Meshtastic Meets Electronics

When I started experimenting with Meshtastic, a few brands immediately stood out: Heltec, Seeed Studio, Lilygo, and RAK. These companies offer some very nice modules, both as development kits and in compact, ready-to-use form factors.

However, anyone who knows me knows that I like to optimize. How can I get the most functionality and value for the least amount of money? Can I build something that is flexible and easily extended over time? These questions sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

In today’s blog post, I’d like to share some interesting electronic components I’ve come across that could be used for Meshtastic-based projects. I want to be clear from the start: I have not used any of these products yet, and this post is not sponsored by any of the brands mentioned.

Elecrow

First on my list is Elecrow. Even though I include them here, it’s worth noting that they are already a Meshtastic backer and have a very wide range of electronics available. The company states that their mission is to “Make Your Making Easier”, and one of their focus areas is the Meshtastic ecosystem.

In this space, they offer a broad selection of Meshtastic-compatible products, including trackers, displays, outdoor solar power solutions, and wearable devices.

The product that really caught my attention is the CrowPanel Advance 2.8” HMI AI Display for Meshtastic . This unit includes a capacitive 320×240 IPS touchscreen and uses an ESP32-S3 as its core processor. The board features 512 KB SRAM, 8 MB PSRAM, and 16 MB flash storage, along with built-in 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and BLE using an onboard RF antenna.

One particularly interesting feature is its replaceable wireless module design. This allows the user to swap modules and potentially support multiple communication protocols such as Zigbee, LoRa, nRF24L01, Matter, Thread, and even Wi-Fi 6.

For anyone looking to step up their Meshtastic experience, this product looks like a bit of a goldmine. I’m fairly certain Elecrow will hear from me in the future — with an order.

M5Stack

M5Stack has created numerous neatly self-contained modules that can be “stacked” into different solutions, resulting in enclosed, almost consumer-style devices. Each solution is built around a controller module and divided into the following families: Stick, Stack, Atom, and Stamp.

There is also another base unit called the Cardputer Adv . While it is not fully stackable in the traditional sense, it supports attachable components, which is what initially attracted me to the platform.

One such attachment is the LoRa + GPS Cap , which, when combined with the Cardputer Adv, effectively gives you a Meshtastic-capable device with a display, keyboard, GPS, and a 1750 mAh battery.

Within the Stack range, M5Stack also offers a Battery Module, GPS Module, LoRa Module, and an ESP32 Basic Core IoT Development Kit, documented in their guide How to Build Your Own Meshtastic Device .

M5Stack has an impressive documentation library that includes tutorials and how-to videos. For newcomers to Meshtastic and electronics in general, this could be a very good place to start. Examples include the Module LoRa868 v1.2 and the CoreS3 SE .

It does appear that the Stack LoRa module has reached end-of-life status, but I’ll be keeping an eye on what they plan next.

Waveshare

With Waveshare, we start moving more toward true building blocks rather than ready-made Meshtastic devices. They offer a comprehensive range of modules that can be used together with other Waveshare products or integrated into existing electronics projects.

Waveshare also maintains an extensive product wiki at waveshare.com/wiki , which makes it significantly easier to use and integrate their hardware.

For Meshtastic users, the challenge here is that Waveshare generally requires a deeper understanding of electronics, and often some familiarity with firmware configuration or compiling custom Meshtastic builds from GitHub.

There are examples where the SX1262 LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi has been used to create Linux-native Meshtastic devices, as well as LoRa expansion boards for the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Clockwork Tech

Clockwork Tech states that their motivation comes from a common dream shared by many engineers and gamers: creating their own handheld devices. Their products bring together multiple technologies and offer a solid starting point for people interested in electronics.

In the context of Meshtastic, some users have used the PicoCalc as a MeshCorePicoCalc as a MeshCore unit by housing a Heltec V3 inside the enclosure and connecting it via UART. In this setup, the Pico itself does not generate the LoRa layer but provides a sophisticated input method and enclosure.

There is also the uConsole, which supports a variety of interesting add-ons. This video by Talking Sasquach is well worth watching: YouTube – uConsole overview .

What next?

For me, these examples highlight just how accessible electronics, firmware, and software development have become. There are more ways than ever to explore Meshtastic beyond standard off-the-shelf nodes.

At the same time, just because these companies have created some amazing hardware doesn’t mean my own quest for optimization is over. The goal remains the same: to experiment, to learn, and to find ways to bring these technologies to more people - young and old.

And as always: go and create.

Written by JohanV
2025-12-21