From 8adbe2a6486e8179e7960c307c8a510fc372b6b3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: liquidraver <504870+liquidraver@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:23:20 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] releasenotes update --- releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.3-zephcore.md | 166 ++++++++++++------ .../RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.4-zephcore.md | 68 ------- 2 files changed, 117 insertions(+), 117 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 zephcore/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.4-zephcore.md diff --git a/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.3-zephcore.md b/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.3-zephcore.md index 226390e..55584f4 100644 --- a/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.3-zephcore.md +++ b/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.3-zephcore.md @@ -1,49 +1,117 @@ -# ZephCore 1.17.3-zephcore - -One fix. The antenna amplifier setting added in 1.17.2 switched the amplifier off completely instead -of just its receive boost, leaving those nodes barely able to hear anything. - -> [!NOTE] -> Upgrading from 1.17.2 is straightforward — your contacts, settings and phone pairing all survive. -> **If you never touched `radio.fem.rxgain`, nothing about your node changes.** The default is on, and -> on behaves exactly as it did. - ---- - -## `radio.fem.rxgain 0` no longer makes a node deaf - -Some boards carry an extra amplifier chip between the radio and the antenna. 1.17.2 added -`set radio.fem.rxgain 0` to switch off its receive boost and save the current that part draws, while -leaving transmit untouched. - -It switched off the entire amplifier instead. With the chip powered down, nothing reaches the receiver -— not the boost, and not the signal either. Measured on a Heltec V4.3 that was about **69 dB** of loss, -where the setting promised around 16 dB. One node could no longer hear its own repeater from 50 metres -away. - -The setting now does what it says. The signal goes **around** the amplifier's receive boost rather than -through it, costing about **17 dB**, and the chip stays powered — so transmit, and everything else, are -unaffected. If you deliberately switched it off to save power, it now costs you what it was always -supposed to cost. - -Available on the **Heltec T096**, **Wireless Tracker V2** and **WiFi LoRa 32 V4.3**. - -> [!IMPORTANT] -> **The WiFi LoRa 32 V4 no longer has this setting.** Its amplifier is a different chip with no separate -> receive-side control, so there was never a working version of this on the V4 — it only ever got the -> broken behaviour. It now replies `Error: unsupported`. If you had switched it off on a V4, that node -> gets its hearing back, and simply stops saving the current it was trying to save. - -> [!NOTE] -> The 17 dB figure was measured on a V4.3. The T096 and Wireless Tracker V2 use the same amplifier and -> are wired the same way, but were not measured — if the number looks different on yours, please say so. - ---- - -## Also in this release - -Nothing here changes how a node behaves. - -- **A build fix.** After resetting the Zephyr sources by hand, a rebuild could quietly skip re-applying - ZephCore's patches and produce firmware without them. It now checks the sources instead of trusting a - marker file. This only ever affected people building from source. +# ZephCore 1.17.3-zephcore + +One fix and two new settings. The antenna amplifier setting added in 1.17.2 switched the amplifier off +completely instead of just its receive boost, leaving those nodes barely able to hear anything. And for +people who put their node in a case it did not come in, the screen can now be turned upside down and the +joystick flipped to match. + +> [!NOTE] +> Upgrading from 1.17.2 is straightforward — your contacts, settings and phone pairing all survive. +> **If you never touched `radio.fem.rxgain`, nothing about your node changes.** The default is on, and +> on behaves exactly as it did. Both new settings default to off, so a node you do not touch behaves +> exactly as it did too. + +--- + +## `radio.fem.rxgain 0` no longer makes a node deaf + +Some boards carry an extra amplifier chip between the radio and the antenna. 