Using Meshtastic Flasher
caution
Make sure not to power the radio on without first attaching the antenna! You could damage the radio chip!
Overview
Meshtastic Flasher (aka m-flasher) is a graphical user interface for flashing supported devices with Meshtastic. The following operating systems are currently supported: Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu.
Prerequisites
Verify python3 is installed
Check python3 version
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
python3 --version
# If version is less than v3.6, please update python3
python3 --version
# If version is less than v3.6, please update python3
python3 --version
# If version is less than v3.9+, please update python3
Install/Update `python3`
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv
Install App
This is the preferred installation method for meshtastic-flasher.
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
python3 --version
# ensure you are using at least python v3.6
# change to a directory where you want to create a python virtual environment
mkdir some_dir
cd some_dir
# if the following command fails, it might tell you what package to install
python3 -m venv venv
# activate the python virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate
# your prompt should change - it should include "(venv) in the front
# upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install meshtastic-flasher
meshtastic-flasher
Once downloaded, unzip the file and drag it to ~/Applications. It may take a moment to load as it downloads dependencies required to interact with your device, so be patient. The first time running it can take a few minutes.
Once downloaded, unzip the file and run it. It may take a moment to load as it downloads dependencies required to interact with your device, so be patient. The first time running it can take a few minutes.
Install using `pip`
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
python3 --version
# ensure you are using at least python v3.6
# change to a directory where you want to create a python virtual environment
mkdir some_dir
cd some_dir
# if the following command fails, it might tell you what package to install
python3 -m venv venv
# activate the python virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate
# your prompt should change - it should include "(venv) in the front
# upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install meshtastic-flasher
meshtastic-flasher
python3 --version
# ensure you are using at least python v3.6
# change to a directory where you want to create a python virtual environment
mkdir some_dir
cd some_dir
python3 -m venv venv
# activate the python virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate
# your prompt should change - it should include "(venv) in the front
# upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install meshtastic-flasher
meshtastic-flasher
# open a command prompt
# create a new directory for the python virtual environment
cd c:\
mkdir some_dir
cd some_dir
# check that python version is sufficient, must be at least v3.9+
python -m venv venv
# activate the python virtual environment
venv\Scripts\activate
# your prompt should change - it should have (venv) at the beginning
pip install meshtastic-flasher
meshtastic-flasher
Flashing the Device
The Meshtastic Flasher will flash the latest firmware to esp32 and nrf52 devices. This is a newly developed application (as of February 1, 2022), so there may be some issues discovered as it is tested by users.
There are three steps:
- Click the "GET VERSIONS" button to get the versions available (from GitHub).
- Click the "DETECT DEVICE" button to determine the port and device variant connected.
- Click the "FLASH" button to flash the version selected, using the port selected to the device.
Issues?
If you run into an issue, please create a ticket here: Flasher Issues
The code can be found at the Meshtastic-gui-installer repo
Known limitations
The following are known limitations: