TTGO T-Beam Helium Network Mapper
A portable Helium network coverage mapper using the TTGO T-Beam rev 1.1, sending LoRa packets to nearby hotspots and uploading signal metrics to mappers.helium.com for community coverage mapping.
Overview
This project transforms the TTGO T-Beam rev 1.1 into a Helium network mapper — a device that drives or walks around collecting signal strength data from Helium hotspots and contributing that data to the community coverage maps at mappers.helium.com and cargo.helium.com. It was developed by Mitch K (@kritch83) and documented on Hackster.io.
How It Works
The T-Beam's SX1276 LoRa radio transmits periodic packets, which are received by nearby Helium hotspots. The hotspot forwards packet metadata (RSSI, SNR, GPS coordinates) through the Helium Console to the mapping service. The 1.3" SH1106 OLED display shows the current GPS fix status, packet count, and the number of hotspots that heard the last transmission.
Controls
The three physical buttons on the T-Beam handle all operation: the left button powers the device on/off (hold 8 seconds), the center action button cycles polling speed (1 press = low power, 2 presses = cycle 15/30/60s intervals, 3 presses = OTA update mode, 10 presses = erase keys), and the right button resets the device. OTA updates are possible by connecting to the device's hotspot at 192.168.4.1.
