LoRa hardware for OSHI
OSHI already works phone-to-phone with no internet and no SIM. A LoRa node is an optional piece of hardware, roughly the size of a matchbox, that extends that same mesh from tens of metres to kilometres. You buy it once, flash it from your browser, and OSHI finds it over Bluetooth.
Honest answer: not to use OSHI. The app messages phone-to-phone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct on its own. You want a LoRa node when the people you need to reach are further away than a building — a valley, a campsite, a protest, a blackout, a farm.
| Transport | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth mesh | 10–100 m | Phone to phone, both apps open. No hardware needed. |
| Wi-Fi Direct | 50–200 m | Phone to phone, no router needed. No hardware needed. |
| LoRa · dense city | 2–5 km | Buildings and interference dominate. |
| LoRa · suburban | 5–15 km | Typical rooftop or window placement. |
| LoRa · open terrain | 15–50+ km | Line of sight, decent antenna. |
Real range depends on antenna, placement, terrain and the transmit power your region allows. These are field figures, not laboratory maxima.
This is the one mistake that makes a LoRa purchase useless. The same board is sold in different radio versions, and they are not interchangeable. A 915 MHz board bought in Europe will not talk to your neighbours' 868 MHz nodes, and transmitting on the wrong band is not legal.
| Where you are | Buy this version |
|---|---|
| Europe, UK, most of Africa, Middle East, India, Russia | 868 MHz (sometimes listed as EU868 / 863–870 MHz) |
| United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand | 915 MHz (US915 / AU915 / 902–928 MHz) |
| Japan | 923 MHz (AS923) |
| China | 470 MHz (CN470) |
Check the listing title. Sellers put the band in the product name — "Heltec V3 868MHz" or "915MHz". If a listing does not say, do not buy it. A new node also ships with its region set to UNSET and will not transmit at all until you pick your region on first pairing, which OSHI prompts you to do.
Every board below speaks to OSHI through the same Bluetooth interface, so the app treats them identically. The difference is whether we have run it on real hardware ourselves, and whether we mirror an OSHI firmware image you can flash straight from this site.
The board we develop against. If you want the path with the fewest surprises, buy this one. OLED screen, USB-C, battery connector, and an OSHI firmware image you flash from your browser.
Same ESP32-S3 class as the Heltec and we mirror an OSHI image for it, but we have not yet run it against OSHI on real hardware. A good pick if you want the SX1280 2.4 GHz variant.
Popular because of the built-in GPS and 18650 battery holder. Compatible on paper through the same Bluetooth service, but it is a plain ESP32 and we do not mirror an image for it — you flash it from the Meshtastic web flasher.
Also compatible, not mirrored: the Heltec Wireless Tracker (ESP32-S3 with GPS) and the LilyGO T-Echo (e-paper, nRF52840). The T-Echo cannot be flashed from a browser at all — it is programmed by drag-and-drop UF2. Never flash a board with another board's image, even from the same maker.
Four steps. No radio documentation, no terminal, no developer account.
Any USB cable that carries data. Use a Chromium-based browser — Chrome, Edge, Brave or Opera. Safari and Firefox cannot talk to serial devices.
Open the flasher, pick your board, press the button. It takes about two minutes and it verifies the image hash as it writes.
OSHI finds the node over Bluetooth by itself. You press Connect once and set your region.
Your phone now uses Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, LoRa and the internet as one mesh, picking whichever is available.
No. OSHI messages phone-to-phone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct with no internet, no SIM and no hardware. A LoRa node is purely a range extension, from tens of metres to kilometres.
For a link between two distant groups, yes — one at each end. A single node still helps if it reaches an existing Meshtastic-style mesh near you, because OSHI nodes relay for each other.
Neither. LoRa is an unlicensed radio band. There is no carrier, no account and no monthly cost. You buy the hardware once.
Yes. OSHI encrypts end-to-end on your phone before anything reaches the radio. The node forwards ciphertext it cannot read, exactly like every other transport.
The Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3, in the frequency version for your country. It is the board we test against and the one with an OSHI firmware image you can flash from your browser.
Usually yes. OSHI talks to nodes through the standard Meshtastic Bluetooth service, so an existing compatible node works without reflashing. Flashing the OSHI image is optional.
Some links on this page go to Amazon. If you buy through them, OSHI may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, which goes into development. We link to boards because they work with OSHI, not because of the commission — the Heltec V3 is recommended here for the same reason it is the board in our own test rig. You are always free to buy direct from the manufacturer, and those links are provided alongside every Amazon link.
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