LoRa module

[Kongduino]

I was looking at the part where you bridged the 16-pin pad so that the 6-pin RS232 pad gave you Rx/Tx (nice!). However, which USART are they connected to? USART0 or 1? I would suspect USART0 but would like to confirm. Also, is there an access to USART1? (Not sure whether USART1 is available anyway, or already used by something else – but I'd like to add a LoRa module, and a usable USART would come in handy)

Thanks!

[ea]

haha, what a coincidence, i just made this proof-of-concept the other day. was planing on cleaning it up and publishing in a few days. Which lora module did you plan on using? I used RFM96. Stay tuned!

Re UART: Someone posted a full breakdown of all pins and what they are used for. I can't find the exact source right now, but i'll add it to the repo.

[ea]

Oh, silly me, I forgot that i already did, here it is https://github.com/ea/srxe_cc1101/blob/master/notes/pintout.txt

[Kongduino]

Wonderful! I have looked at two options: Either one of the many LoRa modules I have – mostly SX1278-based to offer the widest range of frequencies, or a "managed" chip by RAKwireless, either a RAK4260, LoRa only, (like on my BastWAN projects: https://github.com/Kongduino/BastWAN_Minimal_LoRa) or a RAK4631, LoRa + BLE, since there is already a 2,4 GHz antenna :-)

With an RFM or Ra-02 chip I'd need SPI, with a RAK chip I'd need Serial – you don't connect directly to the SX chip but to the MCU. I have firmware for the 2 RAK chips that could interface with the Atmega and provide LoRa services at little cost for the Atmega, which is very tempting...

Thanks for the pinout. TxD1/RxD1 will come in handy!

[Kooftness]

haha, what a coincidence, i just made this proof-of-concept the other day. was planing on cleaning it up and publishing in a few days. Which lora module did you plan on using? I used RFM96. Stay tuned!

Re UART: Someone posted a full breakdown of all pins and what they are used for. I can't find the exact source right now, but i'll add it to the repo.

EA, first off thanks for all your content. I came across a few SRXE and I was thinking of trying to use the Spec Ana as a "Hack RF One" for rf replay attacks but not sure if its possible. I am also getting into helium and sensors and would love to get some in site on how to modify the SRXE with LoRA. Have you published this yet?

[Kooftness]

Wonderful! I have looked at two options: Either one of the many LoRa modules I have – mostly SX1278-based to offer the widest range of frequencies, or a "managed" chip by RAKwireless, either a RAK4260, LoRa only, (like on my BastWAN projects: https://github.com/Kongduino/BastWAN_Minimal_LoRa) or a RAK4631, LoRa + BLE, since there is already a 2,4 GHz antenna :-)

With an RFM or Ra-02 chip I'd need SPI, with a RAK chip I'd need Serial – you don't connect directly to the SX chip but to the MCU. I have firmware for the 2 RAK chips that could interface with the Atmega and provide LoRa services at little cost for the Atmega, which is very tempting...

Thanks for the pinout. TxD1/RxD1 will come in handy!

Were you able to get a LoRa module working? i am new to this and would love some help in getting one working.

[Kongduino]

After a couple of failed attempts to buy a few Smart Response XE – Covid-related shipping issues – I have yet to get my hands on some... I had everything lined out to work, on paper! :-) I have in between experimented with other MCUs, giving them LoRa capabilities, either via SPI with Ra-02, or Serial with a RAK chip. If I remember correctly from your detailed pinout, we have both options available – an SPI solution with the ISP header and a couple more pins, or Serial with RxD1/TxD1.

The SPI solution is easiest – while it requires 7 or 8 pins all told (Vcc, GND, MOSI, MISO, SS, DC, RST, and an optional but desirable DIO0) it is very straightforward to use with a good library like arduino LoRa. A managed chip requires fewer pins – Vcc, GND, Tx, Rx – you need to write code to teach the device to communicate with the MCU managing the LoRa chip (AT firmware or else).

I'm still hunting for some Smart Response XE, hopefully a bunch where postage isn't higher than the cost of goods... – but would be happy to help in between.

[Kooftness]

After a couple of failed attempts to buy a few Smart Response XE – Covid-related shipping issues – I have yet to get my hands on some... I had everything lined out to work, on paper! :-) I have in between experimented with other MCUs, giving them LoRa capabilities, either via SPI with Ra-02, or Serial with a RAK chip. If I remember correctly from your detailed pinout, we have both options available – an SPI solution with the ISP header and a couple more pins, or Serial with RxD1/TxD1.

The SPI solution is easiest – while it requires 7 or 8 pins all told (Vcc, GND, MOSI, MISO, SS, DC, RST, and an optional but desirable DIO0) it is very straightforward to use with a good library like arduino LoRa. A managed chip requires fewer pins – Vcc, GND, Tx, Rx – you need to write code to teach the device to communicate with the MCU managing the LoRa chip (AT firmware or else).

I'm still hunting for some Smart Response XE, hopefully a bunch where postage isn't higher than the cost of goods... – but would be happy to help in between.

where are you located? we might be able to work something out. is there a place we could chat outside of github? whatsapp, discord, etc

[ea]

I've been stuck with some other projects and haven't wrapped this one up. I've used this module

And yea, as @Kongduino mentioned, you just need to solder the pins to appropriate places and use any good LoRa arduino library. Here's a quick pic of how my wiring looked like

From then on, it's fairly easy. I made sort of a sniffer based on this and it can run for a few days with regular AAA batteries.

[Kooftness]

I've been stuck with some other projects and haven't wrapped this one up. I've used this module

And yea, as @Kongduino mentioned, you just need to solder the pins to appropriate places and use any good LoRa arduino library. Here's a quick pic of how my wiring looked like

From then on, it's fairly easy. I made sort of a sniffer based on this and it can run for a few days with regular AAA batteries.

I guess where I am stuck. is do I flash just the Lora library? or is there a package I have to flash that includes the lora library? Im an engineer so I understand the hardware but software is where I am a little slow.

[ea]

Once you have the hardware module connected , you use it as any other Arduino board. Open the arduino IDE, write your program and flash it to the device using serial. For details on how to do that, you can take a closer look at the readme in this very project.

[Kooftness]

Once you have the hardware module connected , you use it as any other Arduino board. Open the arduino IDE, write your program and flash it to the device using serial. For details on how to do that, you can take a closer look at the readme in this very project.

I came across this:
Video

but it looks like the code is in Pyhton:
Code

[Kongduino]

I'm Kongduino on Twitter and kongduino#5200 on Discord. My email address is easily guessable, on protonmail :-)

where are you located? we might be able to work something out. is there a place we could chat outside of github? whatsapp, discord, etc

[Kongduino]

This is where I can come in. I'm a natural disaster waiting to happen when you let me touch the solder iron, but code and LoRa, yeah, I'm actually paid to do that :-)

I guess where I am stuck. is do I flash just the Lora library? or is there a package I have to flash that includes the lora library? I'm an engineer so I understand the hardware but software is where I am a little slow.