diff --git a/electrum/gui/qml/components/OpenChannel.qml b/electrum/gui/qml/components/OpenChannel.qml
index c996858cc..c416278fe 100644
--- a/electrum/gui/qml/components/OpenChannel.qml
+++ b/electrum/gui/qml/components/OpenChannel.qml
@@ -46,8 +46,10 @@ Pane {
                 icon.height: constants.iconSizeMedium
                 icon.width: constants.iconSizeMedium
                 onClicked: {
-                    channelopener.nodeid = AppController.clipboardToText()
-                    node.text = channelopener.nodeid
+                    if (channelopener.validate_nodeid(AppController.clipboardToText()) {
+                        channelopener.nodeid = AppController.clipboardToText()
+                        node.text = channelopener.nodeid
+                    }
                 }
             }
             ToolButton {
@@ -58,8 +60,10 @@ Pane {
                 onClicked: {
                     var page = app.stack.push(Qt.resolvedUrl('Scan.qml'))
                     page.onFound.connect(function() {
-                        channelopener.nodeid = page.scanData
-                        node.text = channelopener.nodeid
+                        if (channelopener.validate_nodeid(page.scanData)) {
+                            channelopener.nodeid = page.scanData
+                            node.text = channelopener.nodeid
+                        }
                     })
                 }
             }
@@ -67,13 +71,20 @@ Pane {
 
         // trampoline
         ComboBox {
-            id: tnode
             visible: !Config.useGossip
             Layout.columnSpan: 3
             Layout.fillWidth: true
             model: channelopener.trampolineNodeNames
             onCurrentValueChanged: {
-                channelopener.nodeid = tnode.currentValue
+                if (activeFocus)
+                    channelopener.nodeid = currentValue
+            }
+            // preselect a random node
+            Component.onCompleted: {
+                if (!Config.useGossip) {
+                    currentIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * channelopener.trampolineNodeNames.length)
+                    channelopener.nodeid = currentValue
+                }
             }
         }
 
diff --git a/electrum/gui/qml/components/controls/ChannelDelegate.qml b/electrum/gui/qml/components/controls/ChannelDelegate.qml
index d3b4a76d3..9de2e9102 100644
--- a/electrum/gui/qml/components/controls/ChannelDelegate.qml
+++ b/electrum/gui/qml/components/controls/ChannelDelegate.qml
@@ -43,6 +43,16 @@ ItemDelegate {
             Layout.preferredHeight: constants.iconSizeLarge
             opacity: _closed ? 0.5 : 1.0
 
+            Image {
+                visible: model.is_trampoline
+                source: "../../../icons/kangaroo.png"
+                anchors {
+                    right: parent.right
+                    bottom: parent.bottom
+                }
+                width: parent.width * 2/3
+                height: parent.height * 2/3
+            }
         }
 
         RowLayout {
diff --git a/electrum/gui/qml/qechannellistmodel.py b/electrum/gui/qml/qechannellistmodel.py
index 9fafbf828..c9f7bdad6 100644
--- a/electrum/gui/qml/qechannellistmodel.py
+++ b/electrum/gui/qml/qechannellistmodel.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ class QEChannelListModel(QAbstractListModel, QtEventListener):
     # define listmodel rolemap
     _ROLE_NAMES=('cid','state','state_code','initiator','capacity','can_send',
                  'can_receive','l_csv_delay','r_csv_delay','send_frozen','receive_frozen',
-                 'type','node_id','node_alias','short_cid','funding_tx')
+                 'type','node_id','node_alias','short_cid','funding_tx','is_trampoline')
     _ROLE_KEYS = range(Qt.UserRole, Qt.UserRole + len(_ROLE_NAMES))
     _ROLE_MAP  = dict(zip(_ROLE_KEYS, [bytearray(x.encode()) for x in _ROLE_NAMES]))
     _ROLE_RMAP = dict(zip(_ROLE_NAMES, _ROLE_KEYS))
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ class QEChannelListModel(QAbstractListModel, QtEventListener):
         item['capacity'] = QEAmount(amount_sat=lnc.get_capacity())
         item['can_send'] = QEAmount(amount_msat=lnc.available_to_spend(LOCAL))
         item['can_receive'] = QEAmount(amount_msat=lnc.available_to_spend(REMOTE))
+        item['is_trampoline'] = lnworker.is_trampoline_peer(lnc.node_id)
         return item
 
     numOpenChannelsChanged = pyqtSignal()
diff --git a/electrum/gui/qml/qechannelopener.py b/electrum/gui/qml/qechannelopener.py
index 8c5767380..80411506b 100644
--- a/electrum/gui/qml/qechannelopener.py
+++ b/electrum/gui/qml/qechannelopener.py
@@ -84,19 +84,16 @@ class QEChannelOpener(QObject):
     def validate(self):
         nodeid_valid = False
         if self._nodeid:
+            self._logger.debug(f'checking if {self._nodeid} is valid')
             if not self._wallet.wallet.config.get('use_gossip', False):
                 self._peer = hardcoded_trampoline_nodes()[self._nodeid]
                 nodeid_valid = True
             else:
                 try:
-                    node_pubkey, host_port = extract_nodeid(self._nodeid)
-                    host, port = host_port.split(':',1)
-                    self._peer = LNPeerAddr(host, int(port), node_pubkey)
+                    self._peer = nodeid_to_lnpeer(self._nodeid)
                     nodeid_valid = True
-                except ConnStringFormatError as e:
-                    self.validationError.emit('invalid_nodeid', repr(e))
-                except ValueError as e:
-                    self.validationError.emit('invalid_nodeid', repr(e))
+                except:
+                    pass
 
         if not nodeid_valid:
             self._valid = False
@@ -112,6 +109,19 @@ class QEChannelOpener(QObject):
         self._valid = True
         self.validChanged.emit()
 
+    @pyqtSlot(str, result=bool)
+    def validate_nodeid(self, nodeid):
+        try:
+            nodeid_to_lnpeer(nodeid)
+        except:
+            return False
+        return True
+
+    def nodeid_to_lnpeer(self, nodeid):
+        node_pubkey, host_port = extract_nodeid(nodeid)
+        host, port = host_port.split(':',1)
+        return LNPeerAddr(host, int(port), node_pubkey)
+
     # FIXME "max" button in amount_dialog should enforce LN_MAX_FUNDING_SAT
     @pyqtSlot()
     @pyqtSlot(bool)