Seeed Wio Tracker L1 - MeshCore "Solo" companion firmware

This branch extends the official MeshCore companion radio firmware for the Seeed Wio Tracker L1. Provides support for both the original OLED and the e-ink variant, with additional features and UI enhancements.

Join the discussion on the official MeshCore Discord: https://discord.gg/sdhYArU2jr

Solo firmware thread: https://discord.com/channels/1495203904898728149/1505294337884553447

Enclosures

• E-ink case
• Oled case

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Feature highlights

• Extended language support with native Unicode rendering and input Lemon font alongside the original ASCII mode (Default font with transliteration)

• Enabled sensor screens with support for all onboard sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, luminosity, CO₂) and GPS data

• Messages Screen — view and send messages, open message details, reply with quick messages or custom text, per-channel notification and melody overrides

• Favourites Dial — pin up to six contacts for quick access from the home screen

• Settings Screen — configure display, sound, home page order, radio and system settings

• Clock Screen — view time and date plus up to three configurable data fields

• Screen Lock — lock the device to prevent accidental keypresses, with a lock screen showing time and sensor data

• Tools Screen — GPS trail recording and export, nearby nodes, ringtone editor, auto-reply bot, auto-advert

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Menu Structure

flowchart TD
    Home[("Home Screen")]
    
    Home --> Clock[Clock]
    Home --> Favourites[Favourites]
    Home --> Recent[Recent]
    Home --> Radio[Radio]
    Home --> Bluetooth[Bluetooth]
    Home --> Advert[Advert]
    Home --> GPS[GPS]
    Home --> Sensors[Sensors]
    Home --> Settings[Settings]
    Home --> Tools[Tools]
    Home --> Messages[Messages]
    Home --> Shutdown[Shutdown]
    
    Tools --> RingtoneEditor[Ringtone Editor]
    Tools --> Bot[Auto-Reply Bot]
    Tools --> Nearby[Nearby Nodes]
    Tools --> AutoAdvert[Auto-Advert]
    Tools --> Trail[GPS Trail]
    
    Settings --> Display[Display]
    Settings --> Sound[Sound]
    Settings --> HomePages[Home Pages]
    Settings --> Radio[Radio]
    Settings --> System[System]
    Settings --> Contacts[Contacts]
    Settings --> MsgSlots[Message Slots]
    
    Messages --> Direct[Direct]
    Messages --> Channels[Channels]
    Messages --> Rooms[Room Servers]
    
    Clock --> DashConfig[Dashboard Config]

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E-ink Display

The e-ink variant targets the Wio Tracker L1 fitted with a 2.13″ GxEPD2 panel (250 × 122 px). All screens have been adapted for the e-ink panel:

• Adaptive layout — every screen reflows correctly in both landscape (250 × 122) and portrait (122 × 250) orientations
• Display rotation — configurable in Settings › Display; applied immediately and persisted across reboots
• Joystick rotation — independent of display rotation; useful for custom enclosures
• Full refresh interval — configurable in Settings › Display; reduces ghosting on long sessions
• Clock seconds suppressed by default — seconds are hidden to reduce per-second panel refreshes and extend display lifetime; re-enable in Settings › Display

Firmware Variants

Two firmware builds are published with each release:

Variant	Display	File
OLED	SSD1306 / SH1106 128 × 64	solo-<version>-oled.uf2
E-ink	GxEPD2 250 × 122	solo-<version>-eink.uf2

Both variants are built from a single codebase and share the same feature set. The firmware supports both BLE and USB serial in a single binary — there are no separate BLE/USB builds.

Important

BLE connection has priority over USB serial. When a BLE connection is active, the USB protocol is suspended. When connecting to the companion app via USB, ensure to disconnect from BLE first or disable BLE directly from the device to avoid confusion.

Flashing

1. Download the appropriate .uf2 file for your display variant from the releases page
2. Press reset twice quickly to enter bootloader mode (solid amber LED) - the device should appear as a mass storage drive on your computer
3. Copy the .uf2 file to the drive to flash the firmware

Updating to newer firmware versions usually does not require erasing flash unless the release notes explicitly state otherwise. To retain your settings and data, avoid performing a factory reset after flashing unless you need to start fresh or encounter problems.

Warning

When migrating from official/custom firmware, backup your data and perform factory reset to prevent conflicts with existing settings and data:

1. Open device settings in the companion app and download data backup
2. Go to MeshCore Flasher website
3. Select "Wio Tracker L1 Pro"
4. Choose any of the firmware variant
5. Perform "Erase flash"

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Documentation

This fork

Document	Description
Messages Screen	Sending messages, context menus, reply, Notif/Melody overrides
Favourites Dial	Pinned contacts grid, unread badges, pin/unpin
Clock Screen	Clock page, date, configurable data fields
Settings Screen	All settings sections with values and interactions
Screen Lock	Lock/unlock sequence, lock screen, auto-lock
Tools Screen	GPS trail, nearby nodes, ringtone editor, auto-reply bot, auto-advert

Upstream MeshCore

Document	Description
FAQ	Frequently asked questions
CLI Commands	Commands for repeaters, room servers and sensors
Terminal Chat CLI	Commands for the terminal chat client
Companion Protocol	Serial/BLE frame protocol between device and app
Packet Format	LoRa packet structure
QR Codes	Channel and contact QR code formats

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Screenshot Tool

The firmware can capture the current display contents and send them over USB serial as a PNG — useful for debugging and documentation. Works with both OLED and e-ink variants.

Note

Requires firmware built with -D ENABLE_SCREENSHOT. Use the _dev environment or add the flag manually.

1. Build and flash with screenshot support

# OLED
PLATFORMIO_BUILD_FLAGS="-D ENABLE_SCREENSHOT" pio run -e WioTrackerL1_companion_dual -t upload

# E-ink
pio run -e WioTrackerL1Eink_companion_dual_dev -t upload

2. Disconnect from the companion app — USB serial is not available while BLE/app is connected

3. Run the tool — uv is recommended for managing Python dependencies:

uv run tools/screenshot.py

Options:

• --port PORT — serial port (default: auto-detect)
• --scale SCALE — upscale factor for output image (default: 1)

4. Press S in the interactive menu to capture. Screenshots are saved to tools/pngs/ with a timestamp filename.

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GPX Trail Export

Capture the GPS trail as a GPX 1.1 file by streaming it over USB serial.

uv run tools/trail_export.py

Run the script, then on the device: Tools › Trail › Hold Enter ›

• Export (live) — current RAM trail
• Export (saved) — /trail file from flash

The script auto-detects the port, waits for the <?xml start, captures bytes until </gpx>, and writes the file to tools/gpx/trail_<timestamp>.gpx.

If the companion app is connected over BLE the export is safe (USB receive is ignored). If the app is on USB, disconnect it first — the raw GPX stream will otherwise disrupt the app's frame protocol.

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Development

This fork tracks the upstream MeshCore repository. To prevent upstream changes from overwriting this README during merges, README.md is protected via .gitattributes. After cloning, run once:

git config merge.ours.driver true

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Fork the repository, make your changes, and open a pull request. Please follow the existing code style and keep changes focused.