A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

LoRa is a revolutionary new method of sending small amounts of data over very long distances using long range radio and low power. It's designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) so it's perfect for communicating with sensors such as weather monitoring, air quality, smart homes etc.

There are two key parts to a LoRa network; a Gateway and a Node.

LoRa Gateway

This is the piece of hardware in a LoRaWAN Network which is setup to primarily receive packets from LoRa Nodes and bridge them to a LoRaWAN Network such as The Things Network. These are usually able to receive from hundreds of nodes at the same time and provide LoRaWAN coverage for both your devices and others within range of it. This is most similar to your Wi-Fi Router in a home network.

LoRa Node

This is the terminology for either a complete sensor or the transmitter add-on such as our IoT LoRa pHAT or Micro:bit LoRa Node. These transmit small packets of data and are designed to be picked up by a LoRa Gateway.

A central LoRa Gateway communicating with nodes

LoRaWAN is when you configure your devices to speak to a central network that acts as a bridge to the internet. Instead of communicating in a peer to peer method between two devices instead you can configure your device to connect to a LoRaWAN Network of which as long as the device is in coverage of a Gateway with the network selected the data can be picked up and forwarded to services such as Amazon AWS, Azure, IFTTT, Cayenne, Node Red and more.

We're a big fan of the The Things Network - a LoRaWAN Provider that is increasing coverage constantly throughout the UK, Europe and Worldwide. In fact, they are even a Kickstarter Alumni themselves!

The benefit of using a public network is devices that you build in one area of the UK will work in any area of the UK or even the EU as long as you're within Coverage (they would also work worldwide, but you would need to change from 868Mhz to 915 MHz frequency)! Not got coverage? You can setup your own gateway for you and others to use and increase the coverage at the same time. The lovely folks at The Things Network have created a great reference document for you to determining which frequency you would need - it depends on the regulations in your country.

Free & Open Network - Free to use once set up

- Free to use once set up Long Range - up to 15km standard range advertised although can go further with correct antennas (our engineer Ryan currently holds the SF7 ground to ground record for LoRa data transmission at 235km and there is a ground to air record of 702km)

- up to 15km standard range advertised although can go further with correct antennas (our engineer Ryan currently holds the SF7 ground to ground record for LoRa data transmission at 235km and there is a ground to air record of 702km) Very Low Power - Although very small amounts of data

- Although very small amounts of data Peer to Peer - Communicating from one Node to Another

- Communicating from one Node to Another Non Peer to Peer - Works via local Gateway

- Works via local Gateway Completely Independent Devices / Nodes

Nodes are Low Power - some can lasts years!

Introducing... IoT LoRa boards from Pi Supply!

We want to bring LoRa technology to the masses and allow anyone to get started with the LoRa network in an easy and cost effective way by using the Raspberry Pi, micro:bit, Arduino, and other low cost single board computers.

Our IoT LoRa range allows you to do this by reducing the price of the hardware considerably and reducing setup time to minutes rather than hours.

Pi Supply IoT LoRa range

Let's take a look at each of the boards in more detail....

Our IoT LoRa Gateway HAT allows you to create an inexpensive LoRa gateway, compatible with The Things Network, in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi or other single board computers. The HAT allows you to set up your IoT LoRa gateway in minutes rather than hours for a third of the price of traditional gateways.

The IoT LoRa Gateway HAT utilises the RAKWireless RAK833 mPCIe LoRa gateway concentrator module which is based on Semtech SX1301 LoRa technology and provides a fully LoRaWAN Compliant gateway listening on 8 channels at the same time.

It's available in two different frequency variations (you can check which you need for your country here):

868 MHz

915 MHz

IoT LoRa Gateway HAT on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Features

Low power consumption

Fully soldered and assembled.

Plug onto your Raspberry Pi, install our software and you’re ready to go! No waiting for software compiling.

HAT form factor means that it is more compact than other solutions on the market

Industrial standard reliability

Suitable for low power wireless sensor network applications such as irrigation systems, smart metering, smart cities, home automation etc.

