I recently purchased this board from Ebay. I already had one, but needed a second in order to test the LoRa capabilities. This is how I got started…
– First, I bought the Heltec from here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-433MHZ-ESP32-SX1278-WIFI-Bluetooth-Lora-Development-board-for-Arduino/112642337893?hash=item1a3a01ac65:g:AFIAAOSwZddcIKOY:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true
The original board I purchased must be a V1, because it doesn’t say V2 as this one does. I don’t think that’ll be a problem.
– Secondly, I installed a clean install of the Arduino IDE onto my laptop (Windows 10 64-bit). I downloaded it from here: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
I chose to download and install the application on my laptop. I haven’t tried the web version yet, or the Windows app edition.
– Once the Arduino IDE has been downloaded and installed, you’ll need to configure it to work with the HelTec board. Follow these steps:
First, open preferences by going to File –> Preferences
When the Preferences window appears, click on the button to open the Additional Boards URL Manager
When the Additional Boards Manager window opens, you’ll need to paste the following URL in there and then press Ok:
Now you should open up the Board Manager. Tools-> Board-> Boards Manager
Then do a search for heltec and then click on the Install button once it appears. It takes a moment for the installation to download all the files.
You should also add the library that supports the Heltec board. Open up the Library Manager. Sketch-> Include Library –> Manage Libraries
Again, search for Heltec to find the ESP32 library. Click the install button to install the ESP32 library.
Now that the Heltec board and library have been installed, you should be able to choose the board from the list and see the project examples.
Then see if you can successfully compile something. I chose to open the OLED_LoRa_Receiver example.
If the code successfully compiles, plug your Heltec board into the USB port (using the cable, of course) and see if you can upload successfully.
– Be sure the correct board is chosen and the correct port. The port to choose is the port that was added when you connected your board.
Once the board and port are configured. Press the Upload button. That’ll compile the code and upload it if no errors were found.
If when you first plug the Heltec board into your USB port and Windows doesn’t recognize it, you may have to download the USB drivers from here:
https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
Unzip the driver file, go into Device Manager and chose to Update Driver on the Heltec board. Choose to Browse My Computer for driver software and find the folder that you unzipped the driver to.
– That’s it! You should now be on your way towards successfully developing Arduino projects for the Heltec ESP32 WiFi LoRa board!