OGNbase install - how to ?

[Adam Mościcki]

I found some info how to install OGNbase on T3S3 in documentation file but .. there is not mentioned option to compile it and download it via Arduino IDE. Is it possible ? It looks like arduino prjoect (.ino) so I'm asking.

[Moshe Braner]

Yes I compile it on the Arduino IDE.  Are you asking about how to compile, or how to load into the T3S3?  The latter is easy, connect the T3S3, check that the chosen "port" is correct, and click "upload" in the IDE.  For compiling, see the last section of the documentation.txt, which says:

... Bugs in the ESP32-S3 support in 2.0.3 forced me to shift to the ESP32 board support version 2.0.17, using the Arduino IDE verion 1.8.19 running on Windows 10.  The file build_opt.h must include either -DT3S3 or -DTTGO or -DTBEAM.  Disable PSRAM when compiling for TTGO.  For the T3S3 use these settings:
Board: ESP32S3 dev module
USB method: hardware CDC
USB CDC on boot: enabled
MSC and DFU: disabled
CPU: 80 MHz
Flash: QIO 80 MHz
Flash size: 4MB
Partition: minimal SPIFFS with OTA
PSRAM: QSPI

[Adam Mościcki]

Thanks for fast reply ! :)
Ok, it sounds instructive for me.  

The only problem will be to find old version of Arduino IDE. 

Have You tried to compile with older ESP32 (2.0.17) and new Arduino IDE 2.3.6 ? Where is the problem ? : in board version ? IDE version ? or both ?

anyway - great thanks for great project !  :)

[Moshe Braner]

I have not tried a later version of the Arduino IDE, but it will probably be OK.  What is probably not OK is to use a later version of the board support library, especially 3.x, because they keep changing some details of the library functions (API) so there will be incompatibilities - which can be resolved but it take some work.

Note that I compile SoftRF with the even older ESP32 board support version 2.0.3.  That is because the later versions of some library functions are also bigger, and SoftRF already barely fits in the flash and RAM space of the plain ESP32.  Maybe some time in the future we will want to compile SoftRF for a board with the ESP32-S3 (such as the "T-Beam Supreme"), then will need to use board support version 2.0.15 or later, since earlier ones had serious bugs regarding the USB interface on the S3.   (Linar already uses 3.x.)  Thus will need different compilation environments for different boards.  The Arduino IDE allows easy switching between targets (e.g., ESP32 vs. ESP32-S3) within the same library (family of boards), but not easy switching between versions of the same board support library (only one "installed" at a time).  If you need to switch library versions back and forth, look up online the concept of a "portable" installation of the IDE.  (It does require about 200 (400?) megabytes of disk space for each instance, but that's not a problem these days.)

I understand that other IDEs (e.g., PlatformIO) are superior, e.g., allow easier switching in that sense.  But so far I have not had the motivation to spend the time needed to convert from the Arduino IDE to another IDE.

[Vlad Belayev]

I understand that other IDEs (e.g., PlatformIO) are superior, e.g., allow
easier switching in that sense. But so far I have not had the motivation
to spend the time needed to convert from the Arduino IDE to another IDE.
 

Recently,  I tried asking Claude code to convert SoftRF to PlatformIO to save time.

Good thing that Claude can do, while compiling in PlatformIO,  read errors,  make adjustments to libraries etc and try again,  but after a few attempts it failed.

May attempt again in the future,  but for now just using Arduino IDE.

Use softlinks in Arduino folder and point it to whatever SoftRF source I am working on. So one could have many versions of source folder. That said, still can only have one board library version .

[Nick Bonniere]

I have used the Arduino portable version which is very handy for keeping different versions:
https://docs.arduino.cc/software/ide-v1/tutorials/PortableIDE/

Before that I kept each library folder with its own name and used a symbolic link with the name 'Libraries' to point to the correct one as I work on different projects that require different libraries. I just change the symbolic link when I need to.

On 26-Nov-2025 18:28, Vlad Belayev wrote:

I utand that other IDEs (e.g., PlatformIO) are superior, e.g., allow

[Moshe Braner]

I believe that refers to the "Libraries" subfolder within Arduino/Sketch.  That's where the IDE looks for the libraries.  Which is not project specific.  And also is outside of the repo folder which I keep synchronized with github, requiring two copies of the Libraries, leading to sometimes forgetting to make them exactly the same... Thus the useful trick (Thanks, Nick) to make the "Libraries" folder a symbolic link instead, so you can point it to the real libraries folder of the current project.  The IDE "doesn't know" that you did that, it just follows the Arduino/Sketch/Libraries path.  Note: it must be a symbolic link, not a Windows "shortcut".

Despite the symbolic link, as Vlad said, "still can only have one board-support library version".  That is, per each instance of the IDE.  That's where the "portable" installation of the IDE helps, since you can have more than one of those.  Each lives in its own folder.

[Moshe Braner]

Back to the original question.  Adam: are you thinking of recompiling OGNbase because you want to make changes in it?  I am curious what changes you have in mind.

I'm currently working on adding to OGNbase the ability to limit the battery charging (in a solar powered remote station) to something less than a full charge.  That is because the batteries are full all day and get pretty hot in the summer sun, that combination is bad for the longevity of the batteries.  I also have experimental evidence that the sx1262 radio chip in the T3S3 reduces its transmission power significantly when it is hot, but I can't find any mention of that in its documentation.  Best to build the remote station in a way that minimizes the heating of the board and the batteries.

On Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 5:25:50 AM UTC-5 adam68....@gmail.com wrote:

[Adam Mościcki]

.. "changes" ... rather not .. not yet .  but maybe in the future :) 
I'm plannig to build a stationary OGNbase - I fly - paragliding PPG,  with lots of friends so it is time to built 

Mobile OGNbase will be the next project - will need to add some internet/3G connection 

[Moshe Braner]

OK.  So for now you can use the precompiled OGNbase binary that is on github.  For a "mobile" station, note that there is an option for that, which will get the station location from the GNSS.  Need to use a T-Beam (with GNSS) rather than T3S3 for that.