I'm trying to find apropriate components for my smart irigation projet, so in the previous days, I've tried to contact some of vendors of agriculture sensors and to talk about libraries for
Arduino MKR 1030 WAN and possibility to connect their sensors to Arduino MKR 1030 WAN.
I've got replays from companies as follows:
Sentek: Their sales representative told me that they have probes (sensors) with SDI12, RS232, and RS485 protocols; Do Arduino have libraries for this protocols
to use it on for example MKR 1010 WiFi and MKR 1030 WAN?
Can You pls tell me if anyone have informations, does Arduino have libraries for these two types of sensors (Sentek and Sensoterra), to be used and manageble via Arduino MKR 1010 WiFi and Arduino MKR 1030 WAN? And If not, has anyone experince with using any type of agriculture sensors with arduino MKR wifi 1010 and MKR wan 1030 (LoRaWAN)?
Specially I need information about using LoRaWAN agriculture sensors with Arduino MKR WAN 1030 (LoRaWAN).
The only thing that is a protocol actually in that list is SDI12, RS232 and RS485 are physical interface definitions, so you have to buy hardware to fulfill them and you might need a library for the protocol that is probably used on top of them.
The datasheet is quite misleading as it says the sensor supports LoRaWAN 1.0.4 but doesn't say which stack on top it supports (p.e. TheThingsNetwork, Helium, maybe others). But this sensor shouldn't need an Arduino to work as it pushes it's data directly to the LoRaWAN network.
If the sensor already has LoRaWAN capabilities you don't need the MKR WAN 1030 anymore (in a common setup). Maybe you should tell us more about your project. The manufacturers you listed are in the professional field and their products have price tags in the professional range. In the maker world there are products available much cheaper but also not in that finished state. If you expect a ready-to-market product I'm questioning what the role of the Arduino should be.
I assume you are looking at Lora due to the distances between the sensors and the base station - could you give us some idea of distances involved?
how will you power remote sensors and LoRa board?
Lora frequencies vary from country to country - check your local regulations
Thank you for your replay, I really appritiate it.
My idea is to make an ready-to-market sollution, which is very realiable and accurate. In my country, there is no public LoRa network or any network operator which offer LoRa radio network for implementing any of IoT services. So, my idea is to make an ready-to-market sollution which will have an LoRaWAN GW (for making my own private LoRaWAN network) which have an connection to the internet (to my Cloud IoT server).
Sensors will be offcourse on diferent distances, some of them could be far away from loRaWAN GW for even 5-6 kilometters (in the corn fields for example) so LoRa as a technology would be suitable for this scenario.
LoRaWAN board (i was thinking about Arduino MKR WAN 1310, maybe something else to buy?) will be powered on some position in the field where I'll have a power or via solar panels and it will be LoRaWAN GW.
LoRaWAN sensors have bateries ...
Thx for reminder on requencies.
So, what do You think, do you have any other proposal regarding LoRaWAN board, sensors? Do you have experience working with Libelium Waspmode for example?
Thank You for Your replay, I really appreciate your time and advices.
When You speak about LoRaWAN sensor "Sensoterra", my idea is to use LoRa Radio technology as a communication between sensors on the field which can be far a way even for 5-6 kilometters, and LoRaWAN GW which I plan to use to establish my own private LoRaWAN network. For this purpose my plan was to use Arduino MKR 1310 WAN board to make my own GW who will have internet connection via another Arduino board MKR WiFi 1010.
When You speak about manufacturers, my goal is to make an stabile, accurate and realiable product and because of it I'm looking for some professional components (sensors, boards). And , when I was thinking about board, I investigate some datasheets from arduino and Libelium Waspmote, and some others, and after contacting Arduino support I thought that this combination of Arduino MKR 1010 WiFi + Arduino MKR 1310 WAN would be appropriate combination of boards for my project.
So what do You think, now when You see what my goal is. These Arduino boards aren't good enough (aren't professional enough?)?
Do you have any experience in implementing sollution such my goal is?
no, I have connected external sensors to the Lora modules
e.g. a river monitoring system using The Things UNO with a BMP280 temperature/pressure sensor, a SR04M ultrasonic transducer and a DS18B20 DallasTemperature sensor uploading data to the myDevices/cayenne desktop
The Arduinos are surely good enough but a ready-to-market product is probably not built on it. I would expect a custom PCB with all the components you need on it but I may be wrong. From your description it sounds like you had an idea but it hasn't evolved into a project yet. Do you have Arduino experience?
Yes and no. I have several LoRaWAN sensors and I run a LoRaWAN gateway but my gateway is part of the TheThingsNetwork as I don't sell my stuff and don't run an paid service.
