Dragino LoRaMiniDev Payload Addressing Client

This is a demo Dragino LoRa Mini Dev featuring LoRa® technology client (based on one of the examples from Arduino-LoRa) that uploads telemetry data to my AdaFruit.IO and Azure IoT Hubs Windows 10 IoT Core on Raspberry PI proof of concept (PoC) field gateways.

LoRaMiniDevTH02

Bill of materials (Prices Sep 2018)

  • Draguino LoRa MiniDev USD23
  • Seeedstudio Temperature&Humidity Sensor USD11.50 NZD20
  • 4 pin Male Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable USD2.90

The code is pretty basic, it shows how to pack the payload and set the necessary RFM9X/SX127X LoRa module configuration, has no power conservation, advanced wireless configuration etc.

The Grove 4 pin Male Jumper to Grove 4 pin Conversion Cable was a quick & convenient way to get the I2C Grove temperature and humidity sensor connected up.

/*
Adapted from LoRa Duplex communication with Sync Word

Sends temperature & humidity data from Seeedstudio

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor-High-Accuracy-Min-p-1921.html

To my Windows 10 IoT Core RFM 9X library

https://blog.devmobile.co.nz/2018/09/03/rfm9x-iotcore-payload-addressing/

*/
#include
#include
#include
const int csPin = 10;          // LoRa radio chip select
const int resetPin = 9;       // LoRa radio reset
const int irqPin = 2;         // change for your board; must be a hardware interrupt pin

// Field gateway configuration
const byte FieldGatewayAddress[] = "LoRaIoT1";
const float FieldGatewayFrequency =  915000000.0;
//const float FieldGatewayFrequency =  433000000.0;
const byte FieldGatewaySyncWord = 0x12 ;

// Payload configuration
const int PayloadSizeMaximum = 64 ;
char payload[PayloadSizeMaximum] = "";
const byte SensorReadingSeperator = ',' ;

// Manual serial number configuration
char DeviceId[] = {"LoRaMiniDev5"};

const int LoopSleepDelaySeconds = 10 ;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
while (!Serial);

Serial.print("LoRa Setup-");
Serial.println( DeviceId ) ;

// override the default CS, reset, and IRQ pins (optional)
LoRa.setPins(csPin, resetPin, irqPin);// set CS, reset, IRQ pin

if (!LoRa.begin(FieldGatewayFrequency))
{
Serial.println("LoRa init failed. Check your connections.");
while (true);
}

// Need to do this so field gateways pays attention to messsages from this device
LoRa.enableCrc();
LoRa.setSyncWord(FieldGatewaySyncWord);

//LoRa.dumpRegisters(Serial);
Serial.println("LoRa Setup done.");

// Configure the Seeedstudio TH02 temperature & humidity sensor
Serial.println("TH02 setup");
TH02.begin();
delay(100);
Serial.println("TH02 Setup done");

Serial.println("Setup done");
}

void loop()
{
int payloadLength = 0 ;
float temperature ;
float humidity ;

Serial.println("Loop called");
memset(payload, 0, sizeof(payload));

// prepare the payload header with "To" Address length (top nibble) and "From" address length (bottom nibble)
payload[0] = (strlen(FieldGatewayAddress)<<4) | strlen( DeviceId ) ;
payloadLength += 1;

// Copy the "To" address into payload
memcpy(&payload[payloadLength], FieldGatewayAddress, strlen(FieldGatewayAddress));
payloadLength += strlen(FieldGatewayAddress) ;

// Copy the "From" into payload
memcpy(&payload[payloadLength], DeviceId, strlen(DeviceId));
payloadLength += strlen(DeviceId) ;

// Read the temperature and humidity values then display nicely
temperature = TH02.ReadTemperature();
humidity = TH02.ReadHumidity();

Serial.print("T:");
Serial.print( temperature, 1 ) ;
Serial.print( "C" ) ;

Serial.print(" H:");
Serial.print( humidity, 0 ) ;
Serial.println( "%" ) ;

