Where are the Moteino R4 LR (LORA) schematic and board layout?

dave_sausages · February 12, 2016, 11:10:04 AM

Hi,

Does anyone know where to find the schematic and board layout (.sch and .brd) for the R4 LR Moteino?

Thanks

Felix · February 15, 2016, 04:37:42 PM

You can find the schematic here, and whatever else was published: https://github.com/LowPowerLab/Moteino/
You may not find all the variants of the boards but they are very similar.

dave_sausages · February 16, 2016, 03:05:40 PM

So there are no schematics or board layouts available for the LORA board?

The LORA board appears to be very different from the standard Moteino:

The antenna outputs are swapped (I think).
One side of the RF module has two pcb connections instead of four.
The other side of the RF module has 6 pcb connections but there are none on the PCB in that location. There are either 2 lots of 3 or 2 lots of 2.

Is it down to buyers to discover the schematic? And if so, am I allowed to publish it here for others to use? I'm assuming if the files aren't published, then the Moteino LORA isn't open source like the rest.

Felix · February 16, 2016, 04:29:10 PM

Schematic wise they are identical.
The schematic is not == board layout.

If you would visit https://lowpowerlab.com/moteino/#designfiles you would notice there is a link to the repository I included in my above post. All design files are posted there (well.. all the ones that were published). To answer your yes no question: no, there is no LoRa Moteino specific schematic (again, its the same as the regular Moteino), and layout published.

The board layouts are very similar, however the LoRa version only has 1 set of radio footprint pads, instead of 2 on the regular moteino. The connections lead to the same set of Moteino pins, except the 2 boards accept different types of radios, with different pinouts, that's simply why you look at the bottom of the 2 Moteinos and see something that appears totally different.

Does that help?

dave_sausages · February 16, 2016, 06:12:09 PM

Quote from: Felix on February 16, 2016, 04:29:10 PM
If you would visit https://lowpowerlab.com/moteino/#designfiles you would notice there is a link to the repository I included in my above post. All design files are posted there

I have looked there. There are no board layouts for the LORA Moteinos.

I will now get out my meter and work it out the connections between the RF module and the ATMEGA for myself. It still seems strange that I have to do this on an "open source" product, but hey ho. Will you be hosting the design files on Github at any point, if not I'll share my findings here for others.

On a side note to others, I've just found an image of the bottom surface of the LORA PCB with no RF module, and it gives the pin labels. I'll see if these connect to the corresponding ATMEGA pins correctly, and report my findings. Unless the manufacturer publicizes the board layout of course. Image is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15304611@N03/19895641433

WhiteHare · February 16, 2016, 07:52:34 PM

Thanks for the pointing out the photo. I hadn't actually thought to look for it before. What's of interest to me is noticing that it's connected to ground in 3 different places. I suppose I could have figured that out using the datasheet and which pads were soldered, but here you can see it at a glance.

By the way, is there any reason to think the pins aren't connected correctly? Since only a minimum number are actually connected (well, maybe more than the minimum if you count Gnd), I'm not sure how it could work at all if they weren't connected properly.

Felix · February 16, 2016, 08:35:04 PM

Open source is a very elusive term. I never claimed everything I do is open source, although mostly it is.
I just added some board layouts and schematic for the R4-LR, here:

https://github.com/LowPowerLab/Moteino/tree/master/R4

Hopefully it fills some of the gaps.

incognico · March 15, 2016, 01:37:45 AM

Must say, a month ago I was looking for these too. The opening line of http://lowpowerlab.com/moteino/ made me think I would find the LoRa board design files with the others...
"Moteino is a low cost low-power open-source wireless Arduino compatible development platform..."

I was hoping to review the design files before ordering, as I couldn't find specific info on using CAD mode hardware interrupts with Moteino hardware. I couldn't find them at the time but decided to order anyway. Thanks for putting these additional files up! Much appreciated - especially now I have a couple to play with