Category: LoRa

  • QmuBeacon – ESP32 and LoRa based GPS recovery beacon and locator

    Having a broken leg, limited mobility, and paid sick leave have some perks after all. I've finally found some free time to sit on the project I started, I think, two years ago: ESP32, LoRa based GPS beacon, and locator. You know, put it on an airplane and have a way to get the distance…

  • FlySky FRM302 and FTR16S AFHDS3 receiver = 2.4GHz Long-Range radio system

    ImmersionRC Ghost is the new long-range 2.4GHz radio system that is getting the most traction in the media in the last few days. However, IRC Ghost is not the first 2.4GHz SX1280/SX1281 LoRa based radio system that has hit the market. FlySky FRM302 TX module and FlySky FTR16S AFHDS3 receiver are available since May 2020,…

  • Crossbow LRS: ready for next tests

    Looks like I was able to solve all major known problems with my DIY long range radio system Crossbow. I'm writing known, since no idea what lies beneath… Anyhow… What changed? Quite a lot: I've extended Arduino-LoRa library with ability to transfer full packet in single SPI transaction. Right now, each read of write to…

  • LoRa versus FSK modulation signal spectrum

    LoRa modulation has some advantages. Like superb receiver sensitivity and immunity to interference. Has some problems, true, but at the end, it's a great way to send small packets of data to long ranges using low power. Anyhow, today only one picture: how LoRa spectrum compares to FSK signal spectrum? Like this: Those two peaks…

  • Crossbow LRS, I’m still doing this wrong…

    Only two weeks ago I thought I solved all my major problems with DIY LoRa RC link. I was wrong. I was able to solve one problem (link unstable due to rouge packets messing up with protocol decoding), but an old problem came up again: PPM input from Taranis is no longer stable. At least…

  • A proper way of doing read callback receive with Arduino LoRa

    Arduino LoRa is a great library that brings LoRa support (SX1276/SX1277/SX1278/SX1279) to Arduino world. I'm using it in my Crossbow LRS project (still not stable enough for flight, work in progress). Until now, the biggest problem with this library I've found is that examples suggests that heavy protocol processing inside interrupt callback is fine. Unfortunately,…

  • DIY RC radio link: the problem of protocols

    So, you want to build your own RC radio system? Long range maybe? Cool, I want to do it too. Since I’m pretty deep in that topic now, I can give you a hint or two. For example, have you thought about a protocol your radio system will implement? Or rather should I say: protocols?…

  • Hands on: LoRa32u4 II 868MHz LoRa development board

    Idea for Crossbow, DIY LRS system did not appearned in my mind out of nowhere. All my previous LoRa attempts were aimed at telemetry purposes only. E45-TTL-100 are cool, but bulky. If I would want to use them, I would either have to attach Arduino to it or hack it open and reprogram onboard CPU…

  • Crossbow LRS second range test

    Looks like crappy range problem from previous post is fixed now. Today I managed to reach 2.8km range with better antennas. The ones I got from LoRa32u4 supplier were NOT 868MHz antennas for sure! 2.4GHz/5GHz probably, hard to tell. Traces on PCB are ~60mm long, so perhaps those are loaded 3/2 monopoles for 2.4GHz or…