MeshTerm runs the same on the Cardputer Zero (C154) and the Cardputer Zero
Lite (C155): the Lite only leaves out a camera, motion sensors, and the
microSD card, none of which MeshTerm uses. The device manual, the README,
the manuals index, and the About page now say that both models are supported,
and the manual says that the Lite needs a card with M5Stack's system first.
M5Stack does not support hot-swapping a Cap on the Cardputer Zero, the Cap
LoRa-1262 included, and says that it may cause the device to malfunction.
The manual now puts that caution before its steps for the Cap, with M5Stack's
other caution (the antenna goes on before the power), and the steps turn the
handheld off first. It also says that MeshTerm switching the header off when
it quits does not make a Cap safe to remove. The About page says the same in
its own voice, and gains a section on the Cardputer Zero next to the uConsole
and the PicoCalc.
The README shows the Cardputer Zero's start screen (the store's capture,
three times its size) under the PicoCalc photo, and its quick start shows the
emulator command. The pip commands with the spi extra install from GitHub,
because mesh-term is not on PyPI yet. The platform comment and CLAUDE.md no
longer say that the hardware is not in hand: only a flag selects the platform
because the device-tree model is the CM0's generic string.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The page no longer warns that the handheld is not supported. It now gives
three ways to install MeshTerm: M5Stack's app store first, then the same
package from a GitHub release, then the source code for developers. The
README, the docs index, and the hardware guide say the same, and the
hardware guide says that the launcher selects the platform.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The XIAO stopped answering on 10-07 ("No response from meshcore
node" for many starts in a row). MeshCore's serial parser reads '<'
and a two-byte length, then waits for that many bytes with no time
limit, so one lost or damaged byte can make it swallow up to 65,535
bytes, and MeshTerm sends only 16 per start. Reproduced on the
PicoCalc: a half frame blocked two APP_STARTs until 600 filler bytes
arrived. meshcore-frame-timeout.patch drops a frame after 200 ms of
silence on the line (bytes queued while the loop was busy still
count), and build-firmware.sh applies it after meshcore-uart1.patch.
Upstream dev and main still have the old parser.
Flashing the XIAO with the new firmware, following the guide as
written, found these problems, now corrected:
- Step 11: `pip install platformio` failed (no pip outside a venv on
this PC), and it fails on externally managed Pythons or lands in an
active venv. The guide now uses the official installer only, and
build-firmware.sh and flash.py find pio in ~/.platformio/penv, so
nobody edits the PATH. uf2conv runs on PlatformIO's Python, because
a bare `python` is missing on many Linux systems.
- Step 12: the script's last line said to double-tap reset first;
flash.py touches the XIAO itself, and a wired XIAO's reset button is
inside the case.
- Step 13: this XIAO's bootloader has only a serial port, and flash.py
printed a pio command for the user to run "from your MeshCore
checkout", with pio not on the PATH. flash.py now does the serial
DFU upload itself (54 s here). Without pyserial, it runs itself
again with PlatformIO's Python instead of skipping the touch.
- A wired XIAO's USB power goes backward into the Lyra through the
3V3 wire (JP confirmed it on the bench). Step 13 now applies only
before wiring, and a new Day-to-day procedure updates the firmware
of a wired radio: poweroff, switch off, open, batteries out, flash.
After the flash, the radio kept its identity, MeshTerm's info command
connected, and an APP_START after a half frame and 0.5 s of silence
got its reply at once.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The four user guides and the manuals for the PicoCalc, the uConsole, and
the Cardputer Zero. Procedures are numbered steps, with a WARNING or a
CAUTION before each step that has a risk. The step headings use a colon,
and each link to them changed with them. Quoted error messages are in
quotation marks, and the menu question is quoted as the app shows it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A click on one of the Cardputer Zero's keys drawn under the panel, or on a
chip of the lane along the panel's bottom row, types that slot's key. The
PicoCalc has no keys drawn, so its chips are where you click. Shift held
through the click types the slot's Shift companion. The app reads the bank
off the key that arrives, not off the Shift it saw, so the window spells the
shifted key itself, the way the desktop's Shift+F-key already was: F6 to F10
on the PicoCalc, xterm's shifted F4 to F8 on the Cardputer.
The drawn keys take the lane's own fills, resolved from the deck's styles
through the panel's palette, so a key and the chip above it are one colour.
They turn blue with the lane while Shift is down, and fill solid while
pressed. Losing focus lets go of Shift, which a release in another window
never would.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
`meshterm emulate cardputer-zero --mock` and `meshterm emulate picocalc-lyra --mock`
open a desktop window drawing MeshTerm as that device's own screen draws it. An
EmulatedDevice (emulator/devices.py) holds what differs per handheld: the panel, a
Linux console's top-left grid and bold-as-bright 4-bit palette for the PicoCalc, the
lane keys drawn under the Cardputer's panel, and how each keyboard spells Shift with
an F-key (the PicoCalc's F6-F10, the Cardputer's xterm-shifted F4-F8).
It is not a strict emulator, and the docs say so wherever they offer it: MeshTerm runs
on the desktop as itself, and the window mimics the display's and keyboard's
constraints, never the CPU or the OS. Inside it the platform resolves with own_display
(platforms.drawn_by_meshterm), so nothing offers to move to another terminal.
Global options typed anywhere (--mock, --port, --db...) reach the emulated MeshTerm.
The command refuses --json like specimen. The Terminus fetch moved into the package as
`meshterm emulate --fetch-fonts` (with --archive for a copy fetched another way),
replacing scripts/cardputer-zero/fetch-terminus.py. A build without Tk says to install
with pip or pipx instead of failing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
M5Stack makes three Cardputers and only the Zero runs Linux; the PicoCalc
takes several cores and only the Luckfox Lyra runs MeshTerm. So the bare
names were ambiguous, and every reference to the two devices now carries
the variant: the --platform values and MESHTERM_PLATFORM, the Platform
constants (PICOCALC_LYRA, CARDPUTER_ZERO), their lane decks and every
screen's picocalc_lyra_lane / cardputer_zero_lane, the font inventories,
the lane chips' theme styles, the scripts/ folders, the two chrome test
files, and the docs and CLAUDE.md that name them.
There is no alias: --platform picocalc is refused with the three real
choices listed, rather than falling back to the desktop layout. The
PicoCalc is auto-detected from its device tree, so it needs nothing.
What names hardware or a user's data keeps its name: the PicoCalc
keyboard's input-device name, its battery's sysfs supply, and the serial
profile the Lyra setup script writes. .gitignore follows the firmware's
folder, and the changelog keeps the words each release used.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
docs/ was one flat folder: the user guides, the CLI manual, the device
manuals, the code notes and an old survey side by side. It is now
guide/ (features, configuration, connecting, terminals), cli/ (the
manual as its README, the cookbook), devices/ (which manual is yours
as its README, then one per device) and development/ (architecture,
the survey); screenshots/ stays put. The index follows the folders.
The device manuals are named for the device they are about: the
PicoCalc's is picocalc-lyra.md, since MeshTerm runs on the PicoCalc's
Luckfox Lyra core and on none of the others, and the uConsole's stays
uconsole.md, since its CM4 and CM5 run it alike. A new cardputer-zero.md
opens on a warning that the device is not supported yet, says what has
been built and tested only in the simulator, and how to try it there.
Every relative link was resolved from where it was written and rewritten
from where it now lives, and the repo-root spellings in code, config and
the release skill moved with them; the changelog's GitHub URLs too.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Jean-Pierre MartineauandClaude Opus 5.5