
Low cost LoRa development packs
The two development packs provide a complete LoRaWAN development chain including gateway and end-node boards, firmware, and tools, leveraging ST’s convenient and proven STM32 Nucleo evaluation boards. Catering separately for regions with 868MHz/915MHz/923MHz and sub-550MHz ISM frequency bands, each pack includes proprietary gateway software and ST’s I-Cube-LRWAN end-node software. The node and gateway boards come with an antenna and on-board debugger. The LoRa gateway included in each pack is built with an STM32 Nucleo-144 development board, Nucleo-F746ZG, which contains an STM32F746ZGT6 microcontroller (MCU). Unlike with a commercial gateway, users can easily access device pins to assist development. The gateway acts as a basic packet forwarder to enable data coming from the development node to reach LoRaWAN network servers. ST has established agreements with LoRaWAN network-server providers Loriot, Actility, and The Things Network to let users connect their gateways to basic network-server capabilities free of charge. Users can also visualize sensor data and control devices with the myDevices Cayenne for LoRa IoT Builder dashboard.
Nodes are based on the Nucleo-L073RZ Nucleo-64 board built around the STM32L073RZT6 ultra-low-power MCU and come with a battery socket for easy mobility. Each pack includes a LoRa node expansion board, which contains an ultra-low-power STM32-powered module running an AT-command stack. A selection of motion and environmental sensors is also provided on-board.
The P-Nucleo-LRWAN2 pack is for high-frequency (868MHz/915MHz/923MHz) ISM bands. It comes with the I-Nucleo-LRWAN1 node expansion board designed by USI, which combines an STM32L0-powered module with ST’s sensor devices including the LSM303AGR MEMS e-compass (accelerometer/magnetometer), LPS22HB pressure sensor, and ST HTS221 temperature and humidity sensor. The P-Nucleo-LRWAN3 pack for low-frequency (433/470MHz) ISM regions comes with a node expansion board embedding the STM32L0-powered RisingHF module RHF0M003, together with an ST LSM6DS33D accelerometer, ST LPS22HB pressure sensor, and HTS221 temperature and humidity sensor.
