LoRa - Long-Range Radio for IoT | Arduino, ESP32, RPI Pico

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!! It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at [e-mail]. Thanks! Bill (The real one!)

[@braselectron]

Just got a message about the Telegram SCAM on youtube notification bell.

[@MrBobWareham]

You only get copied when you are good and you are very good, so to the person trying to copy you don't bother it will not work, Bob in the UK

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Originally I was going to do a video about LoRa & LoRaWAN, however it was far too much for one video. I'll have a follow-up LoRaWAN video out very soon.

[@raymondmichael4987]

Thanks buddy; Thirdly would love to learn mesh network with those modules, mostly I see star configuration 😢. You’re doing such a good work

[@auxz2jz158]

Please do, do a follow-up with LoRaWAN I would love to make my own

[@mikeosx2009]

Very interested in a Pi Pico LoRaWAN video.

[@willgilliam9053]

looking forward your meshtastic video :)

[@fernandoandaluz2281]

Thank you very much Sir.

[@JasonDurrett]

Bill, you have created some amazing content over the years and have helped me quite a bit., and I am sure so many microcontroller enthusiasts. I love how thorough you are and the pace you teach at, it is perfect for me! Please keep up the great work. A sincere Thank you is in order!

[@1_HighDuke]

Hear! Hear!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you Jason, that is very kind of you!

[@brucebowman9087]

This Super Thanks thing is new to me. I'm glad to have an easy way to reward great content creators like you. My students call you the DroneBot Man.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank You from the Dronebot Man!

[@brucebowman9087]

Whenever I am looking for a clear explanation of new development tech I always come to the DroneBot Man. My favorite nerd!

[@kylereed3577]

Thanks! Once again you have inspired me. Great video I’ve been wanting to know more about LoRa and you filled all the blanks for me. Can’t wait for the LoRaWan video.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

And thank you as well! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@userx702]

For some years I’ve been following your content. I’ve always thought it was interesting. But I’ve legit been looking for a video explaining the simplest terms and way to even do this. This video comprehensively makes sense. It makes me excited to order some parts and get going. Hope this helps some at all, albeit not much. Thanks for all the content and being a good steward in teaching us all how to get going.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you, it's great to hear that you find my content useful!

[@1larrydom1]

Andreas Spiess is the king of anything LORA related. He's got terrific knowledge and has done some incredible things with it. A simple search for his channel will find him. The guy with the Swiss accent!

[@simonmasters3295]

He has interesting stuff I agree

[@DaleDix]

He is the person that is in this forum who people think knows the most.

[@lifebugreport8194]

I think both of these guys have great content.

[@wesley00042]

A group of us did a 100+ node LoRa Meshtastic cluster at DEF CON this year. I love this technology.

[@veryfinedankn3187]

I'm really looking forward to defcon 2024, is it pretty hard for a newbie to get involved in something like this? I'd love to hear more about how this turned out. Well who knows with any luck maybe I'll run into some kind folks that are willing to help someone who has a very basic understanding of all of this. Literally just got my first pico w in the mail and I was trying to decide what project to take on, and it looks like I found one! Now off to order arduino uno etc. Much love and respect to the community at large! Shareware + decentralization = endless possibilities ❤ tz222zt

[@tommorrison4378]

Did you create your own custom application with Meshtastic or simply use the basic Meshtastic app? I'm trying to see how I can utilize the Meshtastic protocol to connect my devices that have a custom application

[@wesley00042]

@tommorrison4378 Just the regular Meshtastic app.

[@barmalini]

What I find really amazing about LoRa, is that in the Netherlands, the country with the longest possible dimension of about 335km, they managed to establish communication line over 832 km long. Thanks for the nice video. As always Greetings from NL

[@marklewus5468]

Great video, but I do have a suggestion. The way you are using millis() for timeout will fail due to rollover. millis() is an 32 bit uint. When it exceeds 0xffffffff it rolls over to 0x0, causing the timeout check to fail after ~49 days. This is obviously not a problem for testing but if someone leaves it running, it will be. You can check by determining if new millis() < old millis(), if so then elapsed time=(0xffffffff-old) + new.

[@mumbles1justin]

Thanks for producing great informative content and sharing your knowledge with the rest of us. Happy Holidays!🎄

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you!

