MeshCore Repeater Project

I discovered the MeshCore project a few weeks ago. The concept, along with the rather good reception in my hometown, instantly got me hooked. However, there are still some dead zones in my neighborhood. Therefore, I’m planning to build several repeaters and distribute them throughout my area. Usually, repeaters run MeshCore’s original firmware. However, I want the flexibility to easily adapt the firmware to my needs, and I also really want another Rust project. So, I decided to build my own hard- and software for this project.

The project is currently a WIP and not fully functional.

Hardware

The hardware is fairly straightforward. It consists of:

• A Heltec V3 board with an ESP32 and SX1262 LoRa transceiver
• A 3000 mAh battery
• A TP4056-based charge controller and battery protection board
• A waterproof enclosure (80 × 60 × 30 mm)
• A COTS LoRa antenna
• Some 3D-printed parts

I have not yet decided on a solar panel.

Software 🦀🦀🦀

Git repository: https://codeberg.org/matthinc/oxide-core

Mainly for fun, I’m building my own MeshCore repeater in Rust. The firmware is built using the lora-rs project and esp-hal, together with the esp-idf toolchain.

The firmware currently has the following functionality:

• ✅ Reception of MeshCore packets
• ✅ Parsing of MeshCore packets
• ✏️ Repeater logic (reply to floods, etc.)
• ❌ Telemetry
• ✅ Adverts

Update 2026/01/14: First electrical test

The TP4056 charges the battery, board is powered, nothing exploded!

Update 2026/01/10: Repeater answers trace commands

Update 2026/01/07: Repeating of simple flood-routed packet works

(Repeater pubkey is 0x35…)

Evaluation

I want to thoroughly evaluate the project (battery drain, power consumption, robustness, etc.). This will be done later.