This is the new stable release. It replaces beta_27 and bundles everything from beta_28 through beta_31 — room-server reliability, the real burn-in fix, a redesigned chats tab, big-mesh performance work and a live Spectrum analyzer.
Flash from the web flasher at https://wadamesh.com, update from the Launcher, or use the on-device updater (Settings → About). Devices on the beta/test channel are already on this exact build.
Rooms and reliability
- Room servers no longer go one-way "frozen" (#89). The device keeps its room session alive with background keep-alives, logs back in automatically when the session drops, adds a "Log in again" entry to the room chat's menu, and warns when a room only granted read-only access. Thanks EricMW61.
- Room logins can no longer be silently locked out by the device clock. The device remembers the newest timestamp it has used across reboots so it can never fall behind itself, a Join with no reply shows a clear error after 20 s (including what the device thinks the time is), and it warns when the device clock and the room server's clock disagree.
- The on-device "Install update" hides on mixed/older partition layouts where an update could brick mid-flash, and the update check now waits for Wi-Fi to actually have an address and retries within a minute instead of showing "couldn't reach the update server" for six hours.
Screen and burn-in
- The screen now truly switches off in standby — before, only the backlight went dark while the panel kept displaying the last image, which is exactly what burns in the LCD. The panel itself sleeps (wake is instant), a lit lock screen always dims, a screen woken by a message re-darkens after 10 s, and the lock clock drifts to avoid ghosting. Thanks wyvern.red and richrd (#86, #55).
Chats
- The chats tab has a new look: a round avatar in each chat's signature colour (the same colour its bubbles use) with the first two letters of the name, the last message previewed under the name, time top-right and the unread count below it.
- Channels can have a custom icon: channel settings → "Chat icon" picks any emoji as its avatar (long-press resets). Remembered per channel.
- Compact chat mode (opt-in, chat settings): one dense line per message instead of bubbles, with alternating background tones — 2–3× more history on screen; the chats list switches to dense single-line rows to match.
- Much deeper history on SD cards: up to 5000 messages (was 500) with date separators (Today / Yesterday / day names). Downgrade note: builds older than beta_29 can't read the larger history file — downgrading starts with an empty history.
- Clearer delivery states: ↑ sent, ✓✓ confirmed, and failed messages say "tap to resend" — one tap resends.
- Messages sent from the phone app now appear on the device too, including channel messages (DMs already did).
- "Repeats heard" works again over Bluetooth (#94) — the firmware passes repeats of your own messages through to BLE without reintroducing the old congestion. Thanks daryldakine.
- Deleting a chat or channel now sticks (deleted messages could survive in storage and resurrect the thread), and the chat/channel settings sheet fits on one screen.
Performance on busy meshes
- The periodic multi-second freezes are gone (#82). Saving ~570 contacts took up to 3 seconds on the UI thread every couple of minutes; it now writes the same data in a few large chunks in a fraction of the time. The Contacts tab also stops rebuilding itself every 60 seconds just to refresh the "heard 2h ago" labels, and advert bursts can't queue rebuilds back to back. Thanks guinnessbear for the report and Yazutsu for the measurements that pinned it down.
Spectrum analyzer
- The waterfall gets a new line ~4× per second instead of once per sweep, the trace advances across the band as it sweeps, a full sweep is ~20% faster, and the Y-axis scales itself to the live signal (instant expand on a strong signal, gentle contraction after).
Keyboard and navigation
- The scroll keys (F/C) zoom the map, backspace in an empty composer exits typing mode, and "Reset path" is in the chat's own menu (wyvern.red's feedback batch).
- Settings pages no longer jump down when opened on keypad-nav devices, and the red update dot can't steal the selection from the About button.
- The Tanmatsu About page shows the real firmware version.
Full per-step details: beta_28 · beta_29 · beta_30. The test channel continues from this build (Settings → About → "Get test builds").