[@garypaulson5202]

A real eye opener, thank you!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@philipzeo273]

Thanks Bill! You always provide clear and useful information. Keep it up...

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you so much Philip. I'm glad that you find the content useful.

[@dfurrow01]

I enjoy you channel very much and I use it as a reference constantly. Thank-you very much!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

That’s great to hear, thank you for watching!

[@gregorymccoy6797]

Great video, Sir.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@RupertBruce]

I like the way you explain the hardware and software so clearly without getting bogged down with explaining the familiar patterns.

[@MichaelWillems]

As a radio ham (VA3MVW) I really liked this particular issue of your vlog, Bill. Super stuff!

[@bsvenss2]

Wow! I just discovered this channel and it is amazing. Exactly what you need to know in a very professional and explanatory way. Instant subscriber. Thank you!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you so much, and Welcome to the Workshop!

[@gabrielgaby5840]

Good ain't.., next step into our Movement of Electrons..🎉❤

[@mussher1]

Fantastic video! I'm currently building a soil moisture monitor using PicoW+Lora E5+capactive soil moisture sensor+microPython+ Home Assistant with MQTT+InfluxDB+Grafana to make decisions on irrigation for growing feed crops.

[@RutgersAgrivoltaics]

I am looking to set up a similar sensor array using some of the same tools for an agrivoltaics project. I'm particularly interested in your integration into HA. Could you provide more details about the project?

[@amoorehvs]

Thanks!

[@Dronebotworkshop]

And thank you!

[@dannymanor1]

I was waiting for this video after reading your news letter and it didn't disappoint. A BIG thank you for including MicroPython in your video. This really helps me with my microcontroller journey. 📡

[@Algardraug]

Your videos are so well thought out, thorough and easy to grasp. Well done!

[@pauldeheij8350]

Thanks a lot Bill for all your great work. I learn so much! Question: what about doing a video on integrating some of your projects into Home Assistant?

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Thank you. I have been planning at least one home assistant video.

[@GertBowker]

I''ve built two of these using LoRa RFM95W, wow super impressed by it, thanks for sharing

[@MrPennywise1540]

Hi! Did it work? Do you have to do any modification?

[@MaxMustermann-sm4qu]

Incredible technology. 🤯 Thank you so much for this well made and informative video. 🙏 Can not wait to see the follow ups. 😊

[@greppurtorfason4216]

I just love your videos. Top-notch professionalism in every regard. Thank you so much for your effort.

[@paulforester6996]

After I get settled into my move, I plan on a project to connect to my car to upload diagnostic info to my house. Thanks for the info.

[@DelTapparo]

Your presentations are just fantastic. All your preparation and diagrams make a complex subject very easy to understand.

[@nextwave5164]

Been using LoRa for a while now with most my devices.. i love it

[@MrPennywise1540]

Hi! Do you know if this project work? I'm introducing myself in LoRa comm. Previously I tried Arduino-Raspberry coo, but didn't work. I'll try with 2 Raspberry Pi, to see if I get it successfully.

[@garypaulson5202]

Super video, learned more about LoRa in this one video than in several others on other channels

[@DucatiMTS1200]

Nothing short of absolutely brilliant Bill. You are a credit to your country. I can't wait to get started building and programming. Thank you for making such a useful video. Wm.

[@baldrickdaisy8982]

Great video Bill… very informative 👌 I’m looking forward to your next videos on LoRa & LoRaWAN 😀

[@pareshmhatre4019]

Why don't we people say thanks to library makers! Who makes our code so easy!

[@simonmasters3295]

Well said

[@MuzixMaker]

Thanks!

[@mikesalmon434]

A huge thank you

[@WilliamDeboer]

@sgtbrown4273 🎉😮

[@WilliamDeboer]

@@MuzixMaker The pp

[@RommudohDev]

Very nice video! An excellent introduction to LoRa with a lot of background information. I can't wait to see the follow-ups, too!

[@clixium]

I'm transmitting and receiving data 3.2 km away with a simple spring antenna that came with modules, no clean LOS but still works great, -105 avg dBm so signal is pretty strong. I've just assembled 3rd device that I'll use for reserve and distance testing so I may update this post soon. Lora is amazing

[@MathewPanicker1010]

What kind of data rates are you able to achieve?

[@tin2001]

That's handy to know. That's about the max distance I'd need to run any sensors.

