Hi Has anyone successfully implemented LoRaWAN for long-range communication in a low-power IoT senso

Hi Has anyone successfully implemented LoRaWAN for long-range communication in a low-power IoT sensor network? I'm curious about the practical challenges and recommended configurations

CCamila_99$$Hi Has anyone successfully implemented LoRaWAN for long-range communication in a...

InsightMike•2/13/24, 7:14 PM

Hi Camila, I have quite a lot of application experience with LoRaWAN as well as some other LPWA sensor technologies. Happy to discuss, can you share more info about your application? Indoor, outdoor? Public or private network server? Range needed, number of sensors, how frequently they'll transmit data, etc?

IInsightMike Hi Camila, I have quite a lot of application experience with LoRaWAN as well as ...

Camila_99$$OP•2/13/24, 8:54 PM

Hiii Mike , yes l’m working on an outdoor project with 5 sensors. They need to send data every 20 minutes, and I'm aiming for a range of 300 meters. I'm using a private network server. Can you share some basic setup tips and things I should watch out for as a beginner in this field?

Saßì•2/14/24, 2:18 AM

@leeruns. Welcome,! We're happy to have you as a DevHead. Feel free to let us know what you're working on now and a bit about your technical background.

Saßì•2/14/24, 5:50 AM

@Harry<3 Welcome,! We're happy to have you as a DevHead. Feel free to let us know what you're working on now and a bit about your technical background.

fwen•2/14/24, 7:03 AM

Found a pretty cool dev board in the before time on my school's broken electronics pile. Seems to be have a motor control pcb attached to it

Saßì•2/14/24, 7:24 AM

@onky Welcome,! We're happy to have you as a DevHead. Feel free to let us know what you're working on now and a bit about your technical background.

Ffwen Found a pretty cool dev board in the before time on my school's broken electroni...

techielew•2/14/24, 7:30 AM

What board is it?

Ttechielew What board is it?

fwen•2/14/24, 7:31 AM

pop168 from inex

fwen•2/14/24, 7:32 AM

the oldest document about it i could find was from 2007

fwen•2/14/24, 7:32 AM

i was born on 2007

Ffwen pop168 from inex

Umesh Lokhande•2/14/24, 7:33 AM

ATmega168 AVR

UUmesh Lokhande ATmega168 *AVR*

fwen•2/14/24, 7:33 AM

yes thats the microcontroller

fwen•2/14/24, 7:34 AM

its an 8 bit tho so no wonder it's in the pile

Ffwen its an 8 bit tho so no wonder it's in the pile

Umesh Lokhande•2/14/24, 7:40 AM

8-bit AVR is still my Favourite in 2024

UUmesh Lokhande *8-bit AVR* is still my Favourite in 2024

fwen•2/14/24, 7:43 AM

really? why so? this year there are a lot of very cheap 32-bit microcontrollers like STM32C0 series and CH32V series. the price is comparable to 8 bit microcontrollers

Ffwen really? why so? this year there are a lot of very cheap 32-bit microcontrollers ...

Umesh Lokhande•2/14/24, 8:02 AM

Ease of development for Win and Linux with its time-tested AVR-GCC toolchain. I found it very reliable for motion control/power electronics applications. Apart from this, I've well-tested drivers to reuse which saves time. AVR: Simplicity is ultimate sophistication,Note: I do use STM32

BenCos18•2/14/24, 9:26 AM

8 bit stuff is still very reliable tbh

BBenCos18 8 bit stuff is still very reliable tbh

onky•2/14/24, 11:24 AM

Especially Microchip’s 8 bit MCUs are

BenCos18•2/14/24, 11:28 AM

yep

Camila_99$$OP•2/14/24, 6:06 PM

@InsightMike Thanks for the insights! I appreciate the advice

Navadeep•2/15/24, 5:38 AM

Hmmm. EDA industry acquisition in steroids

https://stocks.apple.com/Ak5c9HIpzRYaPIUc4Q6l2Og

Altium Agrees to $5.9 Billion Takeover by Japan’s Renesas — The Wal...

Altium shares jumped as much as 31%, hitting a record high

Navadeep•2/15/24, 5:44 AM

Official release: https://www.renesas.com/us/en/about/press-room/renesas-acquire-pcb-design-software-leader-altium-make-electronics-design-accessible-broader-market

Renesas

Renesas to Acquire PCB Design Software Leader Altium to Make Electr...

onky•2/15/24, 6:51 AM

Question is will they create a license system to target small businesses?

