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Offband Mesh · Releases

from GitHub · updated 2026-06-21

10 releases

  1. v1.0.0 # 3 days ago · 2026-06-18 00:46 UTC
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    First production-stable Offband release — companion, observer, and repeater roles all working and hardware-verified. Built on the MeshCore 1.16.0 base.

    Base

    • MeshCore 1.16.0 base-update (#126) — the fork is rebased onto upstream MeshCore 1.16.0, smoke-verified across all three active roles (Companion, Observer, Repeater) on Heltec V3/V4 + RAK3401.

    Added

    • RAK3401 (WisMesh 1W) GPS (#104) — the RAK12500 (u-blox ZOE-M8Q) I²C GPS now works in Slot D. Companion and repeater acquire a position fix. (Position only; the I²C path does not sync the clock.)
    • Display always-on toggle (#141) — display always on keeps a USB/mains-powered observer's screen lit; display normal restores the 15 s timeout. Persists across reboots, applies immediately. Heltec V3, V4 OLED, V4 TFT observers.
    • Display rotation (0/180) (#148) — display rotate 0/180 / display flip over the _sys channel; persists, applies immediately. Verified on the OLED observers (Heltec V3, V4 OLED). Displays without a verified rotation driver (the V4 TFT) report rotation not supported on this display rather than silently no-op'ing; TFT rotation is tracked separately.

    Known issues

    • Heltec V4 observer GPS position unverified (#149) — an attached UART GPS doesn't yet surface a position on the V4 observer (reads 0,0). Observer time (NTP/SNTP) and all other function are unaffected; GPS only adds the device's own map-position dot.

    Which file do I download?

    File What it is When to use it
    *-merged.bin (ESP32 — Heltec V3/V4, XIAO) Full image — bootloader + partition table + app in one, flashed at 0x0 after a chip erase. Self-contained, works on a blank chip. First install / clean setup. In a web flasher this is the "Full Firmware" option.
    *.bin (ESP32) App only — flashed at the app offset (0x10000); the bootloader must already be on the chip. Updating an existing node — OTA / "Update Only." Keeps the device identity + WiFi/MQTT config.
    *.uf2 (nRF52 — RAK, T-Echo, XIAO nRF52) Complete self-contained image. First install and updates — double-tap reset, then drag-drop onto the USB drive. (nRF52 has no merged/app split.)

    ⚠️ ESP32: the app-only *.bin will not boot if flashed at 0x0 — use *-merged.bin for a fresh install. A full erase / "Full Firmware" wipes the device's identity + saved config, so use it only for a first install or recovery, never a routine update.

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/offband-v0.18.1...offband-v1.0.0

  2. v0.19.0-rc1 # Pre-release 5 days ago · 2026-06-16 04:06 UTC
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    Display _sys enhancements (RC1 — for testing)

    Two new observer/companion display controls over the _sys channel:

    • Display always-on (#141) — display always on keeps the screen lit; display normal restores the 15 s blank. (Verified: V3/V4 OLED + V4 TFT.)
    • Display rotation 0/180 (#148) — display rotate 0 / display rotate 180 / display flip flip the screen for upside-down mounting. (Verified: V3/V4 OLED.)

    ⚠️ TFT 180° rotation is UNVERIFIED — this is the thing to test. On the Heltec V4 TFT (heltec_v4_tft_companion_observer_wifi), display rotate 180 uses a best-guess MADCTL combo (flipScreenVertically). Please confirm it gives a clean 180° flip (upside-down but readable), not a mirror or garbled image. display rotate 0 should return to normal; display flip should toggle. Report back — it's a one-line fix if the combo is wrong.

    TFT flash: heltec_v4_tft_companion_observer_wifi-v0.19.0-rc1-14bc32d-merged.bin (full image — web-flasher "Full Firmware" for a fresh install), or the .bin (app-only) to update an existing node and keep its identity/config.

    Which file do I download?

    File What it is When to use it
    *-merged.bin (ESP32 — Heltec V3/V4, XIAO) Full image — bootloader + partition table + app in one, flashed at 0x0 after a chip erase. Self-contained, works on a blank chip. First install / clean setup. In a web flasher this is the "Full Firmware" option.
    *.bin (ESP32) App only — flashed at the app offset (0x10000); the bootloader must already be on the chip. Updating an existing node — OTA / "Update Only." Keeps the device identity + WiFi/MQTT config.
    *.uf2 (nRF52 — RAK, T-Echo, XIAO nRF52) Complete self-contained image. First install and updates — double-tap reset, then drag-drop onto the USB drive. (nRF52 has no merged/app split.)