1.17.2 added +`set radio.fem.rxgain 0` to switch off its receive boost and save the current that part draws, while +leaving transmit untouched. + +It switched off the entire amplifier instead. With the chip powered down, nothing reaches the receiver +— not the boost, and not the signal either. Measured on a Heltec V4.3 that was about **69 dB** of loss, +where the setting promised around 16 dB. One node could no longer hear its own repeater from 50 metres +away. + +The setting now does what it says. The signal goes **around** the amplifier's receive boost rather than +through it, costing about **17 dB**, and the chip stays powered — so transmit, and everything else, are +unaffected. If you deliberately switched it off to save power, it now costs you what it was always +supposed to cost. + +Available on the **Heltec T096**, **Wireless Tracker V2** and **WiFi LoRa 32 V4.3**. + +> [!IMPORTANT] +> **The WiFi LoRa 32 V4 no longer has this setting.** Its amplifier is a different chip with no separate +> receive-side control, so there was never a working version of this on the V4 — it only ever got the +> broken behaviour. It now replies `Error: unsupported`. If you had switched it off on a V4, that node +> gets its hearing back, and simply stops saving the current it was trying to save. + +> [!NOTE] +> The 17 dB figure was measured on a V4.3. The T096 and Wireless Tracker V2 use the same amplifier and +> are wired the same way, but were not measured — if the number looks different on yours, please say so. + +--- + +## The screen can be turned upside down + +DIY builds and upgrade kits do not always hold the board the way the original case did. The +**Meshnology N37E**, for instance, takes a Wio Tracker L1 and puts it in a different enclosure — one +that mounts the screen the other way up. Until now the only answer was to build your own firmware with +the panel flipped, which meant giving up the published builds everyone else uses. + +`set display.rotate on` turns the picture 180 degrees. It survives reboots, and the same firmware +everybody else runs is now the firmware you run too. + +On the boards with a joystick there is a menu entry as well — **System → Display → Rotate 180** — so it +can be set on the device without a cable. + +The rotation costs nothing to keep on. It is not done by redrawing the screen the other way round; the +firmware asks the display chip itself to scan its rows and columns in reverse, which is two bytes sent +once. Every frame after that is drawn exactly as before. + +> [!IMPORTANT] +> **This works on OLED screens only** — the SSD1306 and SH1106 panels, which covers the **RAK4631**, +> **GAT562 30S**, **Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4** and **V4.3**, **LilyGo T3S3**, **Station G2** and +> **Wio Tracker L1**. +> +> Boards with a colour screen or e-paper answer `Error: this panel cannot rotate`, and the setting is +> not saved — so a stored value can never claim something the screen is not doing. Those panels can be +> rotated in principle, but it would mean turning every frame around in software rather than asking the +> chip to do it, and that is a different piece of work. + +> [!NOTE] +> **The LilyGo T-Impulse Plus is the one OLED board left out.** Its small screen only occupies part of +> the display chip's memory, and the trick that flips the picture flips the chip's whole range — which +> would have slid the image off the visible area rather than turning it over. It reports the setting as +> unsupported, like the colour and e-paper boards. + +> [!NOTE] +> On the Wio Tracker L1 and Station G2 the flip relies on their screen being wired the way these +> modules normally are. It was reasoned from the board description rather than measured on a bench, so +> if a rotated screen comes out shifted a few columns sideways rather than cleanly turned over, please +> say so. + +## The joystick can be flipped to match + +Turning the screen over does not turn the buttons over. A case that mounts the board upside down puts +the joystick upside down as well, so pushing up walks the menu down and left goes right. + +`set input.rotate on` swaps both axes back. On the joystick boards there is a menu entry next to the +rotation one — **System → Display → Flip input**. + +It is deliberately a **separate** setting rather than part of the rotation. A case can put the screen +somewhere new without moving the stick, and boards whose screen cannot rotate can still end up with the +controls the wrong way round — so tying the two together would have made both less useful. Set whichever +you actually need. + +This one works on every board with directional controls, including the ones whose screen cannot rotate. +Only the four directions are affected: buttons, tap gestures and long presses are untouched, and on the +single-button boards the flip swaps which way the pages step. + +Both settings are readable with `get display.rotate` and `get input.rotate`. `get display.rotate` +reports what the panel is actually doing rather than what is stored, so a refused rotation shows up as +refused. + +Suggested by **celsoazevedo** ([@celsoazevedo](https://github.com/celsoazevedo)) in +[issue #76](https://github.com/liquidraver/ZephCore/issues/76). + +--- + +## Also in this release + +Nothing here changes how a node behaves. + +- **A build fix.