// Copy the temperature into the payload
payload[ payloadLength] = 't';
payloadLength += 1 ;
payload[ payloadLength] = ' ';
payloadLength += 1 ;
payloadLength += strlen( dtostrf(temperature, -1, 1, &payload[payloadLength]));
payload[ payloadLength] = SensorReadingSeperator;
payloadLength += sizeof(SensorReadingSeperator) ;

// Copy the humidity into the payload
payload[ payloadLength] = 'h';
payloadLength += 1 ;
payload[ payloadLength] = ' ';
payloadLength += 1 ;
payloadLength += strlen( dtostrf(humidity, -1, 0, &payload[payloadLength]));

// display info about payload then send it (No ACK) with LoRa unlike nRF24L01
Serial.print( "RFM9X/SX127X Payload length:");
Serial.print( payloadLength );
Serial.println( " bytes" );

LoRa.beginPacket();
LoRa.write( payload, payloadLength );
LoRa.endPacket();

Serial.println("Loop done");

delay(LoopSleepDelaySeconds * 1000l);
}

In the debug output window the messages from the device looked like this

09:53:05-RX From LoRaMiniDev5 PacketSnr 9.3 Packet RSSI -65dBm RSSI -109dBm = 11 byte message "t 16.8,h 98"
Sensor LoRaMiniDev5t Value 16.8
Sensor LoRaMiniDev5h Value 98
AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync start
AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finish
The thread 0xba0 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0xb24 has exited with code 0 (0x0).
09:53:15-RX From LoRaMiniDev5 PacketSnr 9.3 Packet RSSI -65dBm RSSI -108dBm = 11 byte message "t 16.7,h 98"
Sensor LoRaMiniDev5t Value 16.7
Sensor LoRaMiniDev5h Value 98
AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync start
AzureIoTHubClient SendEventAsync finish
The thread 0x76c has exited with code 0 (0x0).
The thread 0x91c has exited with code 0 (0x0).

Then in my Azure IoT Hub monitoring software
DraginoLoraMinDevEventHub
The dragino LoRa Mini Dev with an external antenna connector would be a good indoor data acquisition node for student project when powered by a 2nd hand cellphone charger.

Azure IoT Hubs LoRa Windows 10 IoT Core Field Gateway

This project is now live on github.com, sample Arduino with Dragino LoRa Shield for Arduino, MakerFabs Maduino, Dragino LoRa Mini Dev, M2M Low power Node and Netduino with Elecrow LoRa RFM95 Shield clients uploaded in the next couple of days.

AzureIOTHubExplorerScreenGrab20180912

The bare minimum configuration is

{
  "AzureIoTHubDeviceConnectionString": "HostName=qwertyuiop.azure-devices.net;DeviceId=LoRaGateway;SharedAccessKey=1234567890qwertyuiop987654321qwertyuiop1234g=",
  "AzureIoTHubTransportType": "Amqp",
  "SensorIDIsDeviceIDSensorID": true,
  "Address": "LoRaIoT1",
  "Frequency": 915000000.0
}

So far battery life and wireless communications range for the Arduino clients is looking pretty good. CRC presence checking and validation is turned so have a look at one of the sample clients.

ArduinoUnoR3DraginoLoRa
It took a bit longer than expected as upgrading to the latest version (v1.18.0 as at 12 Sep 2018) of Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client (from 1.6.3) broke my field gateway with timeouts and exceptions.

I’ll be doing some more testing over the next couple of weeks so it is a work in progress.

AdaFruit.IO LoRa Windows 10 IoT Core Field Gateway

This project is now live on github.com, sample Arduino with Dragino LoRa Shield for Arduino, MakerFabs Maduino, Dragino LoRa Mini Dev, M2M Low power Node and Netduino with Elecrow LoRa RFM95 Shield clients uploaded in the next couple of days.

