DongLoRa
/ˈdɒŋ.ɡəl.ɔːr.ə/ — a portmanteau of dongle and LoRa.
Turn any LoRa board into a USB radio peripheral. Flash the firmware, plug it in, and you have a full LoRa workbench — transmitting, receiving, and building applications in minutes, not days.
DongLoRa is an ecosystem: firmware that turns cheap LoRa boards into dumb USB radios, client libraries that make talking to them trivial, a multiplexer that lets you run multiple applications on one dongle simultaneously, and real applications built on top of all of it.
Get Started in 3 Steps
1. Flash firmware just flash heltec_v4
2. Plug in the board (USB, that's it)
3. Receive packets just rx
No drivers to install. No configuration files. No SDK to learn. The client library auto-detects your dongle and you're on the air.
How It Works
The firmware is a dumb pipe — it has zero opinions about what you do with your radio. All the intelligence lives on the host. This means any language that can open a serial port can speak LoRa.
Your app ──► client library ──► USB ──► firmware ──► LoRa radio ──► the air
Your app ──► client library ──┐
Your app ──► client library ──┤
... ├──► mux ──► USB ──► firmware ──► LoRa radio
Your app ──► client library ──┤
Your app ──► client library ──┘
The multiplexer lets you run a mesh bot, a packet sniffer, and a bridge all on the same radio at the same time.
What Can You Build?
- Mesh network tools — run Meshtastic, MeshCore, or your own mesh protocol from a laptop, server, or Raspberry Pi
- LoRa packet analysis — sniff, decode, and log every packet on a frequency
- Long-range bridges — relay LoRa traffic across the internet, connecting distant networks
- Automated monitoring — watch repeater telemetry, track fleet status, alert on events
- AI-powered mesh bots — autonomous chatbots that live on mesh networks
- RF site surveys — sweep frequencies and map signal strength from your desk
- Rapid prototyping — test LoRa ideas in Python without touching embedded code
- Multi-radio coordination — run multiple dongles for frequency hopping, diversity reception, or parallel monitoring
- Education and research — teach LoRa concepts with immediate, tangible feedback
- Field deployments — plug a dongle into a Raspberry Pi and you have a headless LoRa gateway
The Ecosystem
| Repo | What it does | Language |
|---|---|---|
| firmware | Embedded firmware — turns LoRa boards into USB radio peripherals | Rust |
| client-rs | Rust client library (donglora-client on crates.io) |
Rust |
| client-py | Python client library (donglora-python on PyPI) |
Python |
| mux-rs | USB multiplexer — share one dongle across multiple apps | Rust |
| mux-py | USB multiplexer (Python implementation) | Python |
| bridge | P2P LoRa bridge — relay packets across the internet via encrypted gossip | Rust |
| examples | Ready-to-run demo scripts — receive, transmit, ping-pong, bridge | Python |
| ai-bot | MeshCore AI chatbot (default mesh name: "Orac") | Python |
Supported Boards
Any board with an SX1262 radio and USB. Currently:
| Board | MCU | Display |
|---|---|---|
| Heltec V3 | ESP32-S3 | SSD1306 OLED |
| Heltec V4 | ESP32-S3 | SSD1315 OLED |
| RAK WisBlock 4631 | nRF52840 | SSD1306 OLED (optional) |
| Wio Tracker L1 | nRF52840 | SH1106 OLED |
Adding a new board is one Rust file. The firmware architecture is designed so the list keeps growing.