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Can't connect over bluetooth to LilyGo LoRa32 T3 1.6.1

Started by edsq 94e5ae292e00b327... ·

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edsq 050c15670353776b...
#1

Hi all,

I'm building a couple of the unsigned.io handheld Rodes, because it seems like the canonical RNode, but I'm having trouble connecting wirelessly to my LilyGo LoRA32 T3 1.6.1 (which I understand to be the same as v2.1, the board suggested in the build recipe).

From the old GitHub discussions (https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum/discussi ons/1011#discussioncomment-15046744) it looks like Wifi is not yet supported on these boards, so I'm trying out bluetooth.

I can turn on bluetooth and put the board into pairing mode with rnodeconf, and was able to pair "RNode DCF3" to my laptop (macOS Sequoia 15.7.4). I can't actually connect to the board once paired, though - System Preferences briefly shows that the board is connected, but then goes back to disconnected with a spinning progress wheel until I give up. I can't pair at all to my phone (an iPhone 13) as the RNode is never visible as a bluetooth device.

If I try to run rnsd anyway, I can't connect to the RNode, with the following output repeated ad infinitum:

[2026-07-23 11:36:10] [Verbose]  Attempting to reconnect serial port None for RNodeInterface[RNode LoRa Interface]...
[2026-07-23 11:36:10] [Notice]   Opening BLE connection for RNodeInterface[RNode LoRa Interface]...

Below is my interface config:

[[RNode LoRa Interface]]
  type = RNodeInterface
  enabled = yes
  port = ble://RNode DCF3

  frequency = 914875000
  bandwidth = 125000
  txpower = 7
  spreadingfactor = 8
  codingrate = 5

Does anyone have any ideas for how to debug this?

dannem 30add2190b7799bb...
#2

Also had this issue, seems like reticulum doesn't support BLE for this device (or atleast it didn't work for me). I managed to get it working with classic bluetooth though. After pairing it I bind the MAC adress of the RNode to one of my rfcomm ports

sudo rfcomm bind rfcomm0 MAC_ADDRESS_OF_RNODE
sudo chmod 666 /dev/rfcomm0

and then in the RNode interface set the port to

port = /dev/rfcomm0

Connecting it to my android phone, it worked smoothly using Columba. Just had to select Classic Bluetooth.

 

Hope this helps!

Torlando db3ffd2575469a78...
#3

Connecting it to my android phone, it worked smoothly using Columba. Just had to select Classic Bluetooth.

 

Oh fantastic, I never did find one of the older Bluetooth classic boards to test with Columba, so I never knew if it worked or not 😅

 

Glad to hear that it does!

 

Anonymous
#4

For OP, iPhones don’t browse BLE devices, so if you tried that, it’s why you weren’t able to pair. On iPhone, an app is needed to pair with the target hardware (BLE device.). After that, the Bluetooth list will show the device.

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