ESP32 Bit Pirate 1.7 Gains LoRa, Meshtastic, and Browser-Based BPIO2 Control
Aug 9, 2026 — by Giorgio Mendoza 9,445 views
ESP32 Bit Pirate has released version 1.7 of its ESP32-S3-based hardware debugging platform, adding LoRa support for SX1262 transceivers, a Meshtastic analysis shell, a new BPIO2 USB adapter, and support for additional boards. The open-source project continues to expand its browser-based tools for hardware debugging, programming, and experimentation.
A major addition in version 1.7 is a dedicated LoRa mode for SX1262 transceivers. The firmware supports packet transmission and reception, RSSI monitoring, frequency scanning, waterfall visualization, and channel activity detection.
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LoRa packets can also be recorded to the ESP32’s LittleFS filesystem and replayed later together with their radio configuration. Available settings include frequency, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, transmit power, preamble, sync word, and SX1262 pin assignments.
The release also introduces a dedicated Meshtastic analysis shell for transmitting, receiving, and inspecting Meshtastic packets, with access to the underlying LoRa parameters.
LoRa mode in the Web Serial Terminal
Another addition is BPIO2, a USB adapter mode for controlling GPIO, I2C, and SPI interfaces from a host computer. A companion browser-based controller communicates with ESP32 Bit Pirate through Web Serial and provides GPIO control and monitoring, I2C scanning and transactions, and SPI transfers.
BPIO2 also supports reusable automation sequences combining GPIO, I2C, SPI, and delay operations. Sequences can be imported or exported, while microsecond delays are available for simple hardware automation workflows.
Heltec Vision Master T190 demo
Version 1.7 further expands the project’s browser-based environment with a Python Scripting Lab. Python code runs locally in the browser and can communicate with ESP32 Bit Pirate through Web Serial using either its standard command-line interface or BPIO2. This allows tasks such as I2C scans, SPI transactions, hardware tests, and other debugging sequences to be automated without installing Python or pyserial locally.
Hardware support has also expanded. Version 1.7 adds the Heltec Vision Master T190 and Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4, including support for their onboard SX1262 LoRa radios. Initial build support has also been added for the Waveshare ESP32-S3-GEEK.
ESP32-Bit-Pirate new supported devices
Other changes include a raw-read fallback for I2C devices without conventional register interfaces, an increase in the infrared receive buffer from 100 to 512 entries, improved Wi-Fi reinitialization following spam or flood operations, a larger Flashrom transfer buffer, and revised USB PID handling intended to avoid stale host-side configuration caching.
The ESP32 Arduino platform version has also been temporarily pinned due to increased RAM usage with newer framework versions.
Further Information
ESP32 Bit Pirate v1.7 is available through the project’s GitHub repository and Web Flasher.
This is so freaking interesting, but old people like me who can’t read those small screens would love a bigger version. I wonder how hard would be to port it to those 3.5″ to 7″ ESP32 based screens commonly available at Aliexpress and other vendors.
The heltec v4 has a mini hdmi port that you can connect a mini hdmi to hdmi adapter to and use it with your television.
That would however defeat the portable use, which is a plus in devices like those. There’s probably a middle ground, say big phone or small tablet sized, that I wouldn’t rule out if I was the manufacturer, although at this point using a headless board linked to the phone through USB or BT would also make sense.
While the screens are nice, ultimately they are not needed. To add an increased screen size would add more current draw to a device that aims to draw as little as possible. The nice part is that similar to sdr, the gateway is usually able to be connected to a monitor. Leaving the nodes to do their own work.