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Field Operations & Rescue
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Docs Onboarding First Boot

First Boot

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What should happen the first time you power the beacon, screen by screen, and what counts as normal.

First Boot

The first power-up is the moment of truth. Here is exactly what should happen, in order.

Before power

  1. Verify the battery is charged (3.7-4.2 V on the multimeter).
  2. Check the antenna is connected (or a dummy load is in place).
  3. Double-check the polarity of the battery holder.

The boot sequence

  1. The OLED lights up with the AEGIS-BEACON v5.5 header, inverted.
  2. The red LED blinks once or twice.
  3. If GPS is enabled and there is no cached fix, the ACQUIRING GPS FIX screen appears with a satellite count and progress bar.
  4. After the fix (or timeout, or pressing MODE to skip), the beacon enters BEACON mode.
  5. The BEACON screen shows the frequency, TX bar, and payload, then the beacon transmits and enters deep sleep.

What counts as normal

  • The OLED is dim but clearly readable.
  • The frequency displayed matches your configured default (433.500 MHz unless changed).
  • You can hear Morse clicks on headphones plugged into the 3.5 mm jack during TX.

What counts as a problem

  • No OLED: check power and the software SPI pins (SCK=15, SDA=13, RES=4, DC=16, CS=17).
  • OLED but no radio: check the BUSY pin (GPIO 21) wiring and the VSPI connections.
  • Continuous reboot loop: suspect the watchdog or a power supply sag; try a fresh battery.
  • GPS screen that never resolves and never times out: check the GPS UART wiring (TX to GPIO 22).

After a successful boot

Enter CONFIG mode (hold SEL 3 seconds), connect to the AEGIS-SETUP WiFi AP, and open 192.168.4.1 to verify the dashboard reports the right values. Then do a two-beacon bench test with another receiver.