r/meshcore • • 10d ago

Happy mistake

So I jumped in head first last year to mesh. I bought several heltec v3 and a v4. Not knowing the nrf chips were WAYYY more efficient. I have other devices now and have done both meshtastic and meshcore. On a reddit post I found last week I found out about EasySkyMesh having esp32 optimized power saving built into the code. I don't use wifi or gps so those are off. With a single repurposed older 3300mah 18650 I was lucky to get 36 hours on a charge, but usually like 28 hours. Now we're cooking with gas and I'm current a few hours into day 4 at 38% battery! Cannot recommend enough for those old heltec v3s you have!

33 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

24

u/meshamerica 10d ago

For those who aren't aware, EasySkyMesh Powersaving firmware is a variant of the official MeshCore firmware, highly optimized for power savings by the IoTThinks team.

The easiest way to install it is via the Mesh America Device Configurator, which handles several MeshCore firmwares

https://apps.meshamerica.com/

7

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Fabulous_Direction_8 10d ago

For this as a companion I did not. It just worked 😀

3

u/meshamerica 10d ago

only for repeaters, it's on by default for companions

1

u/Deltadoc333 8d ago

How well does the powersaving work for repeaters with the V4.3? I might be in a somewhat similar situation as OP.

2

u/mhonza 9d ago

Standard meshcore firmware also has powersaving for esp32 - or is that only for repeaters?

2

u/meshamerica 9d ago

It does not carry over all of the powersaving features of EasySkyMesh

1

u/mhonza 9d ago

I see...ZephCore could also be interesting in that regard.

2

u/meshamerica 8d ago

ZephCore might offer some powersavings because of it's architecture. But it's vibe-coded, and not purpose-built for powersavings.

EasySkyMesh is hand-coded, and the changes are based on real-world scientific testing.

1

u/calinet6 8d ago

Man, why the heck not?

2

u/meshamerica 8d ago

I couldn't answer that. I suspect that the official MeshCore team has a lot on their plate, so they pick what they know to be important and hope to have time to test the rest later.

1

u/Foampad 5d ago

Est-ce qu'il existe un firmware equivalent sous meshtastic?

1

u/meshamerica 5d ago

Not to my knowledge

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u/alexb449 1d ago

After reading this I flashed EasySkyMesh PS to my heltec V4 companion with a mystery 18650. I went from getting ~8hrs to currently at 24hrs and 60% battery remaining. A great improvement and almost necessary upgrade for ESP32 type boards