Off-the-shelf.
Your call.
Pick what fits your build and your budget. Everything below runs the same firmware family — buy it ready-made, repurpose a Meshtastic board, or design your own.
What you need
Two parts: a gateway and some nodes
The gateway 1 or more
- Heltec Wireless Stick V3 — ESP32-S3 + SX1262. The small USB dongle that bridges your computer to the radio fleet.
- Add a second gateway — the host drives several at once, each on its own LoRa channel, so you can split the fleet into separate networks (e.g. lights and start line).
The nodes pick any
- Heltec HT-CT62 — ESP32-C3 + SX1262. Tiny and about the cheapest way in. Great for pure light nodes.*
- Heltec Wireless Stick Lite V3 — ESP32-S3 + SX1262, with onboard battery management.
- Heltec Wireless Paper — ESP32-S3 + SX1262 with a built-in 2.13″ e-paper display. The ready-made start-block board: shows channel and pilot name right on the panel.
- Any Meshtastic-compatible board with a supported modem (SX1262 recommended) — e.g. Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 / V4, LilyGo T3-S3, LilyGo T-Beam.
Custom & reference roadmap
- Waveshare ESP32-S3-ETH preview — ESP32-S3 + a Wiznet W5500 Ethernet port. A wired node that talks to the host over your LAN instead of LoRa — no gateway needed. Experimental, not in a released build yet.
- Roll your own — design a custom node board around a supported chip and radio.
- Reference designs (planned) — one or two ready-to-build boards with 2S battery low-voltage cut-off and reverse-polarity protection, plus a low-cost variant.
* The ESP32-C3 on the HT-CT62 doesn't have enough free pins for the e-paper start-block display. For start blocks, use an ESP32-S3 board — the Heltec Wireless Paper above is the ready-made option, or wire e-paper to any ESP32-S2 / ESP32-S3 board. Full hardware notes are in the node setup guide.
Up and running
From box to light show in four steps
Flash the firmware
Grab a ready-made firmware file from the GitHub releases (or build it yourself). After that, the WebUI updates devices over the air.
Plug in & open
Connect the USB gateway to a laptop or Raspberry Pi and open the WebUI — standalone, or inside RotorHazard.
Pair & group
Hit Discover Devices, then drop them into groups like Start Line or Pit Wall. See the operator guide.
Build a scene & run
Assemble a playlist of effects, press Run, and watch the whole track come alive. Enjoy the show.
Two ways to run it
Host mode or headless
Host mode
A laptop or Raspberry Pi runs the host with the USB gateway plugged in. You get the full WebUI: groups, scenes, telemetry and over-the-air updates. Run it standalone or inside RotorHazard.
Headless mode
No host, no gateway. One node becomes the master and remote-controls up to 40 devices straight from its button — ideal for practice nights and small meets with zero setup.
Ready to build it?
The documentation walks through flashing, pairing and running a real event, end to end.