CanMesh

Flash a SenseCAP Solar Node P1

Flash your board with Hopspot (Prns) v0.3.8 firmware directly from your browser. No software to install — just plug in a USB-C data cable and click the button below. The board will run as a standalone Reticulum LoRa transport node at 915 MHz.

Requires: Desktop Chrome or Edge (WebSerial API), a USB-C data cable (not charge-only), and a SenseCAP Solar Node P1 or P1-Pro.

Flash the board

Connect the SenseCAP Solar Node P1 via USB-C. If it's already running Hopspot firmware, the flasher will reset it into bootloader mode automatically. If it's a fresh board, double-tap the RST button (not PWR) to enter bootloader mode, then click Flash.

What happens when you click Flash

1. Detect — the browser opens a serial port picker. Select the SenseCAP board (shown as "XIAO-BOOT" in bootloader mode or "Personal Hopspot" in app mode).
2. Enter bootloader — if the board is running Hopspot firmware (VID 1209), the flasher opens the port at 1200 baud and closes it, triggering a reset into the Adafruit nRF52 bootloader (VID 2886).
3. Flash via DFU — the firmware binary (485 KB) is sent to the board over serial using the Nordic DFU protocol: an init packet with the firmware checksum, then the firmware data in 512-byte chunks.
4. Reboot — the board reboots into Hopspot firmware. The SX1262 radio auto-configures to 915 MHz (SF8, 125 kHz bandwidth, 17 dBm TX power) for the North American ISM band.

After flashing — set up the host

The board appears as "Personal Hopspot (SenseCAP Solar Node)" on USB. Run the CanMesh setup script to install prnsd and configure the Reticulum daemon:

git clone https://github.com/canmesh/canmesh.git
cd canmesh
./setup.sh

The script installs prnsd, creates a udev rule for USB access, and adds a PrnsUsbAuto interface to your Reticulum config.

Troubleshooting

"No compatible serial port found"

Make sure you're using Chrome or Edge (not Firefox or Safari). Try a different USB-C cable — some are charge-only. The board must be plugged in before clicking Flash.

Flash fails partway through

Unplug the USB cable, wait 5 seconds, plug it back in, double-tap RST to enter bootloader mode, and click Flash again. If it still fails, try a different USB port.

Board doesn't reappear after flashing

Unplug and replug the USB cable. The board should boot into Hopspot mode and appear as "Personal Hopspot".

"Permission denied" with prnsd

Create a udev rule for USB access:

echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1209", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", MODE="0666"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-hopspot.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Then unplug and replug the board, and restart prnsd.

Do NOT flash microReticulum/RNode firmware

The microReticulum firmware has a USB CDC bug on the P1 that prevents serial communication. Use Hopspot (Prns) firmware — that's what this flasher installs.

Firmware details

Firmware images are mirrored from the Prns v0.3.8 release and served from /firmware/ on this site. The DFU package (application.bin + application.dat) was generated from the release UF2 using the same CRC-16 init packet format as adafruit-nrfutil.