Pico LoRaWAN

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Hi Team
Does combining the following work and are there libraries or example sketches available?
I note the ‘Transmit Weather Data’ guide uses the Makerverse LoRa-E5 module. Is this a better choice?

Thanks
Clint

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Hi Clint,
I’m using that combination of modules in my project.
I have two of them and they talk to each other peer to peer using these third party drivers

I don’t know if you could use one device and connect to LoRa Wan with these drivers.
I will publish a project document on Core Electronics with all the details shortly.
There is a very simple ping pong example in the code. It sends the word “Ping” from one device to the other and the second device replies with the word “pong” I have tested up to 300m and it seems to do that no trouble. I hear it can go many KM’s line of sight.

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Thanks David - much appreciated.
This sounds very promising. It would be brilliant is the devices can talk to each other P2P and one of the devices an uplink to the cloud at the same time etc. Is this what you are working on?
Regards
Clint

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Hi Clint,

There is no clear winner between the two LoRa modules. It mostly comes down to your preference for the physical form factor and the supplied libraries to run the module.

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Thanks Trent.
They both sound like good options based on preferences as you point out.
I will take a closer look.
Clint

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Hi David,
Have you published your PICO / waveshare LoRa project yet?
I am trying to use the exact same hardware configuration as you.
The Waveshare LoRa Node module uses different PICO GPIO pins to the standard PICO SPI pins, did you use software SPI (softSPI) to interface with the Waveshare LoRa node or did you hash the connections with wires to get the Waveshare SPI pins connected to the standard PICO SPI pins?

Thanks
Phil

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Hi Phil,
I have published my project on Core Electronics with links to the GitHub repository. I didn’t have to muck around with pin conversions or anything to get it to work.
My project has no trouble sending text messages between devices. I didn’t need to do anything tricky or special to get it to work. I recall the ping pong test that came with the modules worked out of the box. I’d say dumb your project down until it works and then add features one at a time and test between each addition. I’m working on a new feature release for my project but it’s a bit buggy at the moment.
Dave

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Hi David,
Thank you for your quick response. I have checked out your project post and found a lot of very useful information. I am experimenting with powering down my remote PICO + Waveshare LoRa Node soil moisture sensor using a nano power timer type TPL5010 to wake the PICO using an event on one of the GPIO pins. The remote stays awake just long enough to report a sensor value before going dormant again. This allows me to use a very small battery and solar cell. The remote sensor is woken once every hour or so. The timer allows times from 100mS to 7200 seconds. The time interval is set by a resistor, so I have a DIP switch to alter the times between normal operation and test/debug. I will post my project when I get it finished.

Regards
Phil

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Hi Phil,
Sounds like you are getting right into it.
I needed to monitor the gate way more often. I can’t remember the exact command I used but I did a deep sleep for 10 seconds between checking the gate status and it saved heaps of power. The deep sleep effected the reset function in thonny so I turned it off during testing.
Just for fun I added an encryption module to my project so others in the vicinity could not read my messages. Let’s face it you don’t want other people finding out how wet your potatoes are :slight_smile:
In other fun I set the clock on the main device from the internet and pass the correct time to the remote device.
Good luck with your project. Let me know when you post. The guys at Core Electronics did give me a nice store credit, enough to fund my next project!
Don’t forget to keep backup versions of your code as you add features.
It can be really handy to step back in time if things go pear shaped.
Ask me how I know :cowboy_hat_face:
David

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