Innoesys LoRa Shield Dual Band (433MHz, 868MHz)

Overview

IES-LoRa-ARD is an Arduino shield for Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) designed for long range communications with low bitrate. The shield is based on the RN2483 LoRa® module provided by Microchip Technology Inc. and it is ideal for low-power applications requiring long range communication such as:

• Internet of Things
• Sensor networks
• Agriculture applications
• Industrial automation
• Smart city
• Smart meters
• Home automation

RN2483 features:

• Long range: greater than 15 km
• Low power consumption for 10+ year battery life
• Operates in 433 MHz and 868 MHz bands
• Embedded LoRaWAN Class A protocol
• Easy to use ASCII command interface over UART
• Supply voltage: 2.1–3.6V
• Temperature range: −40°C to 85°C
• Adjustable output power up to +14 dBm
• High receiver sensitivity down to −148 dBm
• Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) over UART
• 14 GPIO for control, status and ADC
• Excellent interference immunity
• Secure AES-128 encryption
• European R&TTE directive assessed radio modem
• Environmentally friendly, ROHS-compliant

1.   Board description

1.    Connections

The board is powered from 3.3VDC power source provided by the Arduino board and the different components are enabled with active high logic.

• 3.3V and GND pins

The power supply pins for the IES-LoRa-ARD shield.

• Pin 0, 1, 2 & 3 (RX & TX)

TX and RX jumpers are used to connect the LoRa module RX & TX signals to the Arduino. LoRa TX signal can be connected either to the default Arduino UART RX signal (pin 0) or to the pin 2 (digital input). While LoRa RX signal can be connected to the Arduino UART TX signal (pin 1) or to pint 3 (digital output).

• Pin 7 (RESET)

Digital pin 7 can be used for software reset of the module. It can be connected/disconnected using the RST jumper.

LEDs: The onboard jumpers can be used to connect/disconnect the LEDs. Connecting the Power LED jumper, the Power LED is ON when power is applied to the shied. UART TX & RX LEDs are used as UART signal indicators when there is a communication of the LoRa module with the Arduino. 

P8 header pins: These pins can be used to probe the UART RX and TX signals of the LoRa module.

2. Software Tools

The shield can be programmed using the Arduino IDE or any other development environment for AVR microcontrollers like Atmel Studio.

3. Board dimensions

All dimensions are in mm.

4. Additional Information

1. RN2483 product: http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/RN2483
2. RN2483 datasheet: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/50002346A.pdf
3. RN2483 command reference guide: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/40001784E.pdf
4. ® Alliance: https://www.lora-alliance.org/  

What is LoRa?

Introduction to LoRa Alliance™