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Core Electronics Forum

Lora or other for Farm

#1

I want to add some sensors around my small farm. I think Lora or LoraWAN is the solution I am looking for but I can not find information about a few issues.

Preface: Internet is pretty much non existent, I have a HA server looking after many devices (electric fence etc) with no reliance on the net at all - everything is contained on the internal network.

In my mind I want to do the following.
Use a LoraWAN device to connect to a gateway on the house and then have it send the data to my HA server. TTN is NOT an option

Protocols supported are just about anything, MQTT has recently been introduced and if need be a custom driver can be written if the protocol the gateway uses is not currently supported.

Is this possible or do I need to look at a different method (zigbee etc)

Thanks

Mick

#2

Hi Znelbok,

I would say that LoRaWAN is out of the question for this application, as the gateways depend on an internet connection and TTN.

You can use LoRa devices connected directly to each other though, or in a mesh network with a single hub. The burden of programming will rest a bit more heavily on your shoulders, but this is still pretty simple to pull off with something like the Pycom Lopy4.

#3

Thanks Stephen - thats what I needed help with understanding.

How does LoRa communicate - what protocol. And is it easy to convert to MQTT?

#4

Hi Znelbok,

LoRa IS the protocol :slight_smile:

Putting the received data up on an MQTT server would be similar to any other device. Here is a MQTT example for the LoPy4. You should be able to send any received LoRa data on to your local MQTT server using this example code:

https://docs.pycom.io/tutorials/all/mqtt.html

#5

Hi Mick, how did you go with the farm sensors?
I’m trying to do this as well on a small farm off grid, no internet, bit good 4g phone reception. I was going to put 4g modem and gateway on the shed with LoraWAN sensors in some tanks and troughs.

,Nick

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