LillyGo /433 1Watt T-beam will not boot after flashing

[kimgrossteacher]

I have three different Lillygo T-beams 1 watt that I have been trying to flash as a tracker. Before I load the firmware I get the USB port being assigned to a com port. Flash seems to go ok, but the unit does not reboot like normal. If I tell it to reboot via the web flasher, nothing seems to happen. If I power cycle the unit, when connected to USB the com port will be assigned then dropped repeatedly. Nothing comes on the display and I do not see the wifi AP come up either so I think it is stuck in a bootloop for some reason. If I remove the USB cable with the battery installed, the green LED flashes once and then nothing. I can not figure out how to revert to back to the original flash that seems to at least boot up and give me a com port via the usb.

[JerzyG84]

Hi. You need to flash it the old school way.
I hed the same problem with Web flasher.
Compile and flash with Visual Studio Core + PlatformIO.

[kimgrossteacher]

Now that I have tried with the web flasher and I can't get a stable com port assigned, how I can do the VSC/PIO flashing?

[JerzyG84]

I can't get a stable com port assigned

1. Press and hold the boot button.
2. Connect to USB port.
3. release the Boot button.

A COM port will be assigned without boot loop.

how I can do the VSC/PIO flashing?

Search on Youtube, too much to explain.

Good luck, it works OK

[kimgrossteacher]

Thank you sir. That worked.

[arizonajon1]

I was just going to post something about this! Thanks for beating me to it. I too have the 433 1 watt.

I've cloned Ricardo's tracker github into VSC/PIO. In platformio.ini, I need to specify the default_envs. I don't see an explicit variant for the 1W. Is it the same as the T-Beam_Supreme or the same as the regular T-beam?

Second, has anyone had luck fitting a F550 battery to this unit? I've got a pair of those batteries, they fit into the holder, but I cannot slide it up more than maybe 1/2 mm, so it won't latch in place. I'm about to use some chalk or similar to see where the binding points are.

Any guidance would be much appreciated!

Cheers and 73 - Jon N7UV

[kimgrossteacher]

I cloned the tracker and it does have the ttgo-t-beam-1w for me. It works great.

On the 550 batteries I had an issue with them as well, the locking tab on the holder is very small and broke. I have to use a small screwdriver to carefuly bend it out so I can install the battery or remove the battery. I think it sucks.

[kimgrossteacher]

That is strange. I would make sure you are cloning the most current version. Here is what I see right now.

[arizonajon1]

My bad. I didn't clone properly and I was looking at an old folder.

[kimgrossteacher]

Good luck. I got 2 of my three units working correct, with one good battery holder lol.

[arizonajon1]

thanks - well, now I got a compile error

This is a fully updated version of VSC/PIO, as far as I know.

[arizonajon1]

I see what you mean with the battery holder - I just unboxed the other T-Beam-1W and the same battery sorta kinda gets into place, but not fully.

[kimgrossteacher]

I did not get any errors like that. I would suggest doing a full clean and then do the build and see what happens.

[arizonajon1]

now I see the problem. The first one is missing the little plastic tang that clicks when the battery is supposedly in place. Looking more closely, the tang is broken off. Even with the plastic tang, the battery seems to engage only slightly with the holder.

[kimgrossteacher]

I broke the tang off of two of mine before I figured out what it was. I just tried to install the battery and it went flying.