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Feature Request: Hardware screen wake-up and message display on RX (LILYGO T-LoRa V2.1-1.6)

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
c
Domain
embedded-iot

Research direction

Start by locating the RX packet handling and OLED sleep or wake entry points for the LILYGO T-LoRa V2.1-1.6 and similar boards; the issue does not name source files or tests. Check how decrypted message text reaches the display and whether a configurable timeout can fit the existing hardware configuration. Done means an RX message wakes the screen, shows its text, and turns the display off after the configured interval.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, on the LILYGO T-LoRa V2.1-1.6 (and similar nodes with built-in OLEDs), the screen acts primarily as a static telemetry panel. When a new message arrives, the physical display does not wake up to show the content. Users are forced to rely on the connected mobile app or CLI terminal to read the incoming text.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to request a hardware configuration parameter that wakes up the physical OLED screen (SSD1306) upon receiving a new RX packet and displays the decrypted message text for a configurable amount of time (e.g., 20 seconds).

Proposed functionality:

  • Introduce a parameter accessible via the node's internal CLI (e.g., cli config set display.screenOnSecs 20).
  • When an RX packet is processed, trigger an interrupt to wake the screen from sleep, show the message, and then automatically turn off the display after the configured timeout to save battery.
Describe alternatives you've considered

Currently, the display: parameters in meshcli (like print_timestamp or color) only manage the local terminal output formatting on the host machine, not the physical hardware screen. The only alternative is keeping a smartphone connected via Bluetooth at all times or building external GPIO-triggered LED notifications via custom Python scripts listening to the CLI output.

Additional context

Hardware details:

  • Board: LILYGO T-LoRa V2.1-1.6
  • Screen: 0.96" OLED (SSD1306)

Adding this feature would allow Companion/Repeater nodes with small displays to function as true standalone pagers, greatly improving usability in the field without relying on a smartphone.

Dominant language
C
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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