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Orpington MeshCore Repeaters

This page serves to share the status of the MeshCore repeaters I have deployed and maintain to provide Orpington with cover and access to the wider communications mesh.

My repeaters are all based on NRF52840 microcontrollers with SX1262 LoRa modems and operate at 868MHz. While this means they don’t transmit at the higher power that devices such as the Heltec V4 produce, they are all very suitable for and operate on solar power. All are placed with permission from the respective property owners and I maintain them on a best efforts basis. I will keep a maintenance log at the bottom of this page.

My repeaters:

  • IT-Orp-S omni – close to the centre of Orpington
    • Xiao NRF BLE Sense board.
    • WIO v1.1 SX1262 radio.
    • PiHut 868MHz folding antenna (spec 5dBi gain), lengthened by 1.5mm to tune to 868MHz frequency.
    • 165x165mm 6V epoxy solar panel (approx 3.5W in full sunlight).
    • TP4056 charger board – set for 1A max charge current, 2.5V minimum battery Voltage cutoff.
    • INA219 current and Voltage monitor.
    • 4 x 2.5Ah 18650 cells in parallel (nominal 10Ah capacity).
    • Modified firmware (for non-standard WIO pinout).
  • IT-Petts-Wood omni – in the centre of Petts Wood
    • Xiao NRF BLE Sense board.
    • WIO v1.0 SX1262 radio.
    • Generic Chinese 868MHz folding antenna (spec 5dBi gain), observed to be close to 868MHz frequency.
    • 172x172mm 6V glass solar panel (approx 3.5W in full sunlight).
    • TP4056 charger board – set for 1A max charge current, 2.5V minimum battery Voltage cutoff.
    • INA219 current and Voltage monitor.
    • 4 x 2.5Ah 18650 cells in parallel (nominal 10Ah capacity).
    • Standard firmware.
  • IT-Knockholt omni – coming soon

Maintenance Log:

  • 22 Nov 2025 – IT-Petts-Wood omni upgraded to v1.10.0 via OTA from ground level.
  • 21 Nov 2025 – IT-Orp-S omni opened, installed with Adafruit OTAFIX bootloader and upgraded to v1.10.0.
  • 26th Oct 2025 – IT-Orp-S omni opened, installed INA219 and re-sealed.
  • 26th Oct 2025 – IT-Petts-Wood omni built, tested and installed, running v1.9.1 standard with Adafruit OTAFIX bootloader.
  • 19th Sept 2025 – IT-Orp-S omni built, tested and installed, running v1.8.1 specially compiled for WIO v1.1 pinout.