Hardware
Helius runs on inexpensive, widely-available LoRa development boards. All three supported boards install from your browser and pair with the app over Bluetooth or USB.
Supported boards
T-Echo — nRF52840
A pocketable, low-power board with an always-on E-ink display and built-in GPS. The nRF52840 sips power, making the T-Echo a great everyday carry. Runs from a small LiPo cell.
- Display: E-ink
- GPS: Yes
- Power: LiPo
T-Beam — ESP32
The workhorse. A removable 18650 cell gives long runtime, the AXP192 PMU handles charging and power management, and onboard GPS reports position to the mesh.
- Battery: 18650
- GPS: Yes
- PMU: AXP192
Heltec V3 — ESP32-S3
A compact ESP32-S3 board with an OLED display, 8 MB of flash and USB-C. A good fixed-location relay node or a bench/development board.
- Display: OLED
- Flash: 8 MB
- USB-C: Yes
Choosing a board
| If you want… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Lowest power + a glanceable screen | T-Echo |
| Longest runtime + a swappable battery | T-Beam |
| A cheap relay or dev board with USB-C | Heltec V3 |
Converting an existing device
Already running Meshtastic or MeshCore? You can move the board to Helius:
- T-Beam and Heltec V3 (ESP32 / ESP32-S3) — the web flasher installs Helius directly over USB.
- T-Echo (nRF52840) — double-tap RESET so a
*BOOTUSB drive appears, then drag the Helius conversion.uf2file onto it. It replaces the old bootloader with Helius’s own and reboots into Helius in about 20 seconds. No programmer or J-Link needed.
Converting gives the board a fresh Helius identity; it does not carry over Meshtastic settings. See the quick start.