AdaFruit.IO.LoRaScreenShot
While building this AdaFruit.IO LoRa field gateway, and sample clients I revisited my RFM9XLoRa-Net library a couple of times adding functionality and renaming constants to make it more consistent. I made many of the default values public so they could be used in the field gateway config file.
The bare minimum configuration is

{
“AdaFruitIOUserName”: “——“,
“AdaFruitIOApiKey”: “——“,
“AdaFruitIOGroupName”: “——”
“Address”: “——“,
“Frequency”: 915000000.0
}

So far battery life and wireless communications range for the Arduino clients is looking pretty good.

ArduinoUnoR3DraginoLoRa

Arduino LoRa Payload Addressing Client

This is a demo Arduino client (based on one of the examples from Arduino-LoRa) that uploads telemetry data to my Windows 10 IoT Core on Raspberry PI field gateway proof of concept(PoC).

Bill of materials (Prices Sep 2018)

ArduinoUnoR3DraginoLoRa

The code is pretty basic, it shows how to pack the payload and set the necessary RFM9X/SX127X LoRa module configuration, has no power conservation, advanced wireless configuration etc.

/*
  Adapted from LoRa Duplex communication with Sync Word

  Sends temperature & humidity data from Seeedstudio 

  https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor-High-Accuracy-Min-p-1921.html

  To my Windows 10 IoT Core RFM 9X library

  https://blog.devmobile.co.nz/2018/09/03/rfm9x-iotcore-payload-addressing/

*/
#include
#include
#include
const int csPin = 10;          // LoRa radio chip select
const int resetPin = 9;       // LoRa radio reset
const int irqPin = 2;         // change for your board; must be a hardware interrupt pin

// Field gateway configuration
const byte FieldGatewayAddress[] = "LoRaIoT1";
const float FieldGatewayFrequency =  915000000.0;
const byte FieldGatewaySyncWord = 0x12 ;

// Payload configuration
const int PayloadSizeMaximum = 64 ;
char payload[PayloadSizeMaximum] = "";
const byte SensorReadingSeperator = ',' ;

// Manual serial number configuration
char DeviceId[] = {"Arduino1"};

const int LoopSleepDelaySeconds = 60;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  while (!Serial);

  Serial.println("LoRa Setup");

  // override the default CS, reset, and IRQ pins (optional)
  LoRa.setPins(csPin, resetPin, irqPin);// set CS, reset, IRQ pin

  if (!LoRa.begin(FieldGatewayFrequency))
  {
    Serial.println("LoRa init failed. Check your connections.");
    while (true);
  }

  // Need to do this so field gateways pays attention to messsages from this device
  LoRa.enableCrc();
  LoRa.setSyncWord(FieldGatewaySyncWord);  

  //LoRa.dumpRegisters(Serial);
  Serial.println("LoRa Setup done.");

  // Configure the Seeedstudio TH02 temperature & humidity sensor
  Serial.println("TH02 setup");
  TH02.begin();
  delay(100);
  Serial.println("TH02 Setup done");  

  Serial.println("Setup done");
}

void loop()
{
  int payloadLength = 0 ;
  float temperature ;
  float humidity ;

  Serial.println("Loop called");
  memset(payload, 0, sizeof(payload));

  // prepare the payload header with "To" Address length (top nibble) and "From" address length (bottom nibble)
  payload[0] = (strlen(FieldGatewayAddress) << 4) | strlen( DeviceId ) ;
  payloadLength += 1;

  // Copy the "To" address into payload
  memcpy(&payload[payloadLength], FieldGatewayAddress, strlen(FieldGatewayAddress));
  payloadLength += strlen(FieldGatewayAddress) ;

  // Copy the "From" into payload
  memcpy(&payload[payloadLength], DeviceId, strlen(DeviceId));
  payloadLength += strlen(DeviceId) ;

  // Read the temperature and humidity values then display nicely
  temperature = TH02.ReadTemperature();
  humidity = TH02.ReadHumidity();

  Serial.print("T:");
  Serial.print( temperature, 1 ) ;
  Serial.print( "C" ) ;

