TUTORIAL
Let’s learn LoRa!
t seems that the terms LoRa and
LoRaWAN are everywhere at the moment,
but what are they? LoRa is a platform for
sensors to communicate wirelessly over long
range; LoRaWAN is essentially the same, but
when the receiver receives something from
a LoRa sensor device, commonly called a ‘node’, it
acts as a ‘gateway’, sending the information onto
the internet. In this tutorial, we’re going to work
through some simple LoRaWAN activities and
connect a LoRa node to ‘The Things Network’, a
crowdsourced network of gateways. This enables us
to receive data from a node and transmit some data
across the internet to a nice dashboard displaying
our data.
We are going to work with The Things Uno, which
is essentially an Arduino-shaped board that has the
LoRa communications chip built into it. We can also
program The Things Uno using the Arduino IDE, soI
Explore LoRa and LoRaWAN and transmit
temperature and humidity to an online dashboard
Let’s learn LoRa!
Jo Hinchliffe
@concreted0gJo is a contributor
to the Libre Space
Foundation, and is
passionate about all
things DIY space. He
loves designing and
scratch-building both
model and high-power
rockets, and releases
the designs and
components as open-
source. He also has
a shed full of lathes,
milling machines, and
CNC kit!Figure 1
The Things Uno wired up
to a DHT11 sensor that
can sense temperature
and humiditythe first thing is to download and install the latest
Arduino IDE software from hsmag.cc/APNJVV.
To test that The Things Uno board is working,
let’s upload a simple program to check the board.
Connect your The Things Uno to your computer
using the micro USB cable. In the Arduino IDE, click
Tools > Board, and then check it’s set to ‘Arduino
Leonardo’. Next, click Tools > Port, and select the
port that includes the label ‘Arduino Leonardo’ to
ensure the Arduino IDE is communicating with the
correct port.
Next, click File > Examples > 01.Basics > Blink,
and then click the verify button (looks like a tick on
the top left of the screen), and then click the upload
button (the right-pointing arrow button next to the
verify button). All being well, after a few seconds
your The Things Uno should have a flashing LED
that is connected to pin 13 on the board (one of the
four green LEDs next to the micro USB port).