Mocktastic is a small, customizable Meshtastic-compatible Lo Ra client for ESP32 boards using Arduino IDE environment. It is an educational and experimental implementation, not a fork of the official Meshtastic firmware. The project demonstrates how to build and decode Meshtastic packets in C++, and includes a working environmental-sensor example.
The firmware has two compile-time modes: DECODER provides an interactive serial shell for receiving, decoding, and sending text messages on configured Meshtastic channels and direct messages. SENSOR turns the board into a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. It can send measurements and respond to /dht messages on its configured private channel.
The implementation targets the Lily GO T3 Lo Ra32 V1.6.1 (ESP32-PICO and SX1276) and is intended to be adapted to other compatible ESP32/Lo Ra hardware. Dependencies include MBDTLS for cryptography during the test phase, Nano-Protobuf as a lightweight protobuf encoder, and Doctest’s lightweight C++ tests for unit testing.
Repository layout centers on meshtastic_decoder/, which holds the firmware and host-side tests. Build and run host tests from meshtastic_decoder using make test. Creating a Mocktastic node requires an ESP32 board and a Semtech SX1276-family Lo Ra radio; the SENSOR variant also requires a DHT22.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing