How to flash and setup Meshtastic with UI on T-Deck Plus

I like to create new things, but also to try those that are already ready-made. Recently, I was very lucky to get my hands on the new T-Deck Plus from LILYGO and flash Meshtastic with the Fancy UI firmware on it.

It has a built-in battery, comes with a ready-made case, includes GPS, and has internal antennas which are easily upgradable to external ones (especially for LoRa antenna). You have options to include your own antenna with a space for a SMA connector on the top of the board, which can be cut out to a hole with nose pliers, or a box cutter.

But I want to talk about the Fancy UI Firmware. Recently I wasn’t able to compile it with PlatformIO for the T-Deck Plus from the master branch, and the compiled versions were taken down (expired) at Github. I guess that the reason for this was that the people got crazy and started opening pointless issues on Github, despite that this Fancy UI firmware is a very premature and experimental piece of software at this point (01/2025).

So let me give you a full tutorial on how to flash Meshtastic with Fancy UI firmware for the LILYGO T-Deck Plus!

Here are the steps that you need to do in order to run the taken-down version of the Meshtastic Fancy UI Firmware:

1. Download the zipped version of the Fancy UI firmware here (mirror): firmware-2.5.3.bfe99b2.zip
2. Power off the T-Deck Plus
3. Hold down the middle pointer ball and while holding it, switch on the power
4. Connect a USB-C cable to the T-Deck and your computer
5. Keep holding the ball for about 2-3 seconds more, until you see it in Device Manager (the screen of the T-Deck will be black)
6. Open a Chromium-based browser like Chrome/Edge/Chromium, and go to https://flasher.meshtastic.org

7. Click on “Select Target Device” and select LILYGO T-Deck

8. Click on “Upload your own firmware release or bin”

9. Select the zip file that you’ve downloaded and click on “Flash”. Be sure to select Full erase.

10. You should see “USB JTAG/serial debug unit”, if T-Deck Plus is connected properly. Select it and click “Connect”.

11. Wait until flashing completes. We’re not done yet. Unzip the zip file to some new directory. Make sure that the flasher tab in the browser is closed after flashing.

12. Go to https://esp.huhn.me, click “Connect”, select again the T-Deck device

You should see something like this:

13. Click on the 4th “SELECT”, that is at address 0x10000 and select the T-Deck update bin file: firmware-t-deck-2.5.3.bfe99b2-update.bin

14. Click on “Program” and then “CONTINUE”. Wait until the flashing completes.

15. Close the browser window, so the serial port is disconnected. Turn the T-Deck off and then on.

16. Go to https://client.meshtastic.org and on the “Position” tab, set “GPS Mode” to “ENABLED” and set the GPS pins: RX pin to 44, TX pin to 43 according to the pinout

17. Save the configuration and restart the T-Deck

18. That’s it! You should be able to get a GPS fix after keeping the T-Deck outside or near a window for a while. It will get the fix much faster once it gets it for the first time.

Hope that you’ll enjoy your new T-Deck Plus with the Fancy UI firmware.

Huge thanks goes to Katherine McNamara for posting the first tutorial on YouTube.

If you’re using the Lilygo T-Deck Plus with Meshtastic, upgrading to the fancy UI version of the firmware can greatly enhance your experience.

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Happy New Year and enjoy your brand new T-Deck Plus with Meshtastic.

You can buy the T-Deck Plus here.