A ultra-low-cost, edge-only acoustic drone detector on ESP32-S3 with encrypted LoRa alerting.
"Built for defense, hoping it becomes unnecessary. We believe in a world where no one needs to fear the sky."
Drones are an increasing threat to homes, farms, and communities — and effective detection has traditionally required expensive radar or camera systems. Batear changes that.
For ultra-low-cost hardware, Batear turns a tiny ESP32-S3 microcontroller and a MEMS microphone into an always-on acoustic drone detector. It runs entirely at the edge — no cloud subscription, no internet connection, no ongoing cost. Deploy one at a window, a fence line, or a rooftop and it will alert you the moment drone rotor harmonics are detected nearby.
The same codebase builds as a Detector (mic + LoRa TX) or a Gateway (LoRa RX + OLED + LED + MQTT), selectable at build time. The gateway forwards alerts to Home Assistant via MQTT with automatic device discovery.
Flash firmware directly from your browser — no toolchain needed:
Requires Chrome or Edge on desktop. Just connect your Heltec V3 via USB-C and click Install.
Stop checking serial monitors. Batear brings drone detection directly to your dashboard.
- Plug & Play: Auto-Discovery via MQTT.
- Rich Diagnostics: Monitor signal strength (RSSI/SNR) in real-time.
- Automations Ready: Trigger your smart lights, alarms, or notifications when a drone is detected.
- Historical Logs: Analyze drone activity patterns in your area.
"Batear bridges the gap between complex signal processing and simple home automation."
Full documentation is available at batear.io.
| Getting Started | Prerequisites and supported boards |
| Hardware | Parts list, wiring diagrams, pin map |
| Build & Flash | Compile and flash the firmware |
| Configuration | Encryption keys, frequencies, MQTT, device IDs |
| How It Works | FFT harmonic detection algorithm |
| Calibration | Tuning detection thresholds |
| Adding a Board | Porting to new hardware |
┌──────────────────────┐ LoRa 915 MHz ┌──────────────────────┐
│ DETECTOR (×N) │ ───────────────────────────► │ GATEWAY (×1) │
│ │ AES-128-GCM encrypted │ │
│ ICS-43434 mic │ 28-byte packets │ SSD1306 OLED display│
│ FFT harmonic detect │ │ LED alarm indicator │
│ SX1262 LoRa TX │ │ SX1262 LoRa RX │
└──────────────────────┘ │ WiFi + MQTT TX │
Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 └──────────┬───────────┘
Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3
│ MQTT
▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│ HOME ASSISTANT │
│ (auto-discovery) │
└──────────────────────┘
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/batear-io/batear.git && cd batear
# Build detector
idf.py -B build_detector \
-DSDKCONFIG=build_detector/sdkconfig \
-DSDKCONFIG_DEFAULTS="sdkconfig.defaults;sdkconfig.detector" \
set-target esp32s3
idf.py -B build_detector -DSDKCONFIG=build_detector/sdkconfig build
# Flash (replace PORT)
idf.py -B build_detector -DSDKCONFIG=build_detector/sdkconfig -p PORT flash monitorSee the full build guide for gateway setup and detailed instructions.
