Heltec HT-M2808 Getting Started Guide

Heltec HT-M2808 Getting Started Guide

Thanks for your purchase of the Heltec HT-M2808 Indoor Hotspot and Helium miner.

When you open the box, you'll find the following components:
Box contents, Heltec HT-M2808 (US)
In the box, you'll find the following:
  1. The hotspot itself
  2. The DC power supply
  3. A US power cord (NEMA 5-15P)
  4. A LoRa antenna with a 1.5 meter cable
  5. An instruction sheet (English on one side, Chinese on the other).
Although the power-supply is international, the power cord is US-style.

The instructions in the instruction sheet are clear, but there are a few key points we want to emphasize:
  1. After connecting to the network, use the Helium phone app to connect to the hotspot (while the blue light is blinking). Set up the Wi-Fi connection if you want to use Wi-Fi; otherwise specify Ethernet connection.  Then let the hotspot download the latest firmware and synchronize with the network before you take the final step of registering using the Helium phone app. This typically takes overnight. Then do a short push on the power button to reboot the hotspot, reconnect via the phone app, and register.
  2. If you do a long push of the front button to power off the hotspot, some firmware versions require that you unplug power, then reconnect, in order to get the hotspot to come back on.
Minor points:
  1. The documentation on the LEDs in the printed document says that the color order (left to right) is red, green, orange, blue, white.  The actual order is green, red, orange, blue, white. The meaning is the same.
  2. If you select Wi-Fi, current versions of the hotspot remember credentials. If you switch to Ethernet connection using the Helium app, the hotspot remembers the credentials. If you connect via Ethernet to the same Wi-Fi router, the hotspot will connect using Ethernet (as expected) and the blue Wi-Fi light will be out. But then if the router reboots, the hotspot will connect with both Ethernet and Wi-Fi (and the blue light will be on). This can cause problems if you are using port forwarding to avoid relaying. This issue may be specific to Asus Wi-Fi routers.
MCCI tested a hotspot side-by-side with a Multi-Tech Conduit AP and looked at LoRa traffic received by the two products. We found that RF performance was as expected. Packets from nearby LoRaWAN devices that were close by were received with similar quality, and some far-field packets were picked up by the Heltec that were not picked up by the Conduit AP. The HT-M2808 also witnessed, and was witnessed by, an original Helium hotspot with original antenna about 1km away. Due to time pressure, we did not make an exhaustive comparison.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions.
  1. https://forum.mcci.io is our Discourse discussion site
  2. https://portal.mcci.com is our issue tracking site
  3. Or send mail to techsupport@mcci.com
LoRaWAN is a registered trademark of The LoRa Alliance. LoRa is a registered trademark of Semtech Corporation. MCCI is a registered trademark of MCCI Corporation. Heltec is a trademark of Heltec Automation. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

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