The Problem
It was clear to me early, that the perfect MESHCORE repeater doesn't exist. A repeater that can be purchased plug and play, for people who don't want to put together a box. I had several agencies and fire departments asking me to point them to a repeater, that was 100% ready to go for Meshcore, so they wouldnt have to order 8-10 different parts and would be easy to update. And that repeater just didn't exist. After putting together nearly 50 Meshcore repeaters, some with great success with 50 mile coverage ( on flat land with no mountains) , I kind of had an idea of what worked and what didn't. We needed a repeater that is rugged enough to handle hurricanes, and 4-5 days of cloudy rainy weather with little sun if any.
So I sent out a questionaire to Meshcore users across the country asking them, Is there a perfect Meshcore repeater, and if not, what do you want to see in the perfect meshcore repeater.
I think it was crazy how some questions had overwhelming responses, " Does the perfect MESHCORE repeater exist" and almost 100 people said "No" . But what was also funny was when they were asked " if you answered yes, then what do you think was the perfect MESHCORE repeater", and none of the answers checked all the boxes. (P1 pro was the #1 answer, a repeater that has shown to transmit lower power , and cant be updated with Meshcore firmware unless you are 10 feet away from it, I own 4 of them).
It was also funny how some of these answers were 50/50 answers, even after 117 responses. Like, what should the box be made out of, 3D ASA printed box, or aluminum. Right now, it looks like aluminum would just be cost prohibitive unless someone knows someone they can send my way to do these boxes at a cheaper price. (Look for the "Grumpy Knight" Repeater in Quarter 4 to Quarter 1 2027) On/Off switches - Another 50/50 answer. 50% said no switch (another point of failure) and 40% said inside.
I could go on, but I don't want to lose anymore of yall.
Well, as we approach August 2026, we are steps closer to a release day. Our Grumpy Board is in the hands of Scarlett (the Discord Queen from the Gulf Coast Mesh Discord) and is going through all her testing now. Once she says it's good, an order for boards will be made. Due to overwhelming requests from people on Discord, and other contacts, I will be offering the board separately from the repeater. Several of yall told me yall would like a board, but put it in your own setups. So my hope is that by next week, I will be able to place an order for boards , and start offering a pre-sale on August 1st for these. I don't have a price yet from the board manufacturers for the quantity I want. Once I know that, then I will know how to price them. Then once I can get everything sourced , and a repeater put together in a few peoples hands to test and give me feedback, I will then begin to take pre-orders on those.
I then got with "Mike" on 3d print ideas. While I had the idea of what I wanted in a box, after many days, nights, and cursing trying to run CAD for the Grumpy Box, he took over and bailed me out. Any idea I came up with, he was able to figure out. When yall see the "Grumpy X Repeater" later in 2026, you will understand this even more!
Please just remember, this isn't some big company making this. This is one guy (me) , doing this from home, while also juggling a full time job, on his own after several request to make this since many of us all felt that the perfect all in one repeater does not exist for Meshcore with some help of someone creating the board and someone creating the box.
After all that, if you are still here, on the front page of the website, you can sign up to be notified when pre-sales will start of the Grumpy Board. There will only be a LIMITED number of boards in the beginning so I would like to have an idea of how many people will want boards. All this is coming out of my pocket , so I have to find a balance to know how much crypto to sell to afford boards lol. So fill out the "To Be Notified" email, then go to your email (likely in junk) and confirm the email please (prevents spam) to let me know if you want to be notified when these are released.
Thanks again for your interest, its been overwhelming and humbling at the same time! Conrad - aka Grumpy.
Listening to the Community
More updates coming soon