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 7:26 AM

Kicad is already free

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 7:27 AM

Renesas has some top notch products

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 7:27 AM

Altium was too expensive.... Plus AI entering the room.

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 7:28 AM

If they make it cheap... One would still use.

onky•2/15/24, 8:02 AM

Yes, I am using KiCad since last 4 years. But not sure about advanced PCB design, for example high speed design. Does anyone have experience?
One feature I wish kicad should have is multiple PCBs for one project.

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 12:44 PM

@Petr Dvořák high speed design?

AAditya thakekar @Petr Dvořák high speed design?

Petr Dvořák•2/15/24, 1:42 PM

What do you mean?

Aditya thakekar•2/15/24, 1:44 PM

FPGA

Navadeep•2/15/24, 3:13 PM

KiCAD is a rockstar! There's nothing that limits it from high-speed design. Just that the high-speed design features like length-matching of differential pairs aren't very interactive and friendly but does the job. Also, I observed that there is a lot of room for optimization in layer switching, speed of routing etc. as the board goes denser (talking about anything above 12 layers)

Oonky Yes, I am using KiCad since last 4 years. But not sure about advanced PCB design...

Navadeep•2/15/24, 3:24 PM

The resolution for this I use is to make the design blocks modular(both in schematic and layout). Create several projects(sch and layout) of the blocks that you think is possibly repeatable. For example: a TPS5432 switching regulator block designed once following datasheet guidelines.
Then as you want to include it in different main projects, add a hierarchical sheet and give the schematic path of that common repeatable block you created. You can apply the same layout multiple times as well in the board.

We use git source control here to navigate across projects i.e, different repositories and a common folder having all these modular block projects which can be used through hierarchical sheets. This partially addresses your problem by not making you do the same thing multiple times in multiple boards/projects.

Saßì•2/15/24, 3:33 PM

Reminder about Upcoming Event
https://discord.com/invite/PhxvqQgx?event=1205552755935154186

NNavadeep Hmmm. EDA industry acquisition in steroids https://stocks.apple.com/Ak5c9HIpzR...

techielew•2/15/24, 3:51 PM

This was a really good move by Renesas. It'll give them an in to a lot of embedded markets where they're currently shut out.

techielew•2/15/24, 3:52 PM

I wasn't aware Altium was looking to be sold

NNavadeep The resolution for this I use is to make the design blocks modular(both in schem...

onky•2/15/24, 4:29 PM

So if I add another project, block, into a hierarchical sheet of other project will it also copies the layout or just schematic?

Oonky So if I add another project, block, into a hierarchical sheet of other project w...

Navadeep•2/15/24, 4:34 PM

Just schematic. For layout you got to do separately during that phase of the design. There is a inirect way to do that - replicate layout using KiCAD plugin(not an official feature yet). This plugin allows you to click on any component(in the layout) from the block you replicated and hit on the apply button through that plugin https://github.com/MitjaNemec/ReplicateLayout (i use a different flavor of this plugin customized for the use case)

GitHub

GitHub - MitjaNemec/ReplicateLayout

Contribute to MitjaNemec/ReplicateLayout development by creating an account on GitHub.

NNavadeep Just schematic. For layout you got to do separately during that phase of the des...

onky•2/15/24, 4:35 PM

Great thanks. I will check it out.

Ttechielew This was a really good move by Renesas. It'll give them an in to a lot of embedd...

Navadeep•2/15/24, 4:40 PM

Yeah right...they're quite a growing semiconductor company now - ramping up from the last 4 quatres. Stock valuation doubled in value in 2023.

Cool fact: the newest Arduino comes with RA4M1 (haven't seen it around a lot though) https://store.arduino.cc/products/uno-r4-wifi

Arduino Official Store

Arduino® UNO R4 WiFi

The Arduino UNO R4 WiFi combines the processing power and exciting new peripherals of the RA4M1 microcontroller from Renesas with the wireless connectivity power of the ESP32-S3 from Espressif. On top of this, the UNO R4 WiFi offers an on-board 12x8 LED matrix, Qwiic connector, VRTC, and OFF pin, covering all potential