So I did a thing.

I bought a Seeed Studio SenseCAP Solar node to have as my #meshcore repeater. While it works ok as a repeater, I still wanted something it didn't have, and that was #mqtt to connect it to an MQTT broker.

SenseCAP had one feature that I didn't need: GPS, and didn't have one that I did need: Wi-Fi and something to run MQTT from, but that also meant that I could remove the GPS module and reuse GPIOs from it.

After some playing with firmware and testing, I managed to recompile the meshcore firmware (or applications, as they call them)) to output all packages to the UART (the serial port for us who still remember it). GPS module has been removed and replaced by an ESP32-S3-Zero, which was reprogrammed with MicroPython.

All in all, it works perfectly. Now we will see how much solar can charge and how much the batteries hold, and so far I am happy with the results. Everything still fits in the same box and is waterproof, making it still suitable for mounting outside.

Next project is to increase output to 1W and place it as high as possible to reach other repeaters.

To be continued.

P.S. I still blame @selea for showing me this and pulling me into this rabbit hole :D