Hello Everyone,
I am starting with LoRa and TTN and it feel like there are loads of available devices, which one is recommendded to start with, I was going to start with The Things Uno but the page where it is located states has a not which says “applies to the legacy Things Network Stack V2”, so is the Things Uno still agood choice to start with or there are other good options?
Best Regards,
Mahmoud.
All very much depends on where you interests lie - do you want a simple device so you can dig in to the gateway, network & application server or the data presentation side?
Or do you want to get with your soldering iron and build a device?
Thank you for the reply, Nick.
I am building a full-stack IoT solution (which should include data presentation and device design), LoRa will be my communication channel, but my project does not focus on LoRa, just need it to work.
I would love to work on a module which includes as many features as possible such as (TTGO or ESP based modules) as this would give me more options for my device prototyping, my fear here is to get a device which would be unreliable, too complex to work with or has no support/community and get stuck with it.
So, would you recommend a module which I can start with?
Please let me know if I haven’t explained my self clearly, Thank you for helping.
That is a solid device that will allow easy entry into LoRaWAN. There are more capable devices but those are more complex and the software is more error prone. Avoid ESP based devices if you do not want to spend a lot of time on debugging the LoRaWAN stack on the device.
Thank you, that is exactly what I am trying to avoid.
Huh, I thought you were asking for recommendations, if you had a preference, always better to mention it from the off. The first is a brand name, the second is the first three letters of two different processors, the former happens to use a lot of ESP processors. Neither of them have any particular features that differ massively from other processors, many of which, as Jak mentions, are much easier to use. Engineers need to resist the attraction of marketing.
The main benefit of the Things Uno is that it is based on a standard Arduino so you benefit from all of the Arduino ecosystem along with a Microchip LoRaWAN module that takes care of the complex details for you without taking away any functionality you may wish to implement.
So you get 32KB flash, 2.5KB memory, I2C, 2 x SPI, UART, USB, 12 x ADC with a total of 26 IO. Plenty of resources to get started with, probably give you everything you ever need unless you start adding AI at the edge …
If you are starting out and don’t have local access to a gateway, we strongly recommend one so you can see what’s going on. If it’s a student project, I’d suggest the college/university provide access to one.
Thank you Nick
I am, its just I have been looking for boards and some of these are packed with features(more powerfull processos, OLED display, Wifi and BL, …), I guess I got too excited 
, apologies for not being clear, will keep that in mind.
I guess I’ll just start with it.
There is a local access point in my university, I am working on getting access to it.
Thanks again.
It’s no compromise, the processor is plenty powerful for a LoRaWAN device, you can add on an OLED, WiFi & BT at a later date, once you’ve learn’t the basics. Think how hard it would be to learn to fly a four engined jet liner with all the extras added than learning the fundamentals on a single prop un-flapped plane. Imagine the carnage if we all learnt to drive in Formula 1 cars. Does Chuck Norris need more than one core? Even The Terminator uses the same CPU as an Apple ][ and he gets by quite nicely.
Another arduino option :
Arduino MKR WAN 1310