How-tos · LoRa Scanner

Capture LoRa packets and open them in Wireshark

Record what the radio hears into a pcap file, then read it on a computer.

The radio only listens: nothing is transmitted. You need the Cap LoRa-1262 and an SD card.

  1. Open the LoRa Scanner. The Status Bar shows L while the radio listens.
  2. Pick a preset with p. The Scanner offers the 7 Meshtastic presets allowed in EU868; LongFast is the default.
  3. Wait for packets. Each line is a packet: the time, RSSI and SNR, and for a Meshtastic packet the sender, the receiver and the hops. Enter shows a packet's header and its bytes.
  4. Press c to start a capture. The Status Bar shows CAP. It keeps recording with the App closed.
  5. Press c again to stop.
  6. Get the file. It is in /captures/lora/, a .pcap with LoRaTap headers. In the Storage App you can already look at its packets; on a computer, open it in Wireshark.

What you will and will not see. Meshtastic's header is never encrypted, so who sent a packet and how far it hopped is visible. The message itself is encrypted with the channel's key, and the Scanner does not decrypt it.

Hearing nothing is normal if no node is in range, or if the preset does not match what the nodes nearby use. The Sweep (Tab) shows whether anything is on the air at all across 863 to 870 MHz.