Felix,
Looking at the Moteino Shop site, I see only a Moteino R5 available but with associated LoRa transceivers.
Concurrently there is no references to the MoteinoLR.
See https://lowpowerlab.com/shop/product/99
There is also no references to buy separately RFM69CW and RFM69HCW
Can you please check if this is correct?
Robert
I have to catch up on some release notes. The Moteino is now R5 and it will only accept RFM95/96 and RFM69HCW radios. No more W and HW, too much headache to keep track of all those.
MoteinoLR was technically identical to the R4 except with the different radio layout/pinout. Now they will all be the same.
EDIT: RFM69W and HW will still be available on the yellow Moteinos with trace antennas while stocks will last. I may also move those to support the same radios and also LoRas, which they did not support before.
EDIT2: I updated the product description and hopefully will release something on the blog one of these days. The R5 is not much different but it has some new features.
Just playing devil's advocate here, but wasn't there a controversy over whether the H parts would work below 2.4V? The datasheet for the module says no, the empirical data says yes, and it could be down to the specific RF switch that are currently used on modules. Which means in the future HopeRf could change supplier and still be compliant with their specs, and it might not then work below 2.4V. This is a royal PITA, would it not be better to have use spare I/O pin on the MCU and fit a resistor/break a link so that the software could distinguish which one was fitted?
Mark.
Felix,
Well, I am very disappointed with this information.
And your information about that is totally unclear (no actual picture, all documents make reference to Moteino and MoteinoLR, no release notes, no Eagle files etc...
This is a huge change in design and hardware, software tuning, etc... (for this who are using RFM69W only)
I still have to roll-out motes and I have plenty of RFM69(H)W, all my designs and documentation is done using R4.
Is it a chance to buy some extra R4, or should I imagine an alternative?
I believe this topic will raise a lot of comments.
Robert
I'm another vote in the CW > HCW camp. My house and yard are small enough that I don't need to get signals across extreme distances and the power savings the W offers has no penalty since they are still plenty loud enough to be heard. Perhaps Felix sells so many more HWs than Ws that continuing to support both isn't worth it. There was lengthy discussion of a lower power Mote a while ago that seemed to be heading somewhere. Perhaps a LP Mote that was 2xAAA battery sized and came standard with the CW would take care of those of us that don't need/want the extra mA of the HWs. Or perhaps a second set of SMDs could be added on the back side of R5 so that CWs could be hand soldered by those of us that want to stick with the lower power radios with the understanding that there is no support for going this route since Felix clearly doesn't want to keep supporting both.
In trying to address some concerns:
The change has just very recently happened, such that I haven't even had a chance to properly document it. The product photo still shows an R4.
The R5 is very much equivalent in terms of schematic. There are some layout changes, mainly to accomodate the radio.
I will look into the possibility to add the CW footprint on the bottom.
There are several reasons why I opted to go this route. I also opt for supporting the higher power HCW rather than diversifying the W. If I can fit the CW footprint then that will also cover the folks that just want 13dBm. However the HCW has the capabilities of the W and as Robert has already noted in a separate thread, we can tweak the output settings to make it behave like a W, for those who really want to tap into the lower output powers.
So what trips some folks it seems is the HCW which they might not realize is equivalent to the HW. Only it's smaller (16mm*16mm vs 19mm*16mm), and it's footprint compatible with the LoRas which is a big plus. Fewer Moteino variants is a YUGE relief in terms of logistics for me, really.
I will update the store and such in a bit, stay with me, lots going on, things are a little slow right now, but pieces will fall into place.
Any feedback on the above?
This will be it (R6?):
(http://i.imgur.com/6WiLaEZ.png)
I think it's a very useful addition. I also have a bunch of RFM69CW modules, mainly for use with Moteino R4s. I can continue to use them after this type gets in the pipeline.