The SparkFun LoRaSerial Kit is a pair of serial radio modems that simply passes serial back and forth between one another. The LoRaSerial provides you with the means to report data every few seconds even if it's located beyond WiFi or Bluetooth® range. With this kit, you'll be able to transmit data over LoRa giving it incredible range compared to other methods. We’ve even been able to regularly transmit over a 9mi (15km) line-of-sight using two LoRaSerial radios using a larger 5.8dBi antenna on the transmitter and the stock 1/2 wave dipole antenna on the receiver.
LoRaSerial utilizes a 1 Watt, 915MHz transceiver and an open-source protocol to transmit AES-encrypted data at 4800bps or approximately 480 bytes per second. Although this won't get you video streaming quality, the LoRaSerial is very good at getting whatever data you need, encrypted or not, from point A to point B without fuss. The radios in this kit automatically frequency hop (FHSS) between channels to avoid collisions. The ‘airspeed’ or data rate is configurable up to approximately 2,000 bytes per second for shorter range, or for extremely long range transmissions, as low as 40 bytes per second.
The radios in the LoRaSerial Kit support simple point-to-point communication as well as multipoint broadcasts. Multipoint broadcasting makes this kit ideal for GNSS RTK and many other geospatial scenarios where one device needs to produce and delineate data that many other devices might need to utilize.
The LoRaSerial firmware supports an innovative and simple-to-use ‘training’ method. Pressing the train button on both radios will generate a new random network ID and AES encryption key to share them. This makes pairing radios in the field as simple as a press of a button. By bringing the radios near each other the LoRaSerial training method is as simple and secure as you could ask for.
Currently, SparkFun is offering radios in the LoRaSerial Kit that utilize 915MHz modems that are allowed in most parts of the world. Please check your local restrictions before purchasing. The radios are fully configurable to restrict frequencies, channels, dwell time, power output, and a variety of other settings to make the radios compatible with your local regulations.
Note: LoRaSerial is designed to operate at the physical layer of LoRa sending data directly to an endpoint as opposed to something like LoRaWAN which operates on the data and network layers. For this reason, LoRaSerial is not intended to operate on LoRaWAN.
Includes:
- 2x Enclosed LoRaSerial Radios with 915MHz, 1W LoRa Module
- 2x 915MHz 1/2 Wave 2dBi Antennas
- 2x Serial Interface Cables
- 1x USB A to C Cable
Features:
- 1 Watt (30dBm) power output
- LoRa SX1276 Based
- 915MHz unlicensed band radio with 902-928MHz configurable output
- 256-bit AES GCM encryption
- AT command set
- Built-in Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology
- Point-To-Point and Multipoint configurations
- 3D Printed Enclosure (May darken over time)
- Configurable air speeds from 400 bps (40 bytes per second) to 19200bps (1920 bytes per second)
- Configurable standard serial data rates from 2400 to 115200bps
- 4-LED RSSI Indicator
- 3.3 to 5V operation
- USB-C connection available for industrial systems and single-board computers (SBCs like Raspberry Pi)
- 6-pin JST connector available for embedded systems (5V and 3.3V tolerant I/O) with flow control
- Small footprint, lightweight, easily mountable
- Open source Software and Hardware
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