#wadamesh — Public Fediverse posts

So last week I picked up a #TDeck, a battery and an antenna, 3D printed an enclosure and installed #wadamesh to use the device on #meshcore

ok, that was a lot of hashtags.

So, I have some opinions. Disclaimer: I know this is a new open source firmware that's in beta. A lot of my gripes will probably be dealt with very soon. And if I cared enough I could fix some stuff myself and issue pull requests. Anyway, here are my thoughts.

1. My brain apparently does not work with ortholinear keyboards. Not even if typing with my thumbs. What's worse, the placement of "shift" and "sym" keys makes them super hard to use, and I use them a lot ("sym" is needed for numbers or punctuation). I do feel like I could get better at it, but it's going to be a rough ride.

2. The screen shuts off after a few seconds whether I configure it to or not. Like, there's a setting, but changing it doesn't affect anything.

3. Scrolling is super awkward. It has a touch screen, but sometimes a scroll comes with an oops-click, and sometimes it does a weird snap back.

4. The trackpad in the middle of the device is worthless. I don't know if this is from wadamesh or that it's the hardware, but it doesn't scroll reliably. I'd love it if it did, since scrolling on the touch display is so wonky.

5. It crashes a lot. Practically every time I pick it up and tap the screen to wake it, it's on the screen that tells me it has crash data to send. But the UI for the window is weird and scrolled off, and I think there's supposed to be a "send report" button on the popup, but it's hidden. Instead I have to just poke around random things hoping the popup will eventually go away.

6. It's gorgeous! The UI is really nice, especially for a basic as hell $50 ESP32 device

7. Battery life is fantastic. I installed a 5000 mAh LiPo battery, and I get almost three days on a full charge. I think that means if I was using it more I'd get about one full day. I did hear people say 5000 wasn't enough charge for them, so I assume it's just because I'm not transmitting a lot.

8. Features are amazing. The OpenStreetMap integration alone is pretty mind-blowing.

Anyway, I very badly want this thing to be my daily driver on MeshCore, but it's not going to be until I get more accustomed to it, and some of the glitches get ironed out. But holy cow, you can see where this thing is going, and it has a lot of potential.

I'll keep poking around with it, and if I get enough spare time I might see if I can contribute, but in the meantime I think I'll be using the phone app.

So last week I picked up a #TDeck, a battery and an antenna, 3D printed an enclosure and installed #wadamesh to use the device on #meshcore

ok, that was a lot of hashtags.

So, I have some opinions. Disclaimer: I know this is a new open source firmware that's in beta. A lot of my gripes will probably be dealt with very soon. And if I cared enough I could fix some stuff myself and issue pull requests. Anyway, here are my thoughts.

1. My brain apparently does not work with ortholinear keyboards. Not even if typing with my thumbs. What's worse, the placement of "shift" and "sym" keys makes them super hard to use, and I use them a lot ("sym" is needed for numbers or punctuation). I do feel like I could get better at it, but it's going to be a rough ride.

2. The screen shuts off after a few seconds whether I configure it to or not. Like, there's a setting, but changing it doesn't affect anything.

3. Scrolling is super awkward. It has a touch screen, but sometimes a scroll comes with an oops-click, and sometimes it does a weird snap back.

4. The trackpad in the middle of the device is worthless. I don't know if this is from wadamesh or that it's the hardware, but it doesn't scroll reliably. I'd love it if it did, since scrolling on the touch display is so wonky.

5. It crashes a lot. Practically every time I pick it up and tap the screen to wake it, it's on the screen that tells me it has crash data to send. But the UI for the window is weird and scrolled off, and I think there's supposed to be a "send report" button on the popup, but it's hidden. Instead I have to just poke around random things hoping the popup will eventually go away.

6. It's gorgeous! The UI is really nice, especially for a basic as hell $50 ESP32 device

7. Battery life is fantastic. I installed a 5000 mAh LiPo battery, and I get almost three days on a full charge. I think that means if I was using it more I'd get about one full day. I did hear people say 5000 wasn't enough charge for them, so I assume it's just because I'm not transmitting a lot.

8. Features are amazing. The OpenStreetMap integration alone is pretty mind-blowing.

Anyway, I very badly want this thing to be my daily driver on MeshCore, but it's not going to be until I get more accustomed to it, and some of the glitches get ironed out. But holy cow, you can see where this thing is going, and it has a lot of potential.

I'll keep poking around with it, and if I get enough spare time I might see if I can contribute, but in the meantime I think I'll be using the phone app.