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Quick Start Guide

Two Linked LoRaSerials

LoRaSerial radios are very easy to use and ship ready to connect out of the box. Simply attach the antennas, plug two units into USB ports, open a terminal at each of the USB serial ports, and start passing data back and forth.

Passing text between two terminals

Passing simple text data between two radios

The default settings are as follows:

  • Mode: Point to Point
  • Frequency: 902 to 928 MHz
  • Channels: 50
  • Frequency Hopping: Enabled
  • Broadcast Power: 30 dbm
  • Airspeed: 4800 bps
  • Serial: 57600 bps
  • Encryption: Enabled
  • Encryption Key: Default1
  • Software CRC: Enabled

1 The radios default to a published encryption key. For maximum security, we recommend changing the key and network ID value using command mode or the training process.

Serial can be passed into the unit either through the USB port, or over the serial connector. If the serial connector is used, the baud rate is 57600 bps by default.

LoRaSerial is designed to get small amounts of data from point A to point B as easily as possible. If you've got a sensor, or Arduino, or any device that can output serial, then it can transmit data over long distances. LoRaSerial has been used to send data over 9 miles (14 km) line-of-sight.

Additional Documentation

The LoRaSerial products are described in the introduction. The radios support several operating modes.

  • Point-to-Point with guaranteed delivery or the link breaks
  • Multipoint, two or more LoRaSerial radios, is best for real-time applications but uses broadcast datagrams that may be lost

Enter command mode to change modes and adjust the parameters for that mode of operation. Training is the process to distribute the set of parameters from a server radio (server=1) to the other client radios (server=0). Training can be done one radio at a time or multiple radios at once.

The green LEDs by default display a received signal strength indication. The more LEDs that are on the better the signal. However other LED patterns are available to provide more data on the radio behavior.

Occasionally, SparkFun may release new firmware for LoRaSerial. The firmware update procedure enables you to load the firmware into the LoRaSerial radio. Advanced users may also want to build the open source LoRaSerial firmware.

Hardware Documentation

The following hardware documents are available: