Hi
LoRaWAN I see working where there is the Wan Part off things but that is
very few percent in NZ at present.
Seems that LoRaWAN would replace just about everything or a lot of
hardware (sensors, Pi / Arduino ) and would it just leave Cayenne as a
GUI / interface ?
I have met KotahiNet already, shared ideas and have some idea of the
tech they are using. Seems there are a few wrinkles with access to the
part of the 800/900 band that they first started using and this chops
and changes between countries ?
My Own LoRa experience is using the LoRa pure (not LoRaWAN) as point to
point withIN my own systems. I do serial over radio generally in the
ISM / LoRa 433MHz band or ASK in nearly all my systems by bringing
signals in as serial data to the ttyAMA0 of the Pi and then working
using python to split and post data out of a CSV blob. This is why I
have always been asking about accesss to a python In/Out virtual
variable within the Pi which would make a very simple and elegant
solution and finally glue all my class work and educational systems into
Cayenne.
I find I can maximise learning AND benefit of ultra low cost and uAmp
power RF devices this way. I have used thee 433MHz simple ASK devices
that come in about $5 per instrument for a simple sensor / Txâr and
these run well off just 3xAA batteries for over a year poling in data at
~ 5to 10 second updates. This type of system has been duplicated by a
lot of people here in NZ. I think that near range 100m - 200m around
the section / yard / house / farm building from self powered devices is
where a lot of the market or at least self inventer / maker / tinker
types are at ?
I have just blended in ~$15 serial LoRa modules into this mix for
super long back haul / data concentrator application.
The 433MHz outperforms the higher bands and is very low cost in built up
/ vegetation = NZ practical conditions. The claimed max ranges in some
of the specs perhaps a bit optimistic and high point / clear path under
ideal conditions ?
Here are some photos and documents to give you some idea of where our
own IoT approaches are going. The present 9 months we are working up
pilot IoT systems. I am basing this system on simple microâs and just
the raspberry pi. I rely on the serial into Pi method with both the 2 I
am involved with out of the 9 schools selected from 74 applications with
a total shared $1m spend. My approach works down at very low levels of
electronics and IT programming micro sensors maximises learning in all
areas of science, tech math and IT. My circuits are deliberately made
from the simplest low cost components and the most basic hardware. Most
techers and nearly all kids have only days to learn this from ZERO !
For now to get data on line to a GUI we are having to cook up our own
virtual IoT GUI to match the simple serial data packet processing.
There are some great examples of GIS data servers being made from
scratch and much tinkering with MySQL, Geo Locating sensors from Lat
Lon packet data and all sorts of one off projects with alerting systems
and original approaches and levels of ability.
If some simple python serial was made available I Would move very
quickly to blend in and stream line large chunks of this and it would
save me and others a lot of time. We are doing this with about 12 lines
of code and forwarding data Post and Get etc to servers aall over the
place. Messy !
Where possible we Are using the simple digital direct onto the Pi GPIO
but snesors and virtual variable handing of the most basic numbers TO
and FROMM Cayenne would be a real coup in my book 
Enjoy the photos
~ Andrew
Benny Estes wrote:
[bestes] bestes Product Owner
October 28
Hey @picaxe,
I actually just had a conversation with a NZ LoRa network company,
they have covered half of NZ already! VERY impressive company,
http://kotahi.net/ .
Check out our LoRa docs and let me know what you think?
myDevices | Simplify Sensor Deployments
I created specific category in the Cayenne community for LoRa too.
LoRa - myDevices Cayenne Community
