Prerequisites¶
Gather these before you open the flasher.
Hardware¶
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4 | This walkthrough; V4 R8 differs — Overview |
| USB-C data cable | Charge-only cables do not expose serial |
| LoRa antenna | Fit it before you transmit |
Computer¶
Host checks below are from Fedora. On another OS, use the matching browser and serial permissions.
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Chrome, Chromium, or Edge | Web Serial required — Firefox alone is not enough |
| Serial access on Linux | User in dialout (or equivalent); re-login after adding |
usbutils |
Provides lsusb |
Confirm the package (Fedora):
rpm -q usbutils
usbutils-017-3.fc41.x86_64
If missing:
sudo dnf install usbutils
Complete!
USB identity after you plug the board in:
lsusb | grep -i espressif
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 303a:1001 Espressif USB JTAG/serial debug unit
Serial node (path can differ):
ls -l /dev/ttyACM* /dev/serial/by-id/ 2>/dev/null
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 166, 0 Sep 29 08:30 /dev/ttyACM0
/dev/serial/by-id/:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Sep 29 08:30 usb-Espressif_USB_JTAG_serial_debug_unit_10:BD:A3:5B:13:E0-if00 -> ../../ttyACM0
That proves USB — next, identify and select Heltec V4.
Tools¶
- Meshtastic Web Flasher
- Meshtastic mobile app (Android / iOS) — BLE pair and day-to-day use (Phone app)
- Meshtastic web client or CLI (
meshtastic) after flash
Next: Identify the board.