Real time monitoring

Our IoT LoRa Node pHAT allows you to create an inexpensive LoRa node, compatible with The Things Network, in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi or other single board computers. This pHAT allows quicker prototyping as it has the LoRa stack on the chip. Add sensors, buttons and more to complete your LoRa network!

It's available in two different frequency variations (you can check which you need for your country here):

868 MHz

915 MHz

IoT LoRa Node pHAT for Raspberry Pi



Features

Uses RAK811 LoRa Radio with full LoRaWAN Stack embedded

Communicates with the Raspberry Pi over UART only using a total of 3 GPIO Pins for the module.

Supports LoRaWAN Connections and LoRa P2P Modes.

u.FL connector and onboard antenna allowing different antennas to be used or integrated into boxes with external antennas.

Also adds 8 Extra GPIO Pins controllable via the UART including 2 pins which can read analogue sensors!

Low power - uses less than 50mA During transmission

Our IoT micro:bit LoRa Node allows you to create an inexpensive LoRa node, compatible with The Things Network, in conjunction with a BBC micro:bit or other single board computers. This board allows quicker prototyping as it has the LoRa stack on the chip. Add sensors, buttons and more to complete your LoRa network!

It's available in two different frequency variations (you can check which you need for your country here):

868 MHz

915 MHz

IoT micro:bit LoRa Node

Features

Uses RAK811 LoRa Radio with full LoRaWAN Stack embedded

Supports LoRaWAN Connections and LoRaP2P Modes.

u.FL connector and onboard antenna allowing different antennas to be used or integrated into boxes with external antennas.

Also adds 8 Extra GPIO Pins controllable via the UART including 2 pins which can read analogue sensors!



Low power - uses less than 50mA During transmission

IoT micro:bit LoRa Node with micro:bit board and a battery pack.

LoRa is ideal for sending small amounts of data over long distances, making it the perfect communication method for sensors and use cases such as...

Need help with deciding on what to pledge for? Then take a look at our handy table. If you still need help please leave us a comment and we'll help :-)

Pledge Options

Stretch Goals

We know that some people are not able to pay through Kickstarter and need to use alternative payment methods. We have therefore made it possible for you to pre-order our IoT LoRa Boards on our website at https://www.pi-supply.com and pay via PayPal, Credit Card or Cryptocurrency! You can go straight to each product at the following links:

Thanks for looking at our project and for your support in bringing it to life. Even bigger thanks if you have made a pledge to our project. You’re awesome :)

To hit our funding target we need to keep the project growing - so even if you can't support with a pledge, why not help us by spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter and any other social networks or blogs you use. Click any of the links below to share:

Tweet on Twitter

Share on Facebook

Or just use the project shortlink http://kck.st/2ye7qa2 to share by any other method! And you can also use @PiSupply to get our attention on Twitter. And while you're there, why not like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at www.facebook.com/PiSupply and www.twitter.com/PiSupply.

Pi Supply is made up of product developers, engineers, makers and tinkerers who are passionate about the world of physical computing. We are empowering people (young, old or in between) to understand and master the technology of today and tomorrow. The creation of our IoT LoRa boards has been exciting. Here's the team who are bringing them to market....

Pi Supply Team

Compliance testing?

Our plan is to CE/FCC test both the standalone boards, and the boards attached to their various micro-computer platforms (Pi, Micro:Bit, Arduino etc). We aim to start this process before the end of the campaign with samples from the beta batches, to save time.

The RAKWireless modules inside are already CE/FCC tested so we do not anticipate any problems.

We are also a LoRa Alliance Member and plan to get our boards certified by the LoRa Alliance as well :-)

LoRa Alliance Member Logo

Got questions?

Firstly, take a look at the FAQ section to see if your question has already been addressed. If not, feel free to leave a comment and we'll answer it as quickly as we can :-)

You can also reach us on our Discord channel at www.pisupp.ly/chat