Hi,
Do anyone have a example of a Class C implementation?
Want to use a ESP32 + LORA 868 + 0.96 OLED - switching one relay.
This will only happen once every 3 or so days.(Takin FUP into consideration)
Have done a bit of searching -
https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/search?q=class%20c%20support%20order:latest
https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/search?q=class%20c%20order:latest
You are probably not going to find it.
The defacto LoRaWAN library for ESP32 is LMIC. Even the latest version of MCCI LMIC (v4.1) does not support class C.
If you use a Heltec ESP32 board you may try Heltec’s proprietary (partially closed source) ESP32 LoRaWAN library which is a port of Semtech’s LoRaMAC-node.
Maybe that also supports Class C. Usage of the library is restricted to Heltec ESP32 boards however (and very little experience with it here on the forum).
What sort of response time do you need on switching the relay?
I’m sure you can search the forum for all the dire warnings about the unsuitability of LoRaWAN for system critical / safety uses.
To turn a relay on to start a pump manually if I need to, to pump water into a reservoir.
The relay will normally be controlled locally form the level sensor, switching it on and off.
What about a Dragino LT-22222? It supports class C and has two relay-outputs.
So an hour’s response time would be OK?
If so, use Class A and send a minimal payload once every 30 minutes.
Or use something that can run LoRaMAC-node.
Or get a ready made device as suggested above.
If you miss the uplink once in Class A (Dropped packet) - How long before you turn on the relay?
Power is not the issue as there is AC available, but it’s 5km between gateway and node. (LOS)
Is this the board you are referring to? (But I will use the EU868 version)
That’s why I suggested checking other discussions about this exact question sort of question. If it doesn’t get the uplink, how long before the next uplink is up to you.
But before you get too invested in all of this, I’d put a known good device at the location to check what the signal quality is - go to site, turn on device, look at console on smartphone - can the gateway hear it OK and did the device pickup the Join Accept within a reasonable number of attempts.
The board you linked is a Heltec Wifi LoRa 32 (V2).
According to the images it is a V2 board (did not notice V2 in the text while briefly scanning).
Pretty expensive there, better have a look at Heltec Automation store on AliExpress.
In case you want to use a Heltec board because of their (advertised) Class C support:
If you explicitly need the WiFi/BT support (or processing power) of the ESP32 the best choice is probably:
If battery operation is required (not for class C of course) then:
If you don’t need WiFi/BT then the following may be a more interesting/better choice:
One of the Heltec CubeCell boards.
The CubeCell product range is based on ASR650x SiP (which integrates ARM Cortex M0+ with SX1262), has Arduino support and its LoRaWAN support is based on Semtech’s LoRaMAC-node.
Some nice CubeCell dev boards are:
Be aware that both Heltec’s ESP32 LoRaWAN library and their CubeCell product range support LoRaWAN Class A and Class C only (support for class B is not specified).
FYI: Of the above boards I have personal experience with the Wifi Lora 32 (V2) and CubeCell Dev-Board only and no experience with Heltec’s ESP32 LoRaWAN library or Class C.
Thank you for the information, I will need to read up on these a bit.
These do look very interesting.
AliExpress - the shipping to me is 4 x the price of the board - so I will need to have good Google to find a reasonable supplier.
Hello @Johan_Scheepers
I have made a project as you need with an ESP32 heltec and an activation of a LATCH relay
I’m still testing but it works fine
I have it integrated with Node-red and with Thinger.io
Looks very nice.
This is my basic architecture I want to use.
Just not to sure about the security risk of exposing xx.xx.xx.xx:3000 to the net. This is the port for Grafana on the AWS EC2.
Hi @electroarbi-lora, i’ve read your post. I’m trying to configure an ESP32 V3 in class-c so that it can receive downlinks instantly, but i’m not able to find a library to do this. Can you help me?
Thank you in advance!