Anyone using LoRa modules?

Questions & Help Questions
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1

Hi there,

I just wanted to ask if anyone maybe used LoRa(Wan) RF modules with Nerves already?
I have a couple of usecases where it would be nice, but don’t have a clue how this would work.

I assume via GPIOs/serial communication?
Did anyone connect other RF modules or sensors like that?

Thanks,
Christoph

2

Not yet. I’m waiting for some Kickstarter funded LoRa modules to arrive (hopefully in the next few weeks) and I will be playing with them using Python to start with but would love to eventually develop a Nerves system with them. However for things like this I think I’m going to be in the hands of more experienced hardware-aware developers to create libraries for me.

3

Same here - we are already using LoRa modules with arduinos and RPis, but I’m not an expert on low level programming.

It would be a nice combination, although probably not high in priority for the nerves community (e.g. OTA updates are not easily doable, low power is not a priority when using RPis, etc).

We have the use case that we need to integrate various devices over ethernet, process a lot of data, and send aggregations over a non-internet (LoRa) connection back.

4

Hello yes, right now I am evaluating some. I made some setups based on a BBGW with a Microchip RN2483. Then evaluated a lot of those esp32 based boards. Now we designed our own LoRaBoard based on recent Semtech chip you can attach to a beagle bone pocket. For more info you can contact me under PMR-R & D GmbH - LoRaWAN All software is mainly based on elixir/nerves

Cheers
Stefan

5

Hi all,
I started a module for LoRa radios that use SPI. If anyone is interested in helping or giving suggestions, this project is on Github, in the link below:

6

my lora modules are on the way - will check it out and give a hand soon!

goal is to connect to https://www.thethingsnetwork.org right?

7

The goal is to have a simple way to send and receive data via the LoRa network written entirely in elixir. And yes, you can connect to gateways of “The Things Network”.

8

awesome - keep us posted on progress, what works, what doesn’t etc - will be 3-4 weeks before I get the modules (and time)…

9

4 weeks.. :astonished:…Did you have a problem with delivery because of COVID?
Which radio did you buy?
I have already tested the sending and receiving of packets with the RA-02 AI-thinker radio.

10

Nice job @brunosantanaa! I never tinkered with LoRa, but I have been planning to do that for a while, and your library looks nice and simple to use.

One small thing, it looks like there is a typo, paket instead of packet: Elixir-LoRa/lib/modem.ex at 1d634394f727c4dde7f76c97816edc602675ab3a · brunosantanaa/Elixir-LoRa · GitHub (unless paket is a LoRa specific term, I don’t know details about it yet)

11

ebay - china to europe is usually 3-5 weeks delivery..

sx1262 bare chip for nerves - pretty much same as sx1276 afaik - https://youtu.be/lobNwqHLrag?t=169

and an esp32 SX1276 board thing - so should be able to get that going on TTN, and then figure out getting nerves/elixir on as well.. and also have them talk to each other without any big network..

awesome - will get back to you when I get the hardware..

anybody looking at hardware remember to look up your country’s frequencies here https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/frequencies-by-country.html and get a matching board/module..

12

@lucaong.. Thanks for the remark!

13

@brunosantanaa finally got all the needed HW.. so will give it a go soon..

ended up going for the same module as you have, as to not complicate things

eg:
2x RFM95(w) for europe 868Mhz (~9 usd on ebay)
this breakout board/hat
https://www.tindie.com/products/qqqlab/rfm69-radio-hat-for-raspberry-pi/
fyi my board/hat came with ufl solder pads for connecting external antennas, which is very nice..

I also have a gateway The Things Indoor Gateway | The Things Network since there wasn’t good/consistent coverage at my place - you can check https://ttnmapper.org for gateways close by..

soon-ish I’ll get the radios ping-ponging on simple lora..

then attempt to get lorawan/ttn working building upon your wan branch GitHub - brunosantanaa/Elixir-LoRa at wan · GitHub - first a simple “abp” connect/send, then work from there (receive/otaa etc)..

I may start out using https://github.com/ivajloip/rust-lorawan/tree/master/encoding via rustler for encoding/decoding packages if needed.. just to get something working asap..