Current hardware module suggestions

End Devices (Nodes) Hardware
1

Hi there,

We are in the inception phase of a project on designing a versatile board around the Nordic nRF52 SoC. As we will probably also incorporate Nb-iot into the design, I’m contemplating stepping away from the usual slap-on Semtech SX chip and going for a hardware module we can run through an UART.

The RN2483 will only do some 14 dBm (433 MHz restrictions?) whereas the new 915 MHz variant will crank out 18.5. Is the Microchip still my go-to module? Any other suggestions which can do DFU, some low idle specs, and other niftyness?

Thanks,
Martijn

2

That is the legal limit for the 868MHz ISM band.

3

Ah! Thought this was bound to the 433 MHz band only. Thanks for bringing me up to par. We had a system integrator having the RFM95W put out some +20 dBm. So looks like I’ll be having a chat :slight_smile:

So, but this could conclude a search for a module. The RN2483 still a safe bet on stability, power consumption (not particular an issue in this business case), and usability? We could always slap something else on the PCB in due time.

thank again,
cheers

4

There are a number of LoRaWAN modules, consisting of MCU and sx1272/6. Take a look at this post -

1 Like
5

How could I’ve missed that post. Great find! Thanks

6

If looking for specifically Nordic SOC + LoRa you might consider something like the Laird RM186/191 modules - there are are probably others too but some forumites have had success with this and its associated ‘SmartBasic’ support. Module is LoRa +nRF (might be nRF 51 vs nRF 52 - will need to check) used for Bluetooth 4.0 + UART, I2C, SPI, 14GPIO & (4?)ADC lines. Alternately if you can consider other MCU’s and would prefer to go the python route I gather Fred de Haro’s team at Pycom have well liked products supporting various protocol options alongside LoRa and using micropython. I know there is currently an LTE module option and suspect a NB-IoT option pending? alongside usual BT & Wi-Fi…

Personally I also like the look of the Murata modules and several modules/bds that various companies and makers have released based on this (GIYF).

update: typed too slow…I see Nick also gave you good steer with other thread…that’s a good place to start… :slight_smile:

7

That might still be legal if the antenna results in sufficient loss :wink:

1 Like
8

Hi Jeff, thanks for the info.

The design will have a lot of peripherals like RS485/Modbus, Neopixels, Meterbus with step-up, dedicated crypto. We could even reside to ethernet in the future for upstream communications. An integrated LoRa/nRF solution is not needed as we design from ground up and would even beat the purpose. We’ll swap out the LoRaWAN module in due time for LTE-M/NB-IoT modules depending on the businesscase. LoRaWAN is only a means getting the data to AWS.