LILYGO T-Deck Plus ESP32-S3 915Mhz LORA-89 Ulbox GPS 2.8-inch Display TTGO Development Board Built-in Antenna with ABS Shell

Best stand alone device once you install external antenna. Backlit keyboard by pressing alt-b. Good stuff.

Operator: [REDACTED] Device: LILYGO T-Deck Plus Mission: Expand mesh network coverage + reconnaissance Summary: This device should not be commercially available. It’s not a dev board — it’s a tactical communications platform disguised as a hobbyist toy. The keyboard has better feedback than my military-grade field terminals. The display is crisp enough to read in full daylight, low light, or in the middle of an adrenaline-fueled sprint across the driveway chasing packet loss. I conducted tests at varying distances: • 0.1 mile – flawless • 0.5 mile – flawless • 1.6 miles – crisp packets • 2.0 miles – still received “YOLO TEST MSG” from my porch • 2.7 miles – dropped only one packet, then continued like nothing happened The battery efficiency? I charged it once, used it all weekend, and it still had the energy to judge my life choices. Threat assessment: This board empowers civilians with capabilities once reserved for reconnaissance units. Recommendation: Buy two. Keep one in the glove compartment. Keep one next to your bed. You never know when the mesh will call.

I love this thing, still some bugs to fix and features to add you'll be looking forward too. To start, the UI version of meshtastic is awesome with one little irritation. IF you want to bluetooth to the device from your phone to adjust advanced settings you will have to restart it and boot into a different mode by holding the meshtastic icon on the screen while it boots. It disables the UI while bluetooth is active. Other than the lack of multitasking by the core service it runs incredibly smooth, has enough features you won't be bluetoothing too often anyway. The reset button is on the left side, little oversized imo.

Good little units but the software is just a little laggy. Also, not super compact except when you compare to other models with external antennas. Great for very local communication.

I was excited about this device, but it was a brick less than 24 hours after first setting it up. I set it up, and connected via Bluetooth. Sadly there were no nodes in my area so I was unable to test it out. I did find nodes nearby, and decided to leave it on a standard 5V/1A charger overnight, and test it the next morning. I picked it up the next morning, and it would not power on. A blue light would flash briefly behind the keyboard, but the screen remained dark. A search online revealed this as a common issue. A faint smell of burnt electrical components was noted. This may be something that an experienced technician with a soldering iron can easily address, but I need more robust options that can at least handle a 5V/1A charger overnight (seems like a pretty low threshold). I returned it, and will continue my search.

This is a great self contained Meshtastic system. Unfortunately, I have had difficulty in finding instructions and how to add maps to the system that work.

OK only when you install an external antenna.

Great, very cool bit of kit.

Cheap plastic case, with difficult to press keys. Terrible range based on the internal antenna.

Frequently does not aquire GPS..Power cycling sometimes helps. This device is not suitable for applications requiring the use of on-board GPS. The processor,keyboard, BT, and WiFi are fine.