** After resetting the Zephyr sources by hand, a rebuild could quietly skip re-applying + ZephCore's patches and produce firmware without them. It now checks the sources instead of trusting a + marker file. This only ever affected people building from source. diff --git a/zephcore/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.4-zephcore.md b/zephcore/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.4-zephcore.md deleted file mode 100644 index 4e56339..0000000 --- a/zephcore/releasenotes/RELEASE_NOTES_1.17.4-zephcore.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,68 +0,0 @@ -# ZephCore 1.17.4-zephcore - -Two new settings for people who put their node in a case it did not come in: the screen can be turned -upside down, and the joystick can be flipped to match. - -> [!NOTE] -> Upgrading from 1.17.3 is straightforward — your contacts, settings and phone pairing all survive. -> Both new settings default to off, so a node you do not touch behaves exactly as it did. - ---- - -## The screen can be turned upside down - -DIY builds and upgrade kits do not always hold the board the way the original case did. The -**Meshnology N37E**, for instance, takes a Wio Tracker L1 and puts it in a different enclosure — one -that mounts the screen the other way up. Until now the only answer was to build your own firmware with -the panel flipped, which meant giving up the published builds everyone else uses. - -`set display.rotate on` turns the picture 180 degrees. It survives reboots, and the same firmware -everybody else runs is now the firmware you run too. - -On the boards with a joystick there is a menu entry as well — **System → Display → Rotate 180** — so it -can be set on the device without a cable. - -The rotation costs nothing to keep on. It is not done by redrawing the screen the other way round; the -firmware asks the display chip itself to scan its rows and columns in reverse, which is two bytes sent -once. Every frame after that is drawn exactly as before. - -> [!IMPORTANT] -> **This works on OLED screens only** — the SSD1306 and SH1106 panels, which covers the **RAK4631**, -> **GAT562 30S**, **Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4** and **V4.3**, **LilyGo T3S3**, **Station G2** and -> **Wio Tracker L1**. -> -> Boards with a colour screen or e-paper answer `Error: this panel cannot rotate`, and the setting is -> not saved — so a stored value can never claim something the screen is not doing. Those panels can be -> rotated in principle, but it would mean turning every frame around in software rather than asking the -> chip to do it, and that is a different piece of work. The joystick flip below works on all of them. - -> [!NOTE] -> **The LilyGo T-Impulse Plus is the one OLED board left out.** Its small screen only occupies part of -> the display chip's memory, and the trick that flips the picture flips the chip's whole range — which -> would have slid the image off the visible area rather than turning it over. It reports the setting as -> unsupported, like the colour and e-paper boards. - -## The joystick can be flipped to match - -Turning the screen over does not turn the buttons over. A case that mounts the board upside down puts -the joystick upside down as well, so pushing up walks the menu down and left goes right. - -`set input.rotate on` swaps both axes back. On the joystick boards there is a menu entry next to the -rotation one — **System → Display → Flip input**. - -It is deliberately a **separate** setting rather than part of the rotation. A case can put the screen -somewhere new without moving the stick, and boards whose screen cannot rotate can still end up with the -controls the wrong way round — so tying the two together would have made both less useful. Set whichever -you actually need. - -Only the four directions are affected. Buttons, tap gestures and long presses are untouched, and on the -single-button boards the flip swaps which way the pages step. - ---- - -Both settings are readable with `get display.rotate` and `get input.rotate`. `get display.rotate` -reports what the panel is actually doing rather than what is stored, so a refused rotation shows up as -refused. - -Suggested by **celsoazevedo** ([@celsoazevedo](https://github.com/celsoazevedo)) in -[issue #76](https://github.com/liquidraver/ZephCore/issues/76).