9

The Adafruit Feather ecosystem

BEST OF BREED

he Adafruit Feather 32u4 LoRa

Radio, which Adafruit refers to as

RadioFruit, is its personal spin on

incorporating a microcontroller

with a 900 MHz Long Range (LoRa)

packet radio transceiver. The

microcontroller is a 32u4, with a 868/915 MHz radio

built right into the Feather form factor.

T

Adafruit Feather 32u4 RFM95

LoRa Radio – 868 or

915 MHz – RadioFruit

ADAFRUIT $12.50 adafruit.com

LoRa technology has a longer range than 2.4 GHz

radios, is very low power especially compared to

WiFi, and this board features built-in USB and battery

charging circuitry. We have tested this board to a

range of about 250 feet and it worked flawlessly, but

that’s nothing compared to Adafruit’s testing, which

was successful at 1.2 mi/2 km line-of-sight. Keep in

mind that under ideal conditions, LoRa radios can

transmit up to up to 12 mi/20 km. Just remember

that LoRa is not going to transfer audio or video files

that far, as it’s best for very small bits of information.

However, there are lots of applications where you

need to transmit small packets of data from remote

sensors, and that’s when this board really shines.

Distance is no barrier

The Adafruit Motoshield Kit for Arduino is one of

the most popular add-ons when prototyping with a

standard Arduino form factor. This shield brings all that

functionality to the FeatherWing format, making it small,

light, and just as functional. This FeatherWing will allow

you to control two bi-polar stepper motors or four brushed

DC motors, or one stepper and two DC motors easily.

$19.95 adafruit.com

DC MOTOR + STEPPER

FEATHERWING ADD-ON

FOR ALL FEATHER BOARDS

A great way to

get started with

LoRa radio

VERDICT

9 / 10

Above

Long range and low

power communications

are a breeze