Good morning all. Yesterday it rained almost all day, then it rained all night, now it looks like it will be raining all day and night again. So thankful that we live on high ground.
Ron, I'm well past the point of having to write notes, my problem is remembering where the note is
"Eric, are you gonna build a LoRa link at your place?"
I sure am, I have wanted to get hands on with LoRa for a few years. Originally my interest was fire detection in buildings, nowadays it is the potential for use in fields that has me captivated.
While Wifi and Bluetooth are great for close proximity high speed data, they are useless if you want to send small amounts of information longer distances. For many years things like weather stations or driveway alarms have used radio signals, however they can be temperamental and become expensive if you are want to go much further than 100 yards. For those that have not heard about it, LoRa (and it's French alternative called "Sigfox") uses revolutionary radio techniques to blow everything else away in terms of performance.
Lora chips originate from an American company called Semtech. Many companies now incorporate these (or far eastern copies) along with the other components needed for radio transmission into a module costing only a few dollars. I made one up into a little test transmitter and left the receiver inside, on the kitchen worktop. The digital info was being received when I got to the furthest boundary on our land, which would be 2/3rd mile away. They claim it can easily go for many miles and I have no reason to doubt that.
I have a few ideas on what I would like to make once I have done a little more proof-of-concept experimentation. As ever with electronics, the key to success is getting the mechanical packing right, so far I have a tentative alternative to the mainstream approach - I will share with all later if you promise not to laugh too much.
It is also possible to add more software and connect devices up to the internet through a "LoRaWan" gateway. A single gateway can be used to put the signals from hundreds of devices onto the internet (Sort of similar to the idea that a single 4G tower can support many mobile phones) No such public gateways seems to exist in this town, I will have a look at this side of things later.
