Hi everyone,

We have made available the first public prerelease of AIDAS9, Lizdeika Edition, independent community firmware for the LILYGO T-Echo Lite Kit.

AIDAS9 turns the T-Echo Lite's 128 x 128 e-paper display and physical keypad into a self-contained MeshCore communicator. It makes messaging and common network tasks available directly on the radio, even when a phone is not connected.

What is included

• A purpose-built static e-paper interface
• Home carousel for Messages, Contacts, Radio, Advert, Device, and Settings
• On-device channel and private messaging
• One-message-per-screen conversation paging
• T9-style composition with a 150-character limit
• Per-conversation draft caching
• Persistent unread state
• Confirmed message deletion
• Room password entry and login feedback
• Configurable Blue and Green LED notifications
• Detailed radio, mesh, battery, connectivity, and device information
• BLE synchronization with compatible MeshCore clients
• Wake-key protection to prevent accidental input when waking the display
• UF2 and serial DFU installation packages

The interface was designed specifically for e-paper constraints. It avoids animation and idle refresh churn while providing bounded typography, clear focus states, safe display margins, and partial refreshes for faster navigation.

Messaging on the device

AIDAS9 lets you browse and send channel and private messages directly from the T-Echo Lite.

Conversation history displays one message per screen. Up and Down move chronologically through the conversation, while a scrollbar shows the current position.

Messages use the actual sender handle. The local node appears as a normal participant rather than under a synthetic identity.

The composer supports multi-tap keypad input and messages up to 150 characters. Drafts are cached separately for each conversation. Failed sends preserve the complete draft, while successful sends clear it and return to the conversation.

Unread totals count only unread incoming messages. Outgoing messages do not increase the unread count.

Offline messaging

AIDAS9 uses a versioned and checksummed offline delivery journal. Queued messages survive ordinary restarts and firmware reflashing. Sequence-based tombstones prevent drained or deleted messages from reappearing after reboot.

One important limitation is that this currently operates as a durable delivery queue, not a permanent message archive.

Incoming messages and outgoing channel messages are removed after they are acknowledged by a connected companion client. Outgoing private messages remain on the device because the current companion protocol cannot preserve their direction safely.

Do not treat the on-device conversation list as a permanent message backup.

Radio and device information

AIDAS9 exposes useful operational information without requiring a serial console, including:

• Frequency, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, and TX power
• RSSI, SNR, noise floor, link margin, and receive state
• Packet, error, traffic, queue, airtime, and packet-pool counters
• Stored-message, unread, contact, and channel counts
• Battery voltage and percentage
• External power, uptime, reset reason, and temperature where supported
• Bluetooth state and device capacity information
• Node identity and a shortened public-key fingerprint

Unsupported or unavailable measurements are shown as unavailable instead of being displayed as misleading zero values.

Validation

This release has:

• Passed the native regression suite
• Built successfully for the T-Echo Lite target
• Fit within the target RAM and flash budgets
• Been flashed and activated successfully on physical hardware
• Passed a deterministic visual audit covering 116 UI states

Extended qualification of the complete keypad, display, BLE replay, and room-authentication matrix is still ongoing, so this release is marked as a prerelease.

Download

Release and firmware files:

https://github.com/ksk-lizdeika/MeshCore/releases/tag/aidas9-v0.1.0-pre.1

Available formats:

• .uf2 for bootloader or mass-storage installation
• .zip for serial DFU using adafruit-nrfutil

The default BLE pairing PIN in this build is 123456.

Project relationship

AIDAS9 is developed and maintained by members of KSK Lizdeika.

It is based on MeshCore, but it is not an official MeshCore or LILYGO product.

This is community-developed prerelease firmware. Please test it in your own environment before relying on it for important communication.

Bug reports and feedback are welcome:

https://github.com/ksk-lizdeika/MeshCore/issues

AIDAS9: Messages beyond infrastructure.

Unveiling my new MeshCore interface for the LilyGo T-Echo Lite

I have always loved the idea of bringing back vintage T9 text input, so I started redesigning the MeshCore experience for the LilyGo T-Echo Lite.

What began as a T9 experiment has grown into a much larger interface and firmware project. The aim is to make MeshCore feel like a complete standalone communicator, with fast keypad navigation, clear status information, message management, contacts, configurable notifications, and eventually full message composition directly on the device.

The flashing visible in the current video is a display bug. It is not an intentional animation or part of the final interface, and it will be fixed.

What has already been added

• A new 3 by 2 icon-based home screen
• Dedicated sections for Messages, Contacts, Radio, Advert, Sensors, and Settings
• Full keypad navigation using Up, Down, Center/Yes, Esc/No, Home, and Mail
• A status area showing the date and time, battery level, user handle, unread message count, and selected menu
• A redesigned MeshCore splash screen with firmware version and build information
• Live channel and contact lists populated from MeshCore data
• Contacts automatically separated into Clients, Rooms, Repeaters, and Miscellaneous nodes
• Settings screens for GPS, Bluetooth, Notifications, and device information

Messages

The Messages section is designed to separate:

• Channel messages, including Public and any additional channels
• Private conversations organised by contact
• Room messages

Each channel and private conversation will eventually show its own unread count. Parent menus will show the combined number of unread messages beneath them.

Contacts

Discovered nodes are automatically separated into:

• Clients
• Rooms
• Repeaters
• Miscellaneous nodes

Each entry will eventually open a detail screen containing the available information and actions for that node.

Configurable LED notifications

The blue and green LEDs can be configured independently for:

• New channel messages
• New private messages
• New room messages
• New channels
• New clients
• New rooms
• New repeaters

Every LED and event combination can use one of five behaviours:

• Off: No LED notification
• Blink: One 300 ms pulse
• Flicker: Three rapid 60 ms pulses
• Triple blink: Three separate 150 ms pulses
• On: The LED remains lit after the event

Changing a setting previews the selected pattern immediately.

The normal radio transmit LED override has also been disabled so it cannot interfere with notification control.

Notifications for new channels, rooms, and repeaters can already be configured, but MeshCore does not currently expose separate callbacks for all of those discovery events. They will begin working once the missing event routing is added.

Still planned

• Vintage T9 message composition using the physical keypad
• Conversation and message-history screens
• Incoming message previews
• Contact, room, repeater, and miscellaneous node detail screens
• Proper unread message tracking
• Local message-history storage
• Persistent settings so notification choices survive a restart
• List ordering, pagination, filtering, and empty states
• Clear loading, unavailable, confirmation, and error screens
• Notification handling for multiple overlapping events
• Complete testing and verification on physical hardware

The current firmware already builds and runs on the nRF52840-based T-Echo Lite. The main interface, live MeshCore lists, keypad navigation, settings screens, and LED pattern scheduler are working.

Message history, persistent storage, and T9 composition are the largest remaining pieces.

There is still work to do, but I will finish it and make it available for anyone who wants to use it.

My goal is to make the T-Echo Lite feel less like a development board running a radio stack and more like a small, purpose-built mesh communicator.