[@Moonlight0551]

Wow, you covered a lot of ground today. Wish I'd seen this a couple of years ago. Good info and well explained.

[@1_HighDuke]

Awesome explanations and demos as usual. Thank you very much! Looking forward to the LoRaWAN video.

[@brigosx]

Amazing video Bill. You're a professor my friend. Looking forward for your next video.

[@jackhope45]

I have learnt so much in your videos that i can start now my own small projects. I'm very thankful and i wish you all the best 🙏👍👍👍 kind regards from Germany 🍀

[@neilcampbell6026]

Thanks Bill. I was finally able to get some Lora modules working AND I really appreciate that you covered Arduino/C/C++ , MicroPython , and the 3 different microcontrollers. Hope you can continue to do that with all your projects moving forward.

[@dirtypedestrian]

Thanks for doing a video on this! I was just thinking about trying some of these modules out!

[@MrBobWareham]

Very nice Bill thanks for the video looking forward to more LoRa, you so go the extra mile in more ways than one.cheers Bob

[@Christian-NaitSirC]

Many thanks for this video, so accurated and well prepared that is better of an university lesson ! One hour is gone so fast and I was glued to the screen all the time, thank you.

[@mgoodson44]

Such a well timed video as I ordered my first RFM95 devices last week to try out LoRa. Very simple to follow, thorough and informative, as always. Thank you

[@grayhatfailure2428]

The dronebot workshop intro music is a key part of my childhood memories.

[@glynncleaver7398]

Funny how I just ordered two Lora boards and this video popped up. Interested in more pico phyton projects

[@mumbles1justin]

Think you for great examples and explanation of LoRa. Im really anxious to see your video on LoRaWAN. I haven’t done any LoRa projects yet. Right now Im trying to figure out what exactly what equipment Im going to order. Encrypted MQTT over LoRa accessible via a cloud broker is my end goal. I hope some MQTT examples my be part of your LoRaWAN video.

[@manojithalder7448]

This is gem. You explain everything in depth and beautifully. 🎉❤

[@limrithy5495]

Greate Video sir, I'm waiting for this video for a long times.

[@mr.adamson8675]

Awesome! I just recently heard of this tech thru chatgpt of all things, but I never really looked into actually using it myself until now. Very interesting.

[@klif_n]

Thanks for the great info. This is really very helpful. I've used the Radiohead rfm95 library before, but the one you mentioned seems to be even easier to use.

[@2012SUSE]

Vielen herzlichen Dank für die super Erklärungen und Beispiele! Thank you very much for the great explanations and examples!

[@dvhx]

At 21:00 ground goes to thin filament of LED but when you connect it for real at 24:41 ground goes to thick LED filament as it should. The led at 21:00 should be rotated.

[@chrisalexthomas]

I think Lora is the basis of a drone controller technology called ELRS, it uses the SX1280 chip to do the data receiving part of controller the drone and then you send the signals into the flight controller to perform the action based on the input

[@gabrielgaby5840]

Well ahead, publish your works !🎉❤

[@winstonsmith478]

THANK YOU for not using scrolling code windows on your web site. I absolutely HATE those because when printing, as I always do, valuable web pages to PDF from which the code can later be easily copied and pasted from, the windowed code won't be completely printed and so many sites don't allow the window to be maximized. If they allow listings to be easily copied or if one copies from the scrolling listing, each must then be stored in a subdirectory instead of ALL being accessible in a SINGLE PDF document along with descriptive text.

[@tin2001]

If you right click the effected section and go "inspect" (or inspect element on some browsers), you can usually tweak the CSS or HTML content to fix the problem.... after some practice, it takes about 30 seconds to fix most unprintable sites. Then just print to PDF (or a printer) as usual.

[@Tims_Projects]

Fantastic. As always very well explained. Something I will be looking into. A good cheap way to keep track of something would be to connect a GPS module as well.

[@llicommg4630]

Thank you very much!I did it using the Raspberry Pico and the LoRa RFM9x of Adafruit and they really work! but can you please let me know how can I reduce the time between the messages being sent? Even if I reduce the sleep time from 10 to 0.1 seconds the time that it take to send a new message is about 4 seconds. That is too slow for what I need. I need it for a remote control, so by the time I get the new values of the potentiometers the car already crashed! thank you for your comments.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

I suspect that LoRa isn't suitable for this type of application, as it requires a lot of background activity to send and receive messages. This is the main reason for its low bandwidth. It can be improved slightly by adjusting some of its transmission parameters, like "spreading rate," but even then, there is a preamble that lasts almost half a second. There is a calculator you can use for delay time here - www.loratools.nl/#/airtime

[@GiC7]

Master, love your teaching.