    ⚠️ ESP32: the app-only *.bin will not boot if flashed at 0x0 — use *-merged.bin for a fresh install. A full erase / "Full Firmware" wipes the device's identity + saved config, so use it only for a first install or recovery, never a routine update.

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/offband-v0.18.1...offband-v0.19.0-rc1

  3. v0.18.1 # 6 days ago · 2026-06-15 03:08 UTC
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    Fixed

    • WiFi password confirmation wording — set wifi.pwd now replies wifi.pwd set (N chars entered) instead of wifi.pwd set (length=N), which was being misread as a 17-character maximum. The reply reports the length of what was entered (never the secret PSK); it is not a cap. WiFi passwords accept the full WPA2 range (8–63 chars).

    Which file do I download?

    File What it is When to use it
    *-merged.bin (ESP32 — Heltec V3/V4, XIAO) Full image — bootloader + partition table + app in one, flashed at 0x0 after a chip erase. Self-contained, works on a blank chip. First install / clean setup. In a web flasher this is the "Full Firmware" option.
    *.bin (ESP32) App only — flashed at the app offset (0x10000); the bootloader must already be on the chip. Updating an existing node — OTA / "Update Only." Keeps the device identity + WiFi/MQTT config.
    *.uf2 (nRF52 — RAK, T-Echo, XIAO nRF52) Complete self-contained image. First install and updates — double-tap reset, then drag-drop onto the USB drive. (nRF52 has no merged/app split.)

    ⚠️ ESP32: the app-only *.bin will not boot if flashed at 0x0 — use *-merged.bin for a fresh install. A full erase / "Full Firmware" wipes the device's identity + saved config, so use it only for a first install or recovery, never a routine update.

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/offband-v0.18.0...offband-v0.18.1

  4. v0.18.0 # 6 days ago · 2026-06-15 02:56 UTC
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    Added

    • Heltec V4 TFT observer build (heltec_v4_tft_companion_observer_wifi) — the observer role on the TFT (ST7789) display variant, switched to the NimBLE stack the observer requires. Added to the CI build matrix and the release env set so it always builds and ships.

    Changed

    • Firmware download clarity — a "Which file?" table in the README and a static footer appended to every GitHub Release, explaining -merged.bin (first install) vs .bin (update) vs .uf2 (nRF52).

    Fixed

    • pio-flash device matching — find_in_registry prefers an exact DeviceID-instance match over a class-only label, so a registered chip is no longer shadowed by a same-class device with null discriminators (fixes nRF52/ESP32 mislabels where two boards share a VID:PID).

    Internal

    • Wire a gitignored HARDWARE.local.md (symlink to the LoRa hardware inventory) plus a CLAUDE.md "read before any hardware work" pointer.

    Which file do I download?

    File What it is When to use it
    *-merged.bin (ESP32 — Heltec V3/V4, XIAO) Full image — bootloader + partition table + app in one, flashed at 0x0 after a chip erase. Self-contained, works on a blank chip. First install / clean setup. In a web flasher this is the "Full Firmware" option.
    *.bin (ESP32) App only — flashed at the app offset (0x10000); the bootloader must already be on the chip. Updating an existing node — OTA / "Update Only." Keeps the device identity + WiFi/MQTT config.
    *.uf2 (nRF52 — RAK, T-Echo, XIAO nRF52) Complete self-contained image. First install and updates — double-tap reset, then drag-drop onto the USB drive. (nRF52 has no merged/app split.)

    ⚠️ ESP32: the app-only *.bin will not boot if flashed at 0x0 — use *-merged.bin for a fresh install. A full erase / "Full Firmware" wipes the device's identity + saved config, so use it only for a first install or recovery, never a routine update.

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/offband-v0.17.0...offband-v0.18.0

  5. v0.18.0-rc1 # Pre-release 7 days ago · 2026-06-14 22:46 UTC
    View release ↗

    (No CHANGELOG entry for v0.18.0-rc1.)

    Which file do I download?

    File What it is When to use it
    *-merged.bin (ESP32 — Heltec V3/V4, XIAO) Full image — bootloader + partition table + app in one, flashed at 0x0 after a chip erase. Self-contained, works on a blank chip. First install / clean setup. In a web flasher this is the "Full Firmware" option.
    *.bin (ESP32) App only — flashed at the app offset (0x10000); the bootloader must already be on the chip. Updating an existing node — OTA / "Update Only." Keeps the device identity + WiFi/MQTT config.
    *.uf2 (nRF52 — RAK, T-Echo, XIAO nRF52) Complete self-contained image. First install and updates — double-tap reset, then drag-drop onto the USB drive. (nRF52 has no merged/app split.)

