Hi,
I am designing/building some of automation for an agriculture field and need advice on choosing appropriate transceiver (RFM69HCW or RFM95_LoRA) to pair with the Moteino.
Here is the field setup:
~20 hectare area (approx 1500ft x 1500ft). Automation consists of ~30 soil moisture/ph sensors, ~20 irrigation valves -- all will battery powered. A central hub (wall powered, placed in one corner of the field) will poll/control these. This will be a private network and there is no need to integrate with any public gateways/networks. Farthest distance between central hub to the sensor/valve would be ~2000ft, with plants/shrubs (of ~7ft) in between them. I do not see need for high bit/transmission data rates. Sensors will periodic transmit data, irrigation valves will need bi-directional comms, with few bytes of control commands.
I plan to use Moteino for both sensor and valve control. As I said, need advice on choosing the appropriate transceiver (RFM69HCW or RFM95_LoRA).
RFM69HCW seems to be well supported via the RFM69 library compared to LoRa. Unsure how RF will perform with these many nodes and does one of these transceivers offer clear advantage over the other? Finally anything else that I should take into account w.r.t RF/Range/Antennas while I am designing this system?
Thanks in advance!