[@taraskornuta]

The LoRa does not use encryption (AES128), but the LoRaWAN does

[@michaelalex5235]

This was fantastic, as are all of your videos. Thank you!

[@anurasenarathna1703]

As always very well explained. An excellent video. Thank you very much.

[@bensonmakau2077]

Thank you very much...the article is nice and well presented...

[@calvinhello5419]

Please if you don’t mind. What course did you study at Uni. This is like a mixture of electronics, robotics, etc - mechatronics it seems. Nice!

[@DavidHaile_profile]

Great info! I’m considering how to do a remote sensor that is 40 miles into the mountains. I think I could do it with Lora repeaters on a couple of peaks.

[@dominiquep9880]

Thank you, as usual very clear and detailed video.

[@jeremyferris7573]

Great presentation that helped me get a better understanding of LoRa. You mention possibly doing a LoRaWAN video, is this still in the works?

[@Intense_Cloud]

Super fckn awesome! Great instructional and informative video. Great presenter!

[@williamrose3191]

Awesome video. You put a lot of effort into this. Thank you for sharing!

[@gregorymccoy6797]

Amazing video. I skipped the python segment; Not a fan for microntrollers. I love the info and prep this video took.

[@Dubot-f1v]

I just caught this I haven't been feeling well lately but I'm back up cool video 😁👍

[@mr.bianchirider8126]

As usual , a great video !

[@WACkZerden]

Love your videos, and their presentation

[@garycotz563]

BRAVO! Really good show! Thank you for pulling ALL THIS together... ($ THANKS) punched

[@marktadlock5428]

I would love to see hooking up a e-ink display to receive data and display. For displaying something like weather data to a wrist mounted receiver.

[@YTWAGNERM1]

Re-watched. Great reference video!

[@braselectron]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you for sharing so many details.

[@controlfreak1963]

LoRa is a 900Mhz signal so line of site is pretty much what you need between radios. No buildings, mountains, etc. Elevation is used for long distances. If using radios on the ground, 3 miles is considered line of site on a completely flat ground.

[@donkeypoopdragon]

He put a steel plate between the modules and it still worked. Lora is supposed to be able to penetrate materials much better than 2.4ghz wifi can

[@Tom_Seeker]

Very good introduction I was just looking for 👏 Can you expand the series to discuss security topics? How to protect communication from intercept by others?

[@rinokentie8653]

Very interesting, as always!

[@KanePat]

Thanks! Very informative. One question about the payload, is that a standard format? How do you know a packet is actually intended for you ? If your neighbor ran the exact same code would you both process each others packets ? How do you assure unique communication pairs ?

[@simonmasters3295]

Good question. And one that is quite important to answer, its not just one neighbor but anyone in a 10 block radius... Moreover while I echo the sentiment of many commentators about the pace and quality of your presentations, I am staggered at the effort required to hard-code the OLED display. I think there is some generous use of the term "we" as in "we are going to display two temperatures and two humidity values". Realistically the network needs to be expandable so that "we" are going to be able to receive input from N sensor types and M sensors in each type. Plus the server may need to do computations, for example to calculate the difference of two or more temperatures or report the lower of the humidity readings and may need to set of alarms or visual indications of abnormal conditions and take multiple corrective actions, both at the server or back at the location of the sensors. I see nothing in the code to illustrate how you would do this. Neither is it permanently, or temporarily, logging the time, identity and sensor value, so there is apparently no way to compare yesterday's value at the same time of day or take the sum or average of all readings within the last hour, the last week and so on. Basically unless you are actually looking at the OLED the whole setup is working for nothing. I saw a video today where the designer used png images created in Powerpoint to produce coloured sliders and formatted text boxes to create a really impressive customised OLED display. But, in a day when we are not surprised to find such information on our mobile phone, I think that some of this video promulgates an outdated approach to sensor data and coding for the OLED display. The mobile phone and not an OLED is likely to be at the heart of the interaction between a user and any network of sensors "we" are building, so to me it feels like you haven't really taken this to next-level IoT programming, and you may be training your 500k subs to think in silos. Please don't misinterpret my observations as criticism. Thank you for rekindling my interest in LoRa and Arduino.

