based on initial encouraging feedback from @illperipherals
if more people report success, we'll need to change the install instructions
to:
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 erase_flash
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 write_flash 0x1000 system-info.bin
esptool.py --port COM10 --baud 921600 write_flash 0x10000 firmware-HELTEC-US-0.1.6.bin
geeksville