LoRa-RFM96 915MHZ range test -->3.7miles, 6km!!

[luisgcu]

I  have made range test with the LoRa RFM96 915MHZ,  under similar LoS condition as the test that I did with the RFM96 433MHZ, I got  data at a distance of 1.5miles (2.7km).
I want to do same test placing one moteino with the rfm96  antennas in an small artificial elevation nearby  where  there is a  Good LOS.

[Felix]

Awesome!
I would think you can easily get more with certain sets of settings.
Please do consider sharing your settings or code for the sender so others could give these a try.
Thanks for sharing!

[luisgcu]

Hello Felix ,here is what I  have.. is quite a bit messy.. but it works , I have to put more comments in English.
will be great if someone may do a range test  in
area with good LOS lets say  more than 10 miles? and  maybe more ??
My final goal is to develop a water pump control & monitoring application .

Moteino(LoRa) Pump  <---> (Moteino LoRa) with Sd  card data logger  & BT connection < --> Android or raspberry pi application for control and monitoring  remote pump?  will be interesting to see if is possible to do some sort of mesh network with LoRa modules. RFM69 is fine for that.. but not much range as I would  like to have..more than 4 miles..

My second idea is to do some sort a GPS tracking using LoRa modules.. not sure how legal or compliant will be using the RFM96 LoRa 915 for such applications.. for now I just having fun playing with all that.. and the most important is learning lot of cool stuff..
if any one is interested in cooperate with expertise in doing that.. let me know..  I am working on PCb design too..
forget to mention.. I am not good coding.. that is the part that took more time for me.

[letcher]

Two days ago I ran a crude test with a MoteinoMega LoRa as a client, on a breadboard with a Adafruit Ultimate GPS, setting on the dash of my car. For a server  I used a Motenio LoRa in my office at home on a cabinet.  Both with standard 1/4 wave antennas and no effort to optimize propagation.  The client in the car sent out packets from the GPS in the KML format needed by Google Earth (long, lat, altitude) every two seconds.  The home client logged the incoming data to a file. 

I went to the market about 20 mile away and turned on the client when I started home.  The topography is lots of trees  and hills, typical of the Puget Sound Basin of Western Washington.

I examined the KML file and found a good number of records when I got about 800 feet from the server.  However the first packet recorded was from a point 8.7 miles away!  Initially I thought it must be random noise except it plotted out on Google Earth to a point on my route.  There was no data recorded between the first point until I was 832 feet from the server.

[luisgcu]

Hi Letcher,
Are u using LoRa  modules  915mhz?
Your data logger is programmed  in the moteino?  Is the rfm96 sharing the SPI with the SD card??
I try several  times to get working the microsd  card sharing the spi  with the rfm96 but that didn't  work  for me.
That's why  I use one arduino nano with the uSd  card alone it communicate  with the moteino via  I2C.
I got 8km range using rfm96  433mhz with not good LOS , I am trying get help  from my wife to do a range test placing my data logger  in a park nearby  that is 20 meter above  sea level.

[letcher]

Hello Luisgcu,
I'll try to answer your questions.

The data logger is simply a PC running RealTerm software which is a terminal program for windows.  It has a logging feature that allows logging data to a file.  The Moteino server is simply connected to the PC.

I am using the 915mhz LoRa parts.

The server is a MoteinoMega LoRa connected to a Adafruit Ultimate GPS via serial1.  I used the Adafruit GPS library to parse the GPS data.  This made it easy to pull out the Lat/Long in decimal format and then send to the client ready to file to the log.  I used Longitude, Latitude, Altitude, space for each packet. (-122.109573,47.898357,18.60 )

Eventually I want to have a link between my car and home when I am close enough, without using extreme measures to optimize propagation.  I live in the forest and so the range will be limited.

Please post the results of your test and give your wife my condolences. :-)

[luisgcu]

I made second test following similar path along the road  as I did with the RFM96-433MHZ and the 2 moteinos made contact at distance of 6 km, its is obvious  that  at 915mhz  a perfect LOS is require to get data communication between  moteinos.

Antennas heights .
RFM96-915:
Home  antenna: 2.5 meter high
Antenna at farthest  distance :20 meter high

RFM96-433MHZ
Home antenna: 2.5 meter high
Antenna at farthest  distance :2 meter high