cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45567835
Created my first meshcore solar powered repeater. Using the lilygo t-beam supreme and a overkill solar panel. All mounted on a din rail in a waterproof electrical cabinet.
It also included some more monitoring, using a esp32c6 running esphome with zigbee and deep sleep. Because i want to keep track of the solar performance.
It was a lot of work to get running, from soldering, 3d printing but also some little firmware changes. I even tough i burned out the lora module by running it without the antenna sometimes. I couldn't test it because i only had 2 other t-beams that where 443Mhz. Today, after buying a hot air station and some soldering i now have 2 board that work with 869Mhz (swapped the sx1278 with a sx1262). Now i am just waiting on the last 869Mhz module so i can modify my last board.
A little cursed i think but the new module didn't have the same footprint so this also works.
firmware
I like how easy the firmware is to edit, when you have some arduino experience. I added support for the 443Mhz t-beam, made it possible to connect via the app and via the home assistant integration at the same time and created a custom sensor that controls 2 relays, so i can control them remotely. But for some reason the screen just wont work, i tried using the example arduino sketch, different versions and all, none work. I do know the screen is functional because with the test firmware from lilygo it does work.
range
I haven't really tested it with the new antenna, but when i let it run for some time using the stock one, i got contacts from over 125km away, which did really surprise me. I hope with this new antenna that i can also send messages not only receive them.
Some more pictures
