Arduino-compatible LoRa board senses it all under the sun
Measuring only 40x25mm, the sensor-laden and GPS-equipped LoRaONE board was designed to give easy programming access to all of its on-board features, including a 3-axis accelerometer and magnetometer and plenty of I/Os for extensions.
Founded in 2012, the company which defines itself as an IoT solution provider has already had some success launching several Arduino-compatible boards for data acquisition projects. These include the solar powered Autonomo (based on the ATSAMD21G18 Atmel Cortex M0+ 32bit MCU) and the SODAQ Mbili (Atmega1284P 8-bit RISC-based MCU), both all-purpose data acquisition modules with built-in sockets ready to receive any of the company’s Bee wireless connectivity modules.
Now, the startup steps up its game with an all-inclusive LoRa-connected sensor board featuring a built-in u-blox Eva GPS module for fast and precise positioning.
When asked which market void such a product would fill, the designer of the LoRaONE board, hardware developer Nick Leijenhorst shared his views with eeNews Europe.
“There is a lot of LoRa going around these days. Just in the Netherlands, national telecom operator KPN is planning to deploy between 1000 and 2000 LoRa gateways nationwide. But what we saw is that there weren’t many LoRa development boards. Often, you have to use C-programming tools to program the ARM microcontroller. Also, if you want to build an application using LoRa, you need to connect external sensor boards, maybe a GPS, and all this becomes bulky and draws more power than it should” Leijenhorst commented.
“Our main selling point is that we make LoRa Arduino-compatible, and for every feature on-board, users can download code libraries and demos for easy setup. Your typical hobbyist doesn’t want to go into the datasheets of separate parts to get them running”
Leijenhorst is particularly proud of the GPS block, connected in such a way that it can provide hot fixes in less than 5 seconds.
“It draws only a few microA in sleep mode, maintaining its real time clock active, and because it keeps a record of the last position, we only need to wake it up for a few seconds every five minutes to get a hot fix” explained Leijenhorst.
This design draws less than 1% of the power needed for constant positioning by regular GPS, the company says. It is a critical feature for one of SODAQ’s backed projects, working with the park rangers in northern Tanzania to protect endangered rhinos from poachers. The rhinos wear the small solar-powered trackers, encrypted localisation information keeps the park rangers ahead of the game. Alternatively, the GPS could be triggered upon event detection (from the sensors).
With its 14 I/Os, the module is easy to expand with other sensors or devices, and key for truly autonomous IoT projects, the LoRaONE also includes a solar charge controller. In fact, one of the Kickstarter rewards, the LoRaONE Starter Kit, packs the board together with a LiPo rechargeable 800mAh battery, a 500mW solar cell, a base board (ONEbase) for extension and a MicroUSB cable.
“With the deep sleep mode, projects can run several years on a replaceable battery, but if you add the solar cell, then you can have devices deployed in the field indefinitely” the designer concluded.
For good measure, a push button and an RGB LED complete the device, promising makers they’ll only require minimal hardware design input in order to get their first IoT prototypes LoRa-enabled.
Next on the roadmap, using a very similar layout and set of functionalities, the company is planning to release a 2G connectivity variant, with a SIM card.
Check out the LoRaONE kickstarter campaign
Visit SODAQ at https://sodaq.com
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