I picked up the Heltec Wireless Stick Lite v3 as it was the cheapest Meshtastic hardware I could find. The documentation was rather lacking and outdated, so after figuring it all out I decided to write it up here.
- Official Heltec WSLv3 docs
- Product page (the URL says v2, but the page says v3)
- Meshtastic Guide
Heltec is the manufacture of the Wireless Stick Lite v3. You can buy it from their website, via AliExpress, or other distributors such as Rokland in the US. I found the best deal at AliExpress.
You need to attach the included antenna to the connector near the V3 logo. The other optional connector is for the WiFi.
Here is the detailed pin out from Heltec:
Then connect it to your computer via a good quality USB-C cable.
These are instructions for Windows 11. The Heltec docs were outdated.
I didn't have the serial driver installed, which I'm assume is typical, but you may have already installed it. The device uses SiLabs CP2104 USB to serial port chip. You can download the drivers from SiLabs.
I got the CP210x Universal Windows Driver v11.3.0 from 8/9/2024, but there may be a newer version when you visit.
- Extract the zip archive somewhere on your computer
- From device manager right click on the CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller and select Update Driver
- Browse to where you extracted the driver
Once you've loaded the driver it will appear under Ports instead of Other Devices.
Take note of the COM port #. For me it is 15, but it will most likely be different for you.
Once you have a serial connection you can flash the Meshtastic firmware by visiting flasher.meshtastic.org in a Chromium based browser. I used Brave.
- Device: Heltec Wireless Stick Lite V3
- Firmware version: Your choice, I picked the latest Stable one
- Click Flash
- Select the correct serial port (as noted from Device Manager) from the drop down
- Follow instructions to put the hardware in Flash mode
I accidently had putty open and it was locking my COM Port, so if the flash doesn't start for you that is worth checking.
Keep track of the BAUD rate you use. I accepted the default of 115200 which I discovered through trial and error was the Baud rate I needed to connect the serial monitor.
You can see the progress of the flash in the serial window at the bottom of the screen. Once it was done I pressed the RST (reset) button.
If you still have the Meshtasitc Flasher browser window open then it will act as a serial monitor, which you may find useful for Bluetooth Pairing or other troubleshooting.
When you attempt to pair via Bluetooth (I was only able to see it from my Android phone), then PIN will immediately appear. Mine has always been 123456 with the WSLv3, but with my T-Deck that has a screen, a random PIN is displayed. So it is worth trying 123456, but you may need to use the serial monitor.
You can return to flasher.meshtastic.org in your Chromium browser and open the serial monitor again. Just select Serial Monitor at the lower left and select the COM port from the dropdown.
This is probably the best option.
If you want to use Putty for serial monitoring, then select Serial use the BAUD of 115200 (which for me was the BAUD when I flashed, but that might not always be the case).
- Select Serial as the connection type
- Provide the COM port in the serial line as discovered from Device Manager
- Use the BAUD rate of 115200 for the Speed (or whatever you flashed it at if that doesn't work)
- Optionally give it a name and save it
Putty default to a black background, which made some of the text hard to read, so I changed the Default Background to White
If at any point you get Access Denied or similar error messages then check to see if you have it open in an other tab or another program.