  Serial.print(" H:");
  Serial.print( humidity, 0 ) ;
  Serial.println( "%" ) ;

  // Copy the temperature into the payload
  payload[ payloadLength] = 't';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  payload[ payloadLength] = ' ';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  payloadLength += strlen( dtostrf(temperature, -1, 1, &payload[payloadLength]));
  payload[ payloadLength] = SensorReadingSeperator;
  payloadLength += sizeof(SensorReadingSeperator) ;

  // Copy the humidity into the payload
  payload[ payloadLength] = 'h';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  payload[ payloadLength] = ' ';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  payloadLength += strlen( dtostrf(humidity, -1, 0, &payload[payloadLength]));  

  // display info about payload then send it (No ACK) with LoRa unlike nRF24L01
  Serial.print( "RFM9X/SX127X Payload length:");
  Serial.print( payloadLength );
  Serial.println( " bytes" );

  LoRa.beginPacket();
  LoRa.write( payload, payloadLength );
  LoRa.endPacket();      

  Serial.println("Loop done");

  delay(LoopSleepDelaySeconds * 1000l);
}

In the debug output window the messages from the device looked like this

Register 0x40 – Value 0X00 – Bits 00000000
Register 0x41 – Value 0X00 – Bits 00000000
Register 0x42 – Value 0X12 – Bits 00010010

19:15:21-RX From Arduino1 PacketSnr 9.3 Packet RSSI -49dBm RSSI -105dBm = 11 byte message "t 18.8,h 91"

19:15:30-TX 25 byte message Hello from LoRaIoT1 ! 255
19:15:30-TX Done
19:15:31-RX From Arduino1 PacketSnr 9.3 Packet RSSI -49dBm RSSI -103dBm = 11 byte message "t 18.8,h 91"

19:15:41-RX From Arduino1 PacketSnr 9.3 Packet RSSI -48dBm RSSI -106dBm = 11 byte message "t 18.8,h 91"

There must be a nicer way of building the payload, a topic for a future post maybe.

RFM9X.IoTCore Payload Addressing

The reason for RFM9XLoRaNet was so that I could build a field gateway to upload telemetry data from “cheap n cheerful” *duino devices to Azure IoT Hubs and AdaFruit.IO.

I have extended the Windows10IoTCore sample application and library to show how the conditional compilation directive ADDRESSED_MESSAGES_PAYLOAD controls the configuration.

When the application is started the RFM9X is in sleep mode, then when the Receive method is called the device is set to ReceiveContinuous.

public void Run(IBackgroundTaskInstance taskInstance)
{
   rfm9XDevice.Initialise(915000000.0, paBoost: true, rxPayloadCrcOn : true);

#if DEBUG
   rfm9XDevice.RegisterDump();
#endif

#if ADDRESSED_MESSAGES_PAYLOAD
   rfm9XDevice.OnReceive += Rfm9XDevice_OnReceive;
   rfm9XDevice.Receive(UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Environment.MachineName));
#else
   rfm9XDevice.Receive();
#endif
   rfm9XDevice.OnTransmit += Rfm9XDevice_OnTransmit;

   Task.Delay(10000).Wait();

   while (true)
   {
      string messageText = string.Format("Hello from {0} ! {1}", Environment.MachineName, NessageCount);
      MessageCount -= 1;

      byte[] messageBytes = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(messageText);
      Debug.WriteLine("{0:HH:mm:ss}-TX {1} byte message {2}", DateTime.Now, messageBytes.Length, messageText);
#if ADDRESSED_MESSAGES_PAYLOAD
      this.rfm9XDevice.Send(UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("AddressGoesHere"), messageBytes);
#else
      this.rfm9XDevice.Send(messageBytes);
#endif
      Task.Delay(10000).Wait();
   }
}

On receipt of a message, the message is parsed and the to/from addresses and payload extracted (ADDRESSED_MESSAGES defined) or passed to the client application for processing.

