The pilot boards are in

July 17, 2026 · build log

The first run of MeshCam leaf boards came back from the assembly house this week: five machine-assembled boards, each carrying its serial in silkscreen and QR. This is the board that lives inside every MeshCam camera. An ESP32-S3 does the thinking, with the camera ribbon, microSD slot, and USB-C console on board; a 915 MHz LoRa radio carries photos onto the mesh; and the power tree is built around solar charging, LiFePO4 cells, and microamp deep sleep, because this board is designed to live in a tree for years, not seasons.

MeshCam leaf board, front side — Board 0001, front: ESP32-S3, USB-C console, twin buttons, camera ribbon connector, microSD, and the radio footprint with its u.FL antenna feed.

MeshCam leaf board, back side — The back stays flat on purpose: the board mounts against the enclosure wall, and every connector faces in.

Bring-up so far has gone the way you hope a first article run goes. Boards power cleanly, flash over USB-C, and join the same Reticulum LoRa mesh our bench gateway runs, passing real traffic with a battery wired in. Each board gets walked through the same checklist against its serial, so by the end of the week we'll know the batch, not just a board.

Pilot board running on the bench mesh with battery and antenna — Board 0004 on the bench mesh: radio module socketed, antenna on, LiFePO4 cell wired to the battery input.

Camera modules and the rest of the field kit are en route, and field deployments are underway this summer. The pilot boards socket their radio as a plug-in module; the production run solders the same SX1262 radio (EBYTE's E22-900M22S) straight to the board, which trims cost without touching the radio design.

The production batch is built to order. If you want boards from it, the shop has the kits and the ship window.