[Feature Request]: ESP-NOW To LoRa to Meshtastic Bridge

[jameshall9327]

Platform

ESP32

Description

designing a system where multiple ESP32 nodes, each equipped with a LoRa transceiver, listen on different LoRa channels. These nodes capture incoming messages and forward them using ESP-NOW, a low-latency, connectionless protocol, to a central ESP32 "master" node. The master node aggregates these messages and transmits them via a serial connection to a device running the Meshtastic app.

Technical Breakdown:

1. LoRa Receiver Nodes (ESP32 + SX1262)

Each node is configured to listen on a specific LoRa frequency or channel.

The node extracts incoming LoRa packets, processes them, and prepares them for transmission over ESP-NOW.

ESP-NOW allows the nodes to send data efficiently without requiring a Wi-Fi connection.

The nodes are registered with the master node’s MAC address to establish ESP-NOW communication.

2. Master Node (ESP32 acting as an ESP-NOW Gateway)

The master node listens for messages from multiple LoRa receiver nodes over ESP-NOW.

It timestamps and organizes the incoming messages.

The messages are relayed over UART (Serial) to the Meshtastic device, ensuring compatibility with the Meshtastic protocol.

3. Meshtastic Host Device (Phone/Computer with Meshtastic App)

The master node's serial output is formatted to match the expected Meshtastic message structure.

The host device running Meshtastic receives and interprets the messages as if they were directly coming from a single Meshtastic LoRa device.

This approach allows monitoring multiple LoRa channels simultaneously, which is not natively supported in a single Meshtastic node.

I will help develop it

[jameshall9327]

This is a diagram. Sorry for the messy handwriting

[Jorropo]

I'm not saying this wouldn't be good, but I no longer see this as a game changer now that we have UDP multicast support.

• Add UDP multicast support on linux. #6342
• Hello world support for UDP broadcasts over the LAN on ESP32 #5779

UDP multicast also removes the need for a gateway node, you can run a node directly on your phone or PC.

[jameshall9327]

That is way different then what I'm trying to do.

I'm not saying this wouldn't be good, but I no longer see this as a game changer now that we have UDP multicast support.

• Add UDP multicast support on linux. #6342
• Hello world support for UDP broadcasts over the LAN on ESP32 #5779

UDP multicast also removes the need for a gateway node, you can run a node directly on your phone or PC.

[jameshall9327]

It can also be bidirectional, so the master node can send a message out to whatever channel the other nodes would be on.

[vasildimitrovdxc]

The BEST Usage for this will be - 433Mhz and 868Mhz devices together in a box at a remote location powered by Solar and bridged via ESP-NOW and UDP Multicast , so they can relay Messages from and to both Frequencies, utilizing both like 868Mhz (and other like 2.4Ghz) with ShortTurbo for backbone and low Frequencies like 433Mhz for better Urban/Indoor coverage. Great Feature to have . Real GAME-CHANGER !