private void Rfm9XDevice_OnReceive(object sender, Rfm9XDevice.OnDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
   try
   {
      string messageText = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(e.Data);

#if ADDRESSED_MESSAGES_PAYLOAD
      string addressText = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(e.Address);

      Debug.WriteLine(@"{0:HH:mm:ss}-RX From {1} PacketSnr {2:0.0} Packet RSSI {3}dBm RSSI {4}dBm = {5} byte message ""{6}""", DateTime.Now, addressText, e.PacketSnr, e.PacketRssi, e.Rssi, e.Data.Length, messageText);
#else
      Debug.WriteLine(@"{0:HH:mm:ss}-RX PacketSnr {1:0.0} Packet RSSI {2}dBm RSSI {3}dBm = {4} byte message ""{5}""", DateTime.Now, e.PacketSnr, e.PacketRssi, e.Rssi, e.Data.Length, messageText);
#endif
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
      Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
   }
}

The addressing implementation needs further testing and I’m building sample .NetMF and *duino clients.

M2M LoRaWan Node Model A328

Along with the M2M LoRaWan Gateway Shield for Raspberry Pi I also purchased a Low power LoRaWan Node Model A328. After setting the Board in Arduino IDE to Arduino pro mini 8Mhz 3V the device fired up and worked first time.

LoRaWanNodeV3_5
The device is intended for LoRaWan applications so the samples provided (including a link to application template generator) were not that applicable for my LoRa project so I used the Arduino LoRa library.

const int csPin = 10;          // LoRa radio chip select
const int resetPin = 9;       // LoRa radio reset
const int irqPin = 2;         // change for your board; must be a hardware interrupt pin

byte msgCount = 0;            // count of outgoing messages
int interval = 2000;          // interval between sends
long lastSendTime = 0;        // time of last packet send

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);                   // initialize serial
  while (!Serial);

  Serial.println("LoRa Duplex - Set sync word");

  // override the default CS, reset, and IRQ pins (optional)
  LoRa.setPins(csPin, resetPin, irqPin);// set CS, reset, IRQ pin

  if (!LoRa.begin(915E6)) {             // initialize ratio at 915 MHz
    Serial.println("LoRa init failed. Check your connections.");
    while (true);                       // if failed, do nothing
  }

  LoRa.enableCrc();

  LoRa.setSyncWord(0x12);           // ranges from 0-0xFF, default 0x34, see API docs

  LoRa.dumpRegisters(Serial);
  Serial.println("LoRa init succeeded.");
}

void loop() {
  if (millis() - lastSendTime > interval) {
    String message = "0 Hello Arduino LoRa! ";   // send a message
    message += msgCount;
    sendMessage(message);
    Serial.println("Sending " + message);
    lastSendTime = millis();            // timestamp the message
    //interval = random(2000) + 1000;    // 2-3 seconds
    interval = 1000;
  }

  // parse for a packet, and call onReceive with the result:
  onReceive(LoRa.parsePacket());
}

void sendMessage(String outgoing) {
  LoRa.beginPacket();                   // start packet
  LoRa.print(outgoing);                 // add payload
  LoRa.endPacket();                     // finish packet and send it
  msgCount++;                           // increment message ID
}

void onReceive(int packetSize) {
  if (packetSize == 0) return;          // if there's no packet, return

  // read packet header bytes:
  String incoming = "";

  while (LoRa.available()) {
    incoming += (char)LoRa.read();
  }

  Serial.println("Message: " + incoming);
  Serial.println("RSSI: " + String(LoRa.packetRssi()));
  Serial.println("Snr: " + String(LoRa.packetSnr()));
  Serial.println();
}

I did find the “grove” connectors weren’t compatible with any of my sensors, but the vendor does include a number of cables DIY connection.

GroveConnectorIssue20180822

Next I’ll use power conservation modes and see how long I can get a set of AAA batteries to last. The device looks like a good option (esp. with solar power for devices with higher power consumption sensors) for some of the SmartAg projects my students are building.

