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- LoRa 1W Breakout - 915M30S
Do you need power? This breakout for the 915M30S module from EBYTE is a 1W (30dBm) LoRa transceiver. LoRa is great for long range (miles), low power (in sleep), and low data rates (~500bps). This breakout board is designed to connect to any platform that has SPI and 6 available GPIO. We include a robust edge mount RP-SMA connector to connect large LoRa (915MHz) antennas. In addition, the on-board U.FL connector can be used if you need to get outside a metal enclosure.
We've successfully broadcast 12 miles line-of-sight (thank you foothills!) using this module but your results may vary.
Our example sketches make quick work of the initial setup for the SX1276 LoRa transceiver from Semtech, and the RadioLib Arduino Library makes advanced configuration and protocols (AX.25, Hellschreiber, Morse, RTTY, and SSTV) a cinch too!
We do not plan to regularly produce SparkX products so get them while they’re hot!
Experimental Product: SparkX products are rapidly produced to bring you the most cutting edge technology as it becomes available. These products are tested but come with no guarantees. Live technical support is not available for SparkX products. Head on over to our forum for support or to ask a question.
- SPX1276 Based Design
- 915MHz center band
- 1W Power Amplifier
- Robust RP-SMA connector
- On-board U.FL connector (requires moving a 0Ω resistor)
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Customer Reviews
4 out of 5
Based on 3 ratings:
3 of 3 found this helpful:
Works great, huge range
Have this guy installed in a custom remote controller with a half length hard antenna. Works well with radiolib Arduino library and teensy.
1 of 1 found this helpful:
Radio for telemetry board
Running off an itsy bitsy M4. Programming was a challenge, but have configured for both sending and receiving LoRa. Have tested to 1 km on a breadboard. but expect can go much further than that. Very happy with this product- can't wait to really test it on a pcb.
Update- now running on a pcb, wonderful range. Just be sure to use the "rx enable" and "tx enable" pins. These must be set high for the unit to receive or transmit. "tx enable" pulls a lot of power, should only be high when the unit is actually transmitting. For example:
digitalWrite(txEnable,HIGH); LoRa.beginPacket(); LoRa.print("hello"); LoRa.endPacket(); digitalWrite(txEnable,LOW);
Easy to kill
I've had 3 of these boards and they all stopped working after awhile. SPI returns 0xff for version. no code or wiring changes.
So I understand with different TX power the SPX-18574 could possibly not reach back SPX-18572 (LoRa 1W Breakout - 915M30S) but they should be able to communicate with each other over a close distance? Can you confirm?
Correct. We've had the 100mW Mini Shield happily chirping to the 1W breakout. I think most any LoRa radio, based on nearly any chipset but specifically Semtech ICs (eg: SX126x, SX127x, SX128x) can talk to each other when setup with compatible settings.
I cannot get this sketch to work on an ESP32 (ESP Thing from SF) to save my life. I was able to get the Meshtastic FW working fine, so I know both pieces of hardware communicate. The farthest I get is "failed, code (-2)" upon trying to initialize. I've moved GP0, GP1, nrst, and CS all over the place and I cannot get past this initialization failure. I've tried using/not using the SPI bus, that didn't seem to make a difference. I've tried both grounding and pulling CS high manually. Nada. I've tried to debug through the RadioLab library, but it's difficult to follow. Can anyone confirm A) whether the SPI bus MUST be attached before communication is established? and B) Which specific pins on an ESP are confirmed to work? Thanks.
I'm having the same issue. Tried different boards as well and no dice. Any chance you figured it out?
Should we connect both power sources? 5vdc and 3.3vdc? I have both voltages available but my MCU is a 3.3vdc MCU.
The datasheet is your friend. 5V is used to power the amplifier and should be 3.3 to 5V, but as close to 5V as possible for max transmission. Data/logic pins are 3.3V max (tho they do say you can put a 1k on 5V logic lines).
Done
It would be cool to see some really long range walkie talkies with this module.
LoRa is great for long range long range (miles), low power (in sleep). Is "long range long range" a typo?
Yep, fixed - thanks!
1 Watt sounds good, how does that compare to the lora explorable or the sparkfun pro rf? Would it give greater range?
1W gives you considerable more range. Most LoRa modules, including the ones we sell, are 100mW. It's not linear (10x power doesn't mean 10x range) but it's quite a lot more range.
Hi Nate. Can you confirm that the Document file “Example Sketch showing power amplifier control” is the needed code to get the best distance?
Also, wiring — on the back there is 5v and 3.3v pins .. are both required? If one is looking for the most simple hook up with wires , just need 3.3v ground SDI/SOO/ScK /CS or does it also require 5v?
'Best' is tricky, but yes, the example sketch is what we've used for our testing. It demonstrates how to set the library to use the power amplifier control pins. The .setOutputPower(20) could be increased but I'd have to check the library for the max value it accepts. I suspect the setOutputPower is controlling the amp in the SPX1276 and not the external power amp (that's what TXEN and RXEN are used for) so the demo sketch should be very nearly at the max.
5V is required to power the module. 3.3V is required if you need to use the onboard pullups. For example, if you do not connect 3.3V and you do not connect RESET, reset will be left floating and you may run into problems.
RXEN and TXEN are optional, but if you don't connect them, you might as well buy the 100mW module ;)
Hi Nate! I've hooked up the transceiver to an Arduino Mega and a Sparkfun Redboard, with all SPI, ground, 3.3v, and 5v pins hooked up as well as d0 on a hardware reset pin and d1 on a digital pin. However, on both boards when I run the example code, I always get the same "Initializing ... failed, code -2" error. Am I missing anything? What else could I try?
Check your solder joints. Continuity test from the pad on the LoRa module all the way down to the pin on the ATmega328 to verify connections.
Hi! Update #2 on the project, I thought maybe the USB power was causing the issue, so I hooked up an external power source to the Arduino Nano, and still same error. What else could I try?
I'll try that, thanks. Any chance it could have something to do with the pins I'm using? I have the board hooked up to pins 50 through 53 on the Mega, those are marked as SPI but I also just noticed the "ICSP" header is also marked with SPI? Should I be using that one instead?
Update, I've checked continuity right to the pin and there weren't any issues. I realised the 5v digital pins on the Arduino might've done damage to the board, so I tried another commenter's suggestion of putting 1K resistors on all digital pins, and used an Arduino Nano instead (edit: Also used a different transceiver board, that had only been tested with the 3.3v logic on the Redboard). Same connections, wiring is still good, but error remains. Is there anything else I could try?
I'm also having a similar problem, I'm rather sure I hooked up the SPI pins as well as the RST pin but radiolib still gives me error code -2.
UPDATE: IT WORKS! So, turns out I had the SDI and SDO pins backwards, try swapping the two. Best of luck!
Any luck yet? I can't think what else to try...
Edit- Additionally hooking up the RXEN and TXEN I do see that is required
Thanks!!!!
Yes, 1 Watt is a lot more power. The Rfm 9x on the pro rf is only 100mW. This thing is 10 TIMES MORE POWERFUL (but does not give you 10 times more distance) Also, SparkX made a board with this module a long time ago, but they retired it. I am glad they brought this BEAST back!
Indeed. We have a few new plans for this beast.
Had a friendly request fo the description to add a warning/notice — if I am not mistaken 1W transmit power is the maximum power and used with any kind of “ directional antenna“ with this product ^i(f at max power) would exceed the allowed “directional radiation power” ?