LoRa Meshtastic

GhostESP implements a Meshtastic-compatible LoRa mesh on SX1262 radios. Chat with stock Meshtastic nodes, bridge the mesh to the official Meshtastic phone app over BLE, and use GhostESP as a field node or sniffer.

Stock radio interop is first-class: same sync word, channels, and wire encryption as Meshtastic firmware, so GhostESP joins existing meshes without flashing stock firmware.

Hardware

• Heltec V3 / V3.2 — SX1262 + ESP32-S3 with built-in OLED, pre-wired. Use sdkconfig.heltecv3 (or the matching release build). Primary supported boards.
• Elecrow CrowPanel Advance 2.4 — SX1262 wireless module. Use sdkconfig.crowpanel_advance24; the display stays on SPI2 and the radio uses SPI3.
• Elecrow CrowPanel Advance 2.8 — SX1262 wireless module. Use sdkconfig.crowpanel_advance28; the display stays on SPI2 and the radio uses SPI3.
• Elecrow CrowPanel Advance 4.3 — SX1262 Meshtastic wireless module. Use sdkconfig.crowpanel_advance43 and set the rear switch to 01 (WM); SD/TF is unavailable in wireless-module mode.
• Generic SX1262 — any ESP32 with an SX1262 via SPI through custom board wiring; configure pins in Kconfig. See Hardware Support for build matrix.

See Hardware for Vext power sequencing and SPI/SD conflicts.

Regions and channel

• 24 regions — LongFast-legal presets such as anz, us915, eu868, eu433, jp, kr, and in. Each maps to the region’s frequency slot and radio settings.
• Default-key channel — LongFast primary channel with the well-known default PSK (AQ== base64, hash 0x08). GhostESP derives the same chash so stock nodes decrypt without rekeying.
• Duty guard — regional duty-cycle limiter throttles TX when airtime exceeds the legal window; lora status shows remaining budget.

What you can do

• Chat on the mesh from the CLI (lora chat) or the official Meshtastic app over BLE.
• Send encrypted direct messages after the two nodes exchange NodeInfo public keys.
• On Heltec boards, the OLED shows live link, node, traffic, relay, signal, and error status. New messages briefly replace any selected animation with the sender and a three-line preview; press PRG to dismiss it.
• Track nodes, routing, and link health from NodeInfo and traceroute equivalents.
• Bridge to the companion app over Wi-Fi (companion wifi) or BLE (companion ble) when BLE radio sharing matters.

Chatting on a screen

Open LoRa → Messages for public chat and direct conversations. Choose New direct message to pick a node. Select Write inside a conversation to open the keyboard.

• Touch: tap to open, drag to read, and select the Write or Back rows.
• Encoder: turn to move through messages and Back/Write; press to select.
• Joystick: up/down to move, centre to select, left to go back.
• Keyboard: arrows or Tab to move, Enter to select, Esc to go back; n opens Write inside a conversation.

DM status changes from Pending to Delivered or Failed when a routing result arrives. Sent means sent locally, not confirmed delivered. Recent messages use a compact 32-entry NVS-backed history: old entries expire as it fills, and normal reboot/reflash keeps them (an erase-flash/factory reset clears them). The built-in OLED uses its compact preview instead of this full chat screen.

Quick links

• Getting Started — first-run checklist from build flag to verified chat
• Commands — full lora CLI reference
• BLE App Link — pair the official Meshtastic app over Ghost-XXXX
• Mesh Details — wire format, sync word, flood, and NodeInfo
• Hardware — Vext power, SPI, and custom board Kconfig