What loRA module and MCU combination for max range while maintaining min power consumption?

farmbuis
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 22:58:53 +0000
How to get started

Hi,
I’m new to lora and I’m having a hard time deciding what module and board combination to go with. Stock theft is a major issue in our area. I would like to make use of lora to track (or at least just calculate distance of node to gateway) as many cattle as feasibly possible. For that reason my combination needs to reach distances of ±8kms, needs to be as cheap as possible, needs to have a low power consumption and needs to be as small as possible. I am aware of the existing tracker products (as i do make use of them) but they have their down sides.

1. It is not feasible to have more than 2 tracker collars per 100 cattle

2. It is often hit and miss with the GSM units due to poor signal

3. The monthly sim fees

I am rather fond of the pro mini but i believe there are smaller and cheaper combinations out there. I read earlier discussions on a similar topic and here is what I found. ESP32+LoRa, 32u4, DRF1276, RN2483, most of which were not available locally but aside for that i found them all to be a bit pricey.

The best combination that I came across was the RA-08H-KIT (also not available locally!), I’m not sure if anyone has had any experience with them?

The following MCU’s are available locally,
Seeeduino SAMD21 Cortex M0 -7$
Beetle esp32 - 5.5$
D1 mini wemos - 5.4$
attiny85 board - 5$ (even if it is compatible I’m sure it will be a headache)

The following loRA modules are available locally in the 868 range,
sx1278
RFM98W
RA-08H

I look forward to your feedback,
Dean

11 posts - 5 participants