151

The People’s Repeater is a cheap solar-powered LoRa mesh repeater you can build yourself using a $10 garden light and a small, 3D printed hub. In this video I walk through the design, do a range test, blast the repeater with pressurized water for an hour, and then show you how to build one step by step.

My goal is to get Meshcore and Meshtastic into actual neighborhoods, where ordinary people can build their own off-grid, encrypted text messaging infrastructure.

Support Black Flag Civilian & connect to the BFC discord: https://www.subscribestar.com/blackflagcivilian

FREE DOWNLOAD of People's Repeater Hub & Mount STL Files: https://www.printables.com/model/1768397-the-peoples-repeater-affordable-solar-mesh-repeate

People's Repeater Hubs & Mounts for sale on Black Flag Civilian's web store: https://blackflagcivilian.bigcartel.com/product/3d-printed-peoples-repeater-hub-mount

Parts lists (including links to specific parts) are available at both Printables and the BFC Webstore, linked above.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Those little solar garden lights are mostly just consumer shovelware, they're not any specific brand. I was able to find some similar looking lamps on Aliexpress in a few minutes- while they're popular and easy to find in the US, I'm sure getting them globally isn't that hard either.

[-] spitfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Isn’t getting the right size key to fitting them together with this project? If you could link them I’d be grateful ;)

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean yeah, for this project specifically you'd need the right lights. In general you could adapt any other solar light, especially one that already has a wall mount- the hardware is so tiny it basically fits anywhere, and they all use the same lithium cells these days.

[-] spitfire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Instead of adapting (I have NO 3d modeling skills), I can just use another project where relevant parts are available. This one looked pretty straightforward (as in: not much assembly required compared to other projects), which is why I’ve asked about getting the right part.

[-] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 hours ago

Well, I use the term adapting loosely. There are wall mount lights where no modelling or printing is even needed- just drill a hole for the antenna bulkhead and replace the guts.

[-] spitfire@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Assuming there is space for the new guts inside. If I buy something similar, But it won’t fit, I’m wasting time and money. I was asking if I could get the same thing - it saves time and money not trying to figure stuff out again. Otherwise I can just use a different model to print.

this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
151 points (100.0% liked)

Meshtastic

2408 readers
7 users here now

A community to discuss Meshtastic (https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction)

Other mesh communities:

MeshCore: !Meshcore@feddit.org Reticulum: !Reticulum@mander.xyz

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS