Cypher32 · T-Deck

Install the firmware onto a LilyGo T-Deck straight from this page. No toolchain, no command line — plug the T-Deck in over USB-C, switch it on and press the button. It plays against every other Cypher32 device on the same range profile, Heltec Wireless Papers included.

1 · Choose your range

Every device in one game must run the same profile. A different spreading factor or frequency is not a weak link — the radios simply cannot hear each other.

Your T-Deck must be the 868 MHz version. LilyGo sells it with a 433, 868 or 915 MHz radio and antenna; the other two cannot tune to these frequencies properly.
869.525 MHz and 22 dBm are legal in the EU (the ETSI g3 sub-band). If you are elsewhere, check your local rules before using LONG or EPIC — and build FAST from source on a frequency your region allows.

2 · Check the board

Before anything is written, read back what is actually on the other end of the cable. Nothing is flashed by this step — it only asks the chip what it is.

Make sure the antenna is attached before you power the board: transmitting into an empty connector can damage the radio.

Your browser asks which serial port to use. The T-Deck appears as USB JTAG/serial debug unit or ESP32-S3 — it has no separate USB chip, so no driver is needed. You will be asked to pick the port twice — once here, once to install — so choose the same one both times.

If no port is listed, or the check cannot connect, put the T-Deck into download mode by hand: switch it off, hold the trackball pressed down, switch it on, then let go.

3 · Install

Check the board first. This is here so nobody writes Cypher32 over something that was never meant to receive it.

4 · First boot

  1. Switch the T-Deck off and on again with its power switch once the install says it is done. A board that was put into download mode by hand — or that the browser could not reset — stays there, with the screen dark, until it is power-cycled.
  2. The T-Deck starts on its own setup screen: no phone and no Wi-Fi needed. Press Enter and pick a faction with the trackball.
  3. Your hacker takes it from there: R for the radar, S to scout, X twice to breach.

Still dark after a power cycle? Install again and answer yes when asked whether to erase the device — that clears settings left by older firmware — then power-cycle once more.

What gets written

Flashing replaces everything on the board, including any saved game on it. Each image is the full layout — bootloader, partition table and application — so there is nothing else to install.

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Every build here is compiled by GitHub Actions from the commit it names, and the shared radio key is the public default — anyone who flashes from this page can hear anyone else who did. For a private game, change LORA_KEY and build it yourself.

▸ The World Board: every T-Deck that goes online, ranked