LoRa frequency in Ireland

Flying Abruptly · 03-02-2020 4:31pm #1

Can anyone tell me the correct frequency to use in Ireland while setting up a LoRa network? I plan on using it for long distance communication between two Ardunios.

Its possible to buy breakout boards for both 433 MHz and 868 MHz but I'm not sure if either of these is restricted in Ireland or not. Its not clear to me from reading the info on the ComReg website.

bk · 03-02-2020 4:53pm

I'm not an expert on this, but both of those frequencies are commonly used here for most wireless sensors, like in alarm systems, baby monitors, DECT phones, etc. I believe they are generally unlicensed frequencies for these uses, though obviously there is more to it in terms of power output, etc.

Flying Abruptly · 04-02-2020 11:15am

Thanks for the details. From what I understand, all the devices like those you listed are classified as Short Range Devices (SRDs) and use 434 and 868 MHz. What I'm not not sure about though is which frequency is required/recommended for LoRa devices here.

bk · 04-02-2020 12:27pm

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

Thanks for the details. From what I understand, all the devices like those you listed are classified as Short Range Devices (SRDs) and use 434 and 868 MHz. What I'm not not sure about though is which frequency is required/recommended for LoRa devices here.

The wiki entry suggest LoRa uses the same frequencies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa

It might be worth looking for forums that specifically cover LoRa, they would likely to know better. In Ireland we follow the European wide regulations, so if you look for that it should also largely apply here.

kenmc · 06-02-2020 9:34pm

868 and 433 are both approved for Ireland, but gateways tend to be 868 moreso than 433.
It's unusual to have peer to peer, though, like you mention in your op. Also, in Europe the duty cycle is limited, you will not get much throughput between them.

Flying Abruptly · 07-02-2020 11:38am

Thanks for the info. From what I've seen, must of the gateways in Ireland and Europe seem to be using 868 MHz but without an explication why. If I want to be compatible down the road with other gateways it will be best for me to stick with 868 too.

Using the Ardunios is just a first proof of concept for now. I'll probably use a Raspberry Pi as the gateway in the future with the sensor connected to an Ardunio or Feather like board for the node. Duty cycle is 1% if I have read correctly, meaning I should be able to read the sensor data once every couple of minutes which will be fine for me.

kenmc · 07-02-2020 2:16pm

Check out Andreas speiss on YouTube, has a lot of lora videos. I made a single channel collector using info from his channel, with a wemos D1. Thethingsnetwork have an indoor gateway around 100euro or so.

I've played with a dragino arduino shield also, but it's a bit finicky

Flying Abruptly · 07-02-2020 5:56pm

Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out. If I finally get something up and running, I'll report back how it went.

DublinDilbert · 09-02-2020 12:14am

Check out the pycom devices too, lopy4 https://pycom.io/product/lopy4/

On of these can be used as a single Chanel things network gateway to collect from other devices, even other lopy4 devices. Can all be programmed via python

kenmc · 09-02-2020 9:02pm

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Check out the pycom devices too, lopy4 https://pycom.io/product/lopy4/

On of these can be used as a single Chanel things network gateway to collect from other devices, even other lopy4 devices. Can all be programmed via python

Micropython, not python. I play with some of these in work, less than impressed with pymakr as a platform though, either with atom or vscode. Very clunky

LoRa frequency in Ireland

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