Treated nicely by the postman today with these 2 circuits boards from friend of the TTN Community & Workshop Hero of the TTC2020 Amsterdam @pe1mew - Arduino Expansion boards providing input/stimulus simulation for Educational/training projects etc.
Details here: https://gitlab.com/wlgrw/han-iot-node
Then seperate delivery of 2 more TTIG’s (UK Version) - have 3 EU Versions on back order for later in the month. Would have ordered 5 x UK but UK version more expensive (why?!) & RS won’t offer qty breaks for UK version in the way they do for EU version so split the order to get a more reasonable average price!
I also need to get the new Tektelic Kona Micro Gateway brought back from TTC2020 online so likely a busy weekend+ (Will take registered GW count to ~35! when done)
Though I think family would prefer me to work on the HD Flatpanel TV that died a few days ago instead! (Intermittent invertor causing screen to blank after a couple of minutes running - simply replace PSU/Invertor board?!)
If you are inspired by the EdgeImpulse pitch from TTC2020 and the work done by Jan ( @janjongboom ) , Zach, Dan (Hi Guys!) and considering trying some AI/ML activities yourself then perhaps adding these to you workbench/component stock…1 for nodes 1 more for the edge?
Nice little package just arrived from David & the team at SenseBox/openSenseMap/Re:Edu in Germany https://sensebox.de/en/products
Seem to have a nice suite of accessories & sensors - based on Open Source HW designs.
This is to support a collaboration on Environmental Monitoring with one of the local Universities (more to follow on that!)
Includes SenseBox MCU (Arduino environment compatible) with lots of sensor connection/expansion options and a HDC1080 T&H sensor, sady though cable included it looks like am missing the SDS011 Particulate Matter sensor…may have to substitue alternate from component stock or source one seperately
Locked down, with time to kill and an RPi4 on hand with need for more home/small biz data storgage? (Repository for all that TTN data intgration info you have been meaning to collate, archive and analyse?)
Some time ago I purchased 2 Dutch origin Marvin LoRaWAN prototype boards with RN2483 modules. As we are in voluntary self isiolation there is time to pickup some old projects. The 2 boards have been transferred into particle sensors using a SDS011 and a stock bmp280 temperature/air pressure sensor.
Because the Marvin is actually not designed for deployment I created a small PCB, with the same size as the Marvin, to interface with it. Any polarisation DC power source is rectified and converted to 3,3 and 5 V using buck converters. I2C and serial as wel as 3,3V and 5V are transported over a UTP cable to the sensor that is house in a PVC sleeve.
Next thing to do is 3D print brackets so they can be installed inside a weather proof housing.
Will be happy to provide you a sample for testing. We will release a bacth of this in two monthes.
will remove the ST MCU and SX1261 in the final version for cost down.
Have an environmental monitoring project requiring estimated 45-60+ GWs initially (Mix of indoor/outdoor and wifi/enet backhaul) where had been looking at mix of your LPS8’s, Laird RG186 (Indoor or rehoused for outdoor) and RPi builds (Mostly outdoor) that was due to ramp from end March/Beg April but delayed now for 3-4 months due to CoVID-19 - so your timing might be good Will PM you on the long term test of current LPS8…the 6mo eval project is almost up already! Time flys Stay Safe…
Need a bit more storage/grunt for your combined GW/NS/App Server (TTIv3 Stack anyone?) or building a monster TTi/TTN/MQTT system? How about trying the newly released/long rumoured 8GB RPi4?
Also makes 64bit implementation a better option for power users…!
Its been a while since updating on Workbench activity so thought I would come back with a bang (litterally) after a busy few weeks…not least dealing with a couple of the biggest, and most likely the heaviest!, bits of Work Bench kit I’ve played with in a while
A few weeks ago I hired a large van and headed North to collect both the ‘Open Frame’ and 'Boxed versions of the Omnium Sensing Solar Pods from Reece Innovations as featured in the picture and (You Tube) video that many of you may have seen before:
With source company wind down I was keen to have one of my own businesses step in and secure the units for use across the UK TTN Community and some of our wider IoT market clients and to look at what future prospects for such systems may be.
For the last couple of weeks, as we started to open up after Covid lock-down, have been ‘playing with’/evaluating the base systems, refreshing components and looking at potential varients that might interest users and the market generally - I expect to post more in coming weeks/months.
For now 1st system is on long term soak test and 2nd system is awaiting final assembly whilst a new GW (another RAK7249) finishes assembly and then goes into soak test
All being well plan is for one to head to South Coast shortly with the other heading to N.West as soon as tested and logistics can be arranged, with a potential queue of of likley UK deployments around the UK to follow…will let forum know how we get on…both expected to get a few months deployment on TTN
Got back from a short field trip and site survey to find a couple of these beauties I had requested from @edwin and the Dragino team waiting for me:
LDDS75 Ultrasonic Distance Sensors
Got one quickly registered into TTN yesterday…well it would have been quick if I hadn’t mis-typed a couple of characters from Dev-EUI/App-EUI then lost time trying to debug Dho!
Loaded the stock decoder and could see distance & battery data in App console:
A short while later I had it running under a Cayenne Integration and showing data on a standard dashboard. Left it running overnight hanging off edge of desk…great news the flat line shows the earth didnt move relative to the desk last night. Tried in a couple of places outside today before loading over the test rainwater butt outside the office, where it has been stable on 20min updates since.
Tommorrow will start the butt on a slow drain down (a few hours) and see how well it tracks reducing water level (increasing distance) until empty as a quick calibration check. The 2nd unit will be deployed at the weekend on long term test on a small stream feeding the River Thames nearby ready to check for summer thunderstorm driven flooding, leaf blockages over the Fall and the Winter general water level increases…
1st impressions very good, easy to set up and will report back on long term reliability/battery consumption etc… may have to get a few more of these…
I had this idea already for a long time, collected the parts some time ago and yesterday night I came to the point where I actually did it: I started replacing the existing battery holder of a The Things Node for a LiPo and a DIY Qi wireless charger:
The Qi wireless charger is connected to an Adafruit PowerBoost 500 Charger (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1944) that will power the Things Node. The Things node is internally equipped with a 3,3 volt LDO.
I now have to see if I can add some signals to the microprocessor to the Thing Node to monitor the behaviour of the Qi wireless charged battery.
If anyone has any documentation on the Qi wireless charger like this one, that would be helpful.
I have read that a battery could be connected to it but I have not found directives nor schematics to do so. It would save me the Powerboost 500 and space for a bigger LiPo battery.
Manufacturers, please provide QR codes! (Especially for gateways with sequential EUIs, where a typo may lock the EUI of a future buyer’s gateway if it has been erroneously registered and deleted.)
And the RPi4 ‘default’ low end is now the 2GB version at the nominal $35 price point 
Dho!