    ⚠️ ESP32: the app-only *.bin will not boot if flashed at 0x0 — use *-merged.bin for a fresh install. A full erase / "Full Firmware" wipes the device's identity + saved config, so use it only for a first install or recovery, never a routine update.

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/offband-v0.17.0...offband-v0.18.0-rc1

  6. v0.17.0 # 7 days ago · 2026-06-14 07:31 UTC
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    First release under OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware. Bundles the 0.16.0 observer work below (which landed on firmware-base but was never separately tagged) with the Crosswire→Offband rebrand and the OffbandMesh org cutover. (Version pending owner confirmation; the tag is hardware-gated per VERSIONING.md.)

    Changed

    • Rebranded the fork from Crosswire to Offband (GitHub org OffbandMesh): the C++ namespace, build macros, embedded identity blob, version prefix (offband-v*), MQTT / flash-audit identity fields (offband_*), brand strings (serial banner, version command, OLED splash, Home Assistant manufacturer), and the WiFi setup-AP SSID (Offband-Observer-). Historical crosswire-v* release tags are preserved; the _sys PSK domain separator and the MeshCore interop topic namespace are intentionally unchanged. (#100)
    • Repo / board / working-dir cutover to OffbandMesh — repo OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware, OffbandMesh org Projects board, and the preflight / CLAUDE.md / label-sync workflow re-pointed; removed the stale upstream CNAME. (#107, #111)

    Docs

    • Finished the rebrand reference cleanup across docs + code comments. (#113, #114)
    • Release-readiness pass: README getting-started + multi-role positioning, the docs index surfaces the observer guides, and observer _sys CLI reference corrections. (#117)

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/crosswire-v0.14.0...offband-v0.17.0

  7. v0.17.0-rc1 # Pre-release 7 days ago · 2026-06-14 07:15 UTC
    View release ↗

    (No CHANGELOG entry for v0.17.0-rc1.)

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/OffbandMesh/meshcore-firmware/compare/crosswire-v0.14.0...offband-v0.17.0-rc1

  8. v0.14.0 # 10 days ago · 2026-06-10 23:45 UTC
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    Added

    • CI release pipeline (epic #14): dev-channel firmware artifacts on every firmware-base push / PR (ci.yml), and a release.yml workflow that builds the curated community board set from crosswire-v* tags and publishes a GitHub Release (pre-release for -rc*, "Latest" for stable). Curated env set in .github/release-envs.txt (72 envs; heltec_v4_repeater_telemetry gated on #20). Design of record: docs/architecture/2026-06-06-ci-release-pipeline.md. (#15, #16, #17)

    Changed

    • Reconciled inherited CI workflows: removed 7 dead/superseded (pr-build-check, auto-promote, github-pages, the three upstream-tag build-*-firmwares, branch-cleanup); kept build-safeboot-firmwares + sync-labels-to-board. (#18)

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/Strycher/Crosswire/compare/crosswire-v0.14.0-rc1...crosswire-v0.14.0

  9. v0.15.0 # 10 days ago · 2026-06-10 23:43 UTC
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    Observer MQTT connectivity -- hardware-validated against three brokers (CoreScope / W8OOF tcp-anon, eastme.sh wss/jwt, LetsMesh-US wss/jwt).

    Added

    • Owner broker registry: seed the default 6-slot broker set with an iata=HAO default; per-broker GTS Root R4 + ISRG Root X2 CA certificates added and mapped, registry cert-names corrected. (#48)
    • Per-broker JWT identity claims jwt_owner / jwt_email (set mqtt.broker.<N>.jwt_owner|jwt_email), surfaced in mqtt status. (#63)
    • Multi-frame mqtt status over the BLE _sys channel: the per-slot broker table spans multiple frames instead of truncating. (#48)

    Fixed

    • BLE _sys command channel no longer hangs when set mqtt.broker.* runs. The blocking esp_mqtt lifecycle ops (connect / destroy) moved off loopTask to a dedicated mqtt_worker task with a per-broker lock and a per-slot reconcile flag. (#53)
    • wss/JWT broker authentication: send the MQTT CONNECT username v1_<UPPERCASE pubkey> (was a null username) so eastme.sh / LetsMesh accept the connection -- the broker verifies the token's publicKey claim against it and rejects a null username (CONNACK rc=5) even with an otherwise-valid token. (#68)

    What's Changed

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/Strycher/Crosswire/compare/crosswire-v0.14.0-rc1...crosswire-v0.15.0

  10. v0.14.0-rc1 # Pre-release 14 days ago · 2026-06-07 21:22 UTC
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    (No CHANGELOG entry for v0.14.0-rc1.)

    What's Changed

    New Contributors

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/Strycher/Crosswire/commits/crosswire-v0.14.0-rc1