In my Windows 10 IoT Core test application I could see the enableCrc() method was working according to the RegHopChannel CrcOnPayload flag.

For real deployments of the field gateway I think packets which have no CRC or a corrupted one will be dropped.

Re-reading the SX1276 datasheet

I sat down and read the Semtech SX1276 datasheet paying close attention to any references to CRCs and headers. Then to test some ideas I modified my Receive Basic test harness to see if I could reliably reproduce the problem with my stress test harness.LoRaStress2

public sealed class StartupTask : IBackgroundTask
	{
		private const int ChipSelectLine = 25;
		private const int ResetLine = 17;
		private Rfm9XDevice rfm9XDevice = new Rfm9XDevice(ChipSelectLine, ResetLine);

		public void Run(IBackgroundTaskInstance taskInstance)
		{
			// Put device into LoRa + Sleep mode
			rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000000); // RegOpMode 

			// Set the frequency to 915MHz
			byte[] frequencyWriteBytes = { 0xE4, 0xC0, 0x00 }; // RegFrMsb, RegFrMid, RegFrLsb
			rfm9XDevice.RegisterWrite(0x06, frequencyWriteBytes);

			rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x0F, 0x0); // RegFifoRxBaseAddress 

			rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x01, 0b10000101); // RegOpMode set LoRa & RxContinuous

			while (true)
			{
				// Wait until a packet is received, no timeouts in PoC
				Debug.WriteLine("Receive-Wait");
				byte IrqFlags = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x12); // RegIrqFlags
				while ((IrqFlags & 0b01000000) == 0)  // wait until RxDone cleared
				{
					Task.Delay(20).Wait();
					IrqFlags = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x12); // RegIrqFlags
					Debug.Write(".");
				}
				Debug.WriteLine("");

				if ((IrqFlags & 0b00100000) == 0b00100000)
				{
					Debug.WriteLine("Payload CRC error");
				}

				byte regHopChannel = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x1C);
				Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("regHopChannel {0}", Convert.ToString((byte)regHopChannel, 2).PadLeft(8, '0')));

				byte currentFifoAddress = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x10); // RegFifiRxCurrent
				rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x0d, currentFifoAddress); // RegFifoAddrPtr*
				byte numberOfBytes = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x13); // RegRxNbBytes

				// Allocate buffer for message
				byte[] messageBytes = new byte[numberOfBytes];

				for (int i = 0; i < numberOfBytes; i++)
				{
					messageBytes[i] = rfm9XDevice.RegisterReadByte(0x00); // RegFifo
				}
				rfm9XDevice.RegisterWriteByte(0x12, 0xff); // RegIrqFlags clear all the bits

				string messageText = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(messageBytes);
				Debug.WriteLine("Received {0} byte message {1}", messageBytes.Length, messageText);
				Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("RegIrqFlags {0}", Convert.ToString((byte)IrqFlags, 2).PadLeft(8, '0')));
				Debug.WriteLine("Receive-Done");
			}
		}
	}

The RegHopChannel register has a flag indicating whether there was a CRC extracted from the packet header.

regHopChannel 00000000
Received 23 byte message 1 Hello Arduino LoRa! 1
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
…………………………..
regHopChannel 00000000
Received 23 byte message 1 Hello Arduino LoRa! 2
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
……………………………
regHopChannel 00000000
Received 23 byte message 1 Hello Arduino LoRa! 3
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait

I then modified my Arduino-LoRa library based client to include a CRC

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);                   // initialize serial
  while (!Serial);

  Serial.println("LoRa Duplex - Set sync word");

  // override the default CS, reset, and IRQ pins (optional)
  LoRa.setPins(csPin, resetPin, irqPin);// set CS, reset, IRQ pin

  if (!LoRa.begin(915E6)) {             // initialize ratio at 915 MHz
    Serial.println("LoRa init failed. Check your connections.");
    while (true);                       // if failed, do nothing
  }

  LoRa.enableCrc();  // BHL This was my change

  LoRa.setSyncWord(0x12);           // ranges from 0-0xFF, default 0x34, see API docs

