshtastic.org/docs/development/firmware/build/

As you found, the V3 firmware is not compatible with the V2. I honestly recommend purchasing a new V3 device, since they are reasonably priced and a significantly better performer, in addition to actually being supported in the current version of the firmware. 😅

[kristianrl]

Thanks a lot, @thebentern! I managed to build it succesfully and get my two Heltec Lora32 V2 nodes running. I'll make sure to get modern hardware for future projects.