Suitable Gateway for Adafruit Feather M0 with LoRa Radio (RFM95W)

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everyone,

I recently started working with the Adafruit Feather M0 with LoRa Radio (RFM95W) board (link: Adafruit Feather M0 with RFM95 LoRa Radio - 900MHz [RadioFruit] : ID 3178 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits) and have been impressed with its LoRa capabilities. However, I just realized that it lacks WiFi connectivity, and I have to transfer data to the cloud.

I'm now exploring options for transferring data to the cloud, and I'm considering using a LoRa gateway. Does anyone have experience using a LoRa gateway with this board or have any recommendations for a reliable LoRa gateway that would work well with it?

Additionally, I am wondering if there are alternative methods for transferring data to the cloud without WiFi capability, I would greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your help and advice!

2

I have two LoRaWAN gateways The Things Indoor Gateway is the cheapest and connects to the local WiFi system
an alternative approach would be to switch to using an ESP32 as the host microcontroller - it has onboard WiFi, Bluetooth classic and BLE and is supported by the Arduino IDE
you could receive data via LoRa and then transmit to the cloud using WiFi (assumming you have local WiFi in the area)

3

Hi Horace,

Thank you for your prompt response. After considering it, I am interested in using https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000628100802.html this as my gateway. As long as the frequencies are the same, both being on 915MHz, it should work, right?

Thank you.

4

you may be able to make a 1 channel LoRaWAN gateway - try a web search for LILYGO® LoRa V1.3 ESP32 SX1276 gateway

5

@horace

'1 channel LoRaWAN gateways' are no longer welcome on The Thing Networks (v3) .....and maybe other networks

Mine has been replaced , 3 years ago, by a TTIG (The Things Indoor Gateway) , cheapest solution as you write.... full, serious & reliable solution

6

interesting - had not seen that!

I built a 1 channel LoRaWAN gateway using a Raspberry PI and LoRa HAT some years ago but soon switched to The Things Gateway and later purchased The Things Indoor gateway for carrying with me when traveling

7

So called 'single channel packet forwarders' have been out of order on TTN for quite a while.

Disruptive they are, interfering with the operation of standard compliant nodes.

8

thinking again have you checked for there being a LoRaWAN gatway in your area?

9

We don't know if @DragonPig is using LoRaWAN, TTN or any other, they have mentioned only LoRa, not LoRaWAN.

It's possible @DragonPig is only using LoRa for local communications and wants to forward data to their own remote database/web server using WiFi to connect to home LAN. In that case, a single channel "gateway" (in the broad sense of the word, not as defined by TTN) would be ok.

So long as all @DragonPig 's LoRa sensors are using the same channel, a single channel gateway should not miss any signals. If course, if @DragonPig has a large number of sensors on a single channel, the possibility of contention could become a problem.

10

Hi Horace, it seems like The Things Gateway only works on 868 MHz and 915 MHz, right? In that case, I think it doesn't work with my Adafruit Feather LoRa node, which operates at 900 MH.

11

@DragonPig

the so called '900MHz version' of your board works on 868MHz or 915MHZ

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3178

This is the 900 MHz radio version, which can be used for either 868MHz or 915MHz transmission/reception