  LoRa.dumpRegisters(Serial);
  Serial.println("LoRa init succeeded.");
}

void loop() {
  if (millis() - lastSendTime > interval) {
    String message = "5 Hello Arduino LoRa! ";   // send a message
    message += msgCount;
    sendMessage(message);
    Serial.println("Sending " + message);
    lastSendTime = millis();            // timestamp the message
    //interval = random(2000) + 1000;    // 2-3 seconds
    interval = 1000;
  }

  // parse for a packet, and call onReceive with the result:
  onReceive(LoRa.parsePacket());
}

void sendMessage(String outgoing) {
  LoRa.beginPacket();                   // start packet
  LoRa.print(outgoing);                 // add payload
  LoRa.endPacket();                     // finish packet and send it
  msgCount++;                           // increment message ID
}

void onReceive(int packetSize) {
  if (packetSize == 0) return;          // if there's no packet, return

  // read packet header bytes:
  String incoming = "";

  while (LoRa.available()) {
    incoming += (char)LoRa.read();
  }

  Serial.println("Message: " + incoming);
  Serial.println("RSSI: " + String(LoRa.packetRssi()));
  Serial.println("Snr: " + String(LoRa.packetSnr()));
  Serial.println();
}

When I powered up a single client and the payload had a CRC

...............................
regHopChannel 01000000
Received 23 byte message 6 Hello Arduino LoRa! 6
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
.................................
regHopChannel 01000000
Received 23 byte message 6 Hello Arduino LoRa! 7
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
.................................
regHopChannel 01000000
Received 23 byte message 6 Hello Arduino LoRa! 8
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
...............................

Then when I increased the number of clients I started getting corrupted messages with CRC errors.

Received 24 byte message 6 Hello Arduino LoRa! 32
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
...............
regHopChannel 01000001
Received 25 byte message 8 Hello Arduino LoRa! 114
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
Payload CRC error
regHopChannel 01000000
Received 24 byte message s��=��(��p�^j�\ʏ�����
RegIrqFlags 01100000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
.............
regHopChannel 01000000
Received 24 byte message 6 Hello Arduino LoRa! 33
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait
...............
regHopChannel 01000001
Received 25 byte message 8 Hello Arduino LoRa! 115
RegIrqFlags 01010000
Receive-Done
Receive-Wait

I need to do some more testing but now I think the problem was the RegIrqFlags PayloadCRCError flag was never going to get set because there was no CRC on the payload.

Windows 10 IoT Core LoRa library

I have a pair of Windows 10 IoT Core nRF24L01 field gateway projects, one for AdaFruit.IO and the other for Azure IoTHub (Including Azure IoT Central). I use these field gateways for small scale indoor and outdoor deployments.

For larger systems e.g a school campus I was looking for something with a bit more range (line of site + in building penetration) and clients with lower power consumption (suitable for long term battery or solar power).

Other makers had had success with RFM69(proprietary) and RFM9X (LoRA) based devices and shields/hats so I had a look at both technologies.

To kick things off I purchased

I then did some searching and downloaded two commonly used libraries

Initially I trialled the emmellsoft Windows 10 IoT Core Dragino.LoRa code on a couple of Raspberry PI devices.

RPIDraginoP2P

After updating the Windows 10 Min/Max versions, plus the NuGet packages and setting the processor type to ARM the code compiled, downloaded and ran which was a pretty good start.

I could see messages being transmitted and received by the two devices


Packet RSSI: -33, RSSI: -91, SNR: 8, Length: 5

Message Received: CRC OK, Rssi=-91, PacketRssi=-33, PacketSnr=8, Buffer:[55, ff, 00, aa, 01], 2018-07-30 09:27:48

Successfully sent in 110 milliseconds.

Packet RSSI: -15, RSSI: -100, SNR: 9.2, Length: 5

Message Received: CRC OK, Rssi=-100, PacketRssi=-15, PacketSnr=9.2, Buffer:[55, ff, 00, aa, 02], 2018-07-30 09:27:53

Successfully sent in 36 milliseconds.

