HT-HC01P from HelTec Automation - Success!

[VissionNZ]

Hey folks,

Boy is this an exciting time to be into resilient, long range, mesh wifi networks!

If anyone else is wondering and hasn't found an answer yet: The HT-HC01P from HelTec automation works with OpenMANET, on at least a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, and Raspberry Pi 4B - because those are the two Pis I've got hand at the moment. I see no reason why they couldn't work with others. I bought these radios on sale off AliExpress for about NZD$35 each including the debug boards and free shipping. Not bad?

So far, only tested in SPI mode - the on-board wifi still works great on both Pis. Obviously, the method below isn't automated and refined enough... But if you've got your greedy little hands on these and want to get running, here's my findings as of yesterday:

Wiring

So I don't know if I just missed it in all the documentation, but I couldn't find a wiring guide anywhere... I looked into the morse device overlay patches in target/linux/bcm27xx/patches-6.6 in the firmware repo, and found the pins to use. Note the table below are the header PIN NUMBERS, not GPIO numbers! (e.g. pin 29 is actually GPIO 5)

HC01P Debug Board	Pi 2W or 4B PIN
3V3	17
GND	20
INT	29
RESET	11
BUSY	18
WAKE	16
CLK	23
MISO	21
MOSI	19
CS	24

Setup process

1. Wired up, using the debug boards, to the Pi - used F-F 15cm jumpers
2. Downloaded the .bcf file from HelTec - bcf_HC01P.bin (this may not be needed - haven't tested)
   • https://resource.heltec.cn/download/HT-HC01
3. Flashed the appropriate (SPI, MM6108) image from the OpenMANET releases onto MicroSDs for the Pis, using the Raspberry Pi imager.
   • To load a custom image, you need to select "show every possible image" then scroll to the bottom and select "custom"
   • Pi 3 image for the Zero 2W, Pi 4 image for the Pi 4.
4. Booted up the Pis and for each, connected via ethernet cable (just used a plug and play Eth dongle on the Zero 2W)
5. Configured the system password for the UI and SSH
6. Copied the .bcf file to /lib/firmware/morse using scp on my PC connected to the Pi.
   • Something like scp '<path_to_bcf_file>/bcf_HC01P.bin' root@<host_or_ip_of_pi>:/lib/firmware/morse
7. Using either SSH or the terminal in the web UI ran nano /etc/config/wireless
8. Updated the .bcf reference in that file to bcf_HC01P.bin
9. Re-booted

Then loading up the UI, the module was available! Ran through the quick mesh setup wizard, setting up one Pi (the Zero 2W in my case) as the Gateway (plugged into my LAN with internet access), and the other unit as a "mesh point". I ended up turning off the DHCP server on the mesh point, and let the gateway assign the IP. Then I ran a successful internet speed test and was happy.

Stupid things I did

1. Had wires reversed for IRQ and RESET lines. Check and DOUBLE CHECK and TRIPLE CHECK your wiring before giving up.
2. Didn't have an antenna attached to the board. I got 2MBps over a 2MHz channel width at about ooh.... a whopping 2cm.
3. Assumed the wiring from a different OpenWRT based HaLow project would be the same as this one. Wasn't.

Told, now show

Like my cursed adaptor chain for the Ethernet? Left it out of the above list because if it works it's not stupid.

This is no antennas, radio antenna jacks just about kissing, -71dBm signal, 2MHz width. PC running speed test connected to mesh point via WiFi. Mesh point linked to mesh gateway via 924MHz link. Mesh gateway connected to LAN/WAN via ethernet.

[Harris1030]

Awesome! Would you share the setup of pi zero 2W,if you don't mind because i want to build up a light node for my network. Thanks

[not5erpe]

Glad you got it working but seems like a heck of a lot more work than a WM1302+WM6108 into the 40-pin standard Pi header. I looked into the HT-HC01 recently and it looks like the WM6108 but without some addition components that look like power related. As far as I recall the pinouts are identical on both PCIes. Heltecs were priced higher on aliexpress recently compared to WM1302+WM6108 coming in about $38.

Don't run the radios so close (2cm) better have them >1m, preferably a couple.

[VissionNZ]

@Harris1030 sure - the process I've given here should be enough - but I might make a quick video showing it from start to finish.

@not5erpe - Yeah there were many options at the time and I just wanted to get my grubby hands on something! They do look very similar to the seeed studio, I'd probably go for those next time. But the heltecs are working well. Also I'm talking in New Zealand dollars too - these were the cheapest option with with the debug board and free shipping to get me running. I'm now pulling things apart further to develop some custom, small off-grid units with the Pi Zero 2W as a base SBC. Now I have antennas they're a couple meters apart!

[DConnors2304]

@VissionNZ are you saying you had to change the pin out on the HT-HC01P V2 boards?

I am in the UK so the EU HT-HC01P is one of the only options and the Seeed isn't

I have done what you have said about the bcf_HC01.bin update for the drivers but still get a constant loop with the morse_health_check time out

Any help would be appreciated

[VissionNZ]

Hey @DConnors2304 - Sorry for the late reply, you might have figured this out already. Let me play around again tonight, and I'll try get it all running again, and post something solid. But for what I remember I had to wire up the HelTec as if it were a seeed studio board as follows E.g:

WM6802	Pi GPIO	Pi Physical	Different
MISO	GPIO 9	21	N
MOSI	GPIO 10	19	N
SCK	GPIO 11	23	N
CS	GPIO 8	24	N
INT	GPIO 5	29	Y
RST	GPIO 17	11	Y
WAKE	GPIO 23	16	Y
BUSY	GPIO 24	18	Y

"Different" means different pin than HelTec's Raspberry Pi HAT pinout. The Seeed studio docs for their WM1302 shows the pinout when it's using their Wifi Lorawan modules, not their Halow chip. It's the device overlays in the compiled OpenWRT image that define the pinouts for the connected hardware - and when specifying a halow module, it uses the seeed studio pi hat pinout, because that's what openmanet officially supports.

Seeed Studio WM1302 pinout:
https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/WM1302_Pi_HAT/

HelTec's Rapsberry Pi Hat Schematic:
https://resource.heltec.cn/download/HT-HC01P/Reference_design/HT-HC01P_Raspberry_Pi_reference_design.PDF

So you can compare the differences there. Hope that helps 😅 My plan was to try and write a new device overlay for the HelTec raspberry pi hat... but I'm not sure it's necessary. Maybe it would help some people though and open it up to HelTec users.

Hope that helps!