Arduino kit opens door to LoRa long-range connectivity

27th February 2019

Mick Elliott

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Datasheet

Availability of the new Arduino Pro Gateway kit has been announced by Farnell element14. It provides a path into the world of LoRa connectivity using ultra-long range and high interference immunity wireless technology. The kit connects seamlessly with Arduino’s MKR WAN 1300 development board, allowing existing Arduino users to design and prototype long-range, low-power IoT devices in a familiar Arduino environment without changing platforms.

Installation, provisioning and remote management of the Gateway are greatly simplified through the Arduino Create platform, enabling users to leverage LoRa connectivity.

Potential applications include automated meter reading, environmental monitoring, smart cities, home and building automation, alarm and security systems, industrial control, irrigation systems and agricultural monitoring.

The new Gateway is designed around the Semtech SX1301 digital baseband chip: a powerful digital signal processing engine which enables robust connection between the Gateway and a large number of wireless end-points spread over a wide range of distances.

The kit offers up to eight LoRa channels in the 868 MHz frequency band, allowing it to receive up to eight LoRa packets simultaneously - making it the ideal device to use in LoRaWAN gateway applications.

It features a Listen Before Talk (LBT) capability, which allows users to transmit at higher power on the first free channel, achieving longer ranges than conventional gateways for LoRa.

The gateway also comes pre-installed with an optimised packet forwarder and a carrier grade network server for LoRaWAN that is running on the Arduino Cloud, powered by A2A.

In addition to the Gateway with LoRa connectivity and the SX1301 baseband chipset, the kit contains an adapter for the Raspberry Pi, an aluminum enclosure, the Raspberry Pi 3 model B+, a 5V power supply, Ethernet cable and external antenna