There a LoRaWAN gateways on the market so you don't have to invent the wheel again.
Th MKR 1310 WAN makes a good sensor node but isn't a good choice for a gateway (gateways usually have multi-channel transceivers).
If you want to build a gateway using open source components I recommend a Raspberry Pi and a LoRaWAN gateway hat.
For your solution a simple LoRa connection (without the WAN) may be the better choice but I may miss something because I haven't seen the complete requirements specification yet.
the last time I experimented with a Raspberry pi and a LoRa Hat it did not support OTAA
I have used The Things Gateway for several years and also have a Things Indoor Gatway for use when traveling
the Grove LoRa E5 looks interesting! will have to get one!
First of all thank you for your time and trying me help on my project.
Yes, last summer 2022., I've built an Smart irrigation system with arduino Uno, and some sensors connected to digital pins. But in that situation, I've used SIM800l to collect and dsitribution of sensors data to thethingsnetwork.com.
Now my goal is to make an sollution such as using LoRaWAN for communication between LoRa sensors in the field and LoRaWAN MKR 1310 Arduino. At the moment I'm not sure is this connection between Arduino MKR 1310 WAN and LoRaWAN sensors possible? I'm really confused. Because At the final I don't need LoRaWAN GW, is it just possible to forward LoRaWAN sensors data via LoRa radio to MKR WAN 1310 and then forward it via MKR WiFi 1010 to IoT Cloud server?
Your proposal:
"For your solution a simple LoRa connection (without the WAN) may be the better choice but I may miss something because I haven't seen the complete requirements specification yet."
I think that maybe you're right, because I just need that radio part LoRa to connect sensors on the field wirelesly ... So, do You have any proposal what I can buy for this type of technical sollution (this type of connection)?
it probably depends on the sensor - looking at the PDF document for the single depth sensor it uploads sensor data to the cloud via LoraWAN - could not see any mention of Lora peer-to-peer communication which I assume you require - once in the cloud you can access the data using an API
using Lora boards with sensors you can communicate between local nodes using Lora peer-to-peer communications, e.g. see post decimals-strings-and-lora - a central node could receive the data and the use WiFi to upload the collected information to the cloud using MQTT
" using Lora boards with sensors you can communicate between local nodes using Lora peer-to-peer communications, e.g. see post decimals-strings-and-lora - a central node could receive the data and the use WiFi to upload the collected information to the cloud using MQTT"
i have one question. Does this means that I can use for example REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 LoRa module, where I can connect via LoRa peer to peer my LoRa sensors to it (to REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 LoRa module). And after it use for example WiFi radio on MKR WiFi 1010 to upload collected data from sensors to the cloud using MQTT?
"Does this means that I can use for example REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 LoRa module, where I can connect via LoRa peer to peer my LoRa sensors to it (to REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 LoRa module). And after it use for example WiFi radio on MKR WiFi 1010 to upload collected data from sensors to the cloud using MQTT?"
the REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 LoRa modules should communicate with each other using Lora peer-to-peer - try running example programs from reyax-rylr890-lora-module-with-arduino
once you show they can communicate connect sensors to one of them, transmit the data to the other
then try several nodes with sensors tranmitting to a central node
then use WiFi to upload the data to the cloud using MQTT
thank You Horace so much. So , some qonclusions could be:
To buy LoRa sensors (not LoRaWAN)
To buy LoRa modules (not LoRaWAN, and also not LoRaWAN GW).
If I understood correctly when I read datasheets, for LoRa modules I think that I can also use Arduino MKR WAN 1310 and offcourse REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 or some else LoRa modules. Here are two variants of sollution.
I agree that for the local peer-to-peer communication you don't require LoRaWAN enabled devices - the device selected may support LoRaWAN but you just don't use it
I don't like wired connections between systems unless absolutely necessary - they can be unreliable and add a layer of complexity - if you do use wired connection use TTL serial using hardware serial ports
in both cases you would need to check that the REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 and the MKR WAN 1310 can communicate using peer-to-peer Lora - it should work but I have found there can be problems using different devices/libraries etc
I would suggest using a MKR1010 or similar WiFi enabled device (ESP32) and
connected a REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 for LoRa peer-to-peer communication
if you have local WiFi use that for interrnet connectivity using MQTT
if no local WiFi connect a SIM800L using MQTT
connect the relay - be careful switching the solenoild does not reset the host processor or corrupt the radio communications -- use a seperate power supply and screened cables
check using local tests on the ground that the REYAX RYLR890/RYLR896 will give you the LoRa peer-to-peet range required - can be very dependent on the antenna (both transmitter and receiver)
