Replacing Meshtastic with Arduino

ghauck · February 20, 2026, 3:12pm

I am interested in the RAK3312 with its esp32s3+sx1262. I see that it comes with Meshtastic pre-installed. I am wondering can the pre-installed software be replaced with standard Arduino framework, since the esp32s3 is supported by Arduino. I have used the RAK4631 which came pre-installed with RUI. Through a couple of scripts, I was able to replace RUI with the standard Arduino frame work and was able to do all my development using arduino-cli and IDE. I normally use macOS for development, but could use windows if needed for replacement

Thank you in advance,

Greg Hauck

carlrowan · February 22, 2026, 10:51pm

Welcome to RAK forum @ghauck ,

Yes, you can replace the pre-installed Meshtastic firmware on the RAK3312 with the standard Arduino framework. The ESP32-S3 is fully supported by Arduino, so you can develop using Arduino IDE or arduino-cli.

beegee · February 23, 2026, 2:18am

Or get the WisBlock Starter Kit with the RAK3312.

The WisBlock Starter Kit is cheaper, because it does not require the license fee that Meshtastic is applying.

ghauck · February 23, 2026, 9:10pm

Is there an application note on how to do it?

carlrowan · February 23, 2026, 10:58pm

We have no application note for this.

This is a very straight forward process since Arduino supports ESP32 boards by default. Just ensure you use the latest version of Arduino ESP32 so that you can see RAK3112 on the board selection. You can use the attached guide as reference.

rak3112 Arduino IDE guide.pdf (3.8 MB)