[@vinodtavildar]

Great 👍 which version Arduino ide you are using sir?🤔

[@ashiningtechnology]

Great video. For the wireless transmission part, you chose RFM9X with SPI interface. Have you considered other modules with other interfaces, such as UART or RS485. Maybe, then It can transfer further, like LOS10~20km.

[@uibsen]

Great Tutorial !!!

[@yasisanuraz]

Awesome arduino project. 💓💓💓💙

[@johneagle4384]

Wow. This is impressive. Thank you very much.

[@john543]

I notice the Lora boards you linked to are marked 868Mhz not 915. I thought the freq for Canada was 915

[@kisssys5414]

I see little information on different frequency selection, how to set power output and how to choose the best Spread Factor. I have a number of RFM95W's in use and they work well but I would never get over a KM in range. How do you measure the output power of a LoRa board?

[@abdullahX001]

How do you pair the devices for secure comms?

[@patrickjacobs9219]

I have been following your channel for a while and think it is one of the best explanations and the code that we can download. I would like some more explanation about the Heltec ESP32 v3 board in the future. I would like to control a relay from one board with push buttons on the other board. maybe you can show us a little more about that. Thank you in advance for all those beautiful videos you make. Kind regards patrick jacobs

[@gohan3243]

Hi Bill, I just wonder what’s the purpose of the gpio0-5 pins on the module. Can we use them? Thanks 19:36

[@gabrielgaby5840]

Hello Bill, thanks for your show, invaluable, would like to know, if it's o.k. to use the R4, with Minima + wi-fi, to achieve long range connections, as you mention in your introduction to this Arduino Circuit. This Circuit is cheaper, and want to get started. Thanks again, watching your show, like going to Class. Loving it..🌹😊

[@deankay4434]

I am a car guy with a good knowledge of electronics. You have have some but in blend door actuators use to control hot to cold, the simple ones use a gear driven potentiometer for 0-5Vdc and a dc motor to move and stop anywhere between closed & open. Being one level above cable and vacuum, how would a rotatory dash knob change polarity in the motor? I have 40+ years at dealer but as simple as can be, these controllers on the dash are only $40+ and one circuit board inside. I wanted to control heat / A-C in a 67 C10 pickup. Schematics show a block and call it "Logic". Is this an ardiuno thing or something way more simple that can build myself? Sorry to get off topic but your teaching choice of words are easy to understand. DK, ASE Master Tech since 78, retired. Thanks.

[@deankay4434]

I guess I was hoping for an idea or answer. In the world of "Robots", arms, legs or any part that moves part of the way, stops and moves some more while having the ability to return would fit my needs. It is no different than an "RC" car's steering. Left, right, center or anywhere in between. The problem comes in the controller as it has 6-9 other features costing 20 times the actuator. Just a simple mechanism to move, stop and move again. Maybe they can't make a controller that does that on 12 Vdc with a few wires, not a radio frequency. ASE Master, 78

[@gabrielgaby5840]

Love the Show..🎉🎉

[@ChaplainDaveSparks]

In a real world setup, would I need to do some error checking on the packet contents (checksum, CRC, etc.) or does the LoRa library do that?

[@vaughntaylor2855]

You have some really great content and I sincerely appreciate all that you are doing to pass your knowledge and experience on. I do have a request: I have not seen on your videos and perhaps I am just over looking but would you consider adding in where you think the best place you have found to purchase the component you are showing us? Again, you are sincerely appreciated and God Bless.

[@AJams2]

Hi! Thanks for this amazing video, can LoRa be used for voice communication in 10km range?

[@SuperTorggler]

Great video as usual. Thanks. All your examples seem to use the Adafruit module but I want to use the HopeRF module (with Pico/Pico W). Am I correct in assuming that I can use DIO0 instead of G0? What are the other DIO ports and how are they used? Thanks in advance

[@chrisgeo4555]

Amazing video as always!!! Can you make a video about RS485 communication?

[@neilausten9404]

The Adafruit RFM95x is expensive and hard to get in Australia. Are there any generics that would be suitable.