Packet RSSI: -35, RSSI: -101, SNR: 9, Length: 5

Message Received: CRC OK, Rssi=-101, PacketRssi=-35, PacketSnr=9, Buffer:[55, ff, 00, aa, 03], 2018-07-30 09:27:58

Successfully sent in 36 milliseconds.

I added my first attempt at device configuration for New Zealand (based on EU settings) in Dragino.LoRa\Radio\TransceiverSettings.cs


public static readonly TransceiverSettings ANZ915 = new TransceiverSettings(

RadioModemKind.Lora,

915000000,

BandWidth.BandWidth_125_00_kHz,

SpreadingFactor.SF7,

CodingRate.FourOfFive,

8,

true,

false,

LoraSyncWord.Public);

The LoraSyncWord.Public would turn out to be a problem later!

Then I modified the sender and receiver sample application MainPage.xaml.cs files to reference my settings


private static TransceiverSettings GetRadioSettings()

{

// *********************************************************************************************

// #1/2. YOUR EDITING IS REQUIRED HERE!

//

// Choose transeiver settings:

// *********************************************************************************************

return TransceiverSettings.Standard.ANZ915;

}

I modified one of the RadioHead sample Arduino applications (centre frequency) and deployed it to a LoRa MiniDev device. I could see messages getting sent but they were not getting received by the RPI(s).

So I dumped the registers for the SX127X device in the HopeRF RFM95 module on both devices,

DraginoLoraMinDev

From the device on RPI Hat


SX1276/77/78/79 detected, starting.

1-85

2-1A

3-B

4-0

5-52

6-E4

7-C0

8-0

9-85

A-9

B-2B

C-23

D-0

E-80

F-0

10-0

11-0

12-0

13-0

14-0

15-0

16-0

17-0

18-4

19-0

1A-0

1B-42

1C-0

1D-72

1E-74

1F-9F

20-0

21-8

22-1

23-FF

24-0

25-0

26-4

27-0

28-0

29-0

2A-0

2B-0

2C-9

2D-50

2E-14

2F-45

30-55

31-C3

32-5

33-27

34-1C

35-A

36-3

37-A

38-42

39-34

The LoRa transceiver is initiated successfully.

I printed out the Radiohead and emmellsoft registers then manually compared them using the SX1276 datasheet for reference.

I found the 3 registers which contain the MSB, ISB and LSB for the centre frequency weren’t being calculated correctly (checked this by changing the frequency to 434MHz and comparing the register values to the worked example in the datasheet).

I manually “brute forced” the centre frequency registers in LoRaTransceiver.cs Init() and the RPI could then detect a signal but couldn’t decode the messages.

I went back to the Register dumps and found the SyncWord (odd name as it is a byte) were different. After updating the RPI settings the devices could exchange packets..


const double RH_RF95_FXOSC = 32000000.0;

const double RH_RF95_FSTEP = RH_RF95_FXOSC / 524288.0;

long frf = (long)(Settings.Frequency / RH_RF95_FSTEP);

byte[] bytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(frf);

byte[] x6 = { bytes[2] };

RegisterManager.WriteRegister(6, x6);

byte[] x7 = { bytes[1] };

RegisterManager.WriteRegister(7, x7);

byte[] x8 = { bytes[0] };

RegisterManager.WriteRegister(8, x8);

RegisterManager.Write(new LoraRegisterSyncWord(Settings.LoraSyncWord.Value));

This was not a long term solution, lots of code, and register setting changes with limited explanation…

Wireless field gateway protocol V2

I have now built a couple of nRF2L01P field gateways (for AdaFriut.IO & Azure IoT Hubs) which run as a background tasks on Windows 10 IoT Core on RaspberyPI). I have also written several clients which run on Arduino, devDuino, Netduino, and Seeeduino devices.

I have tried to keep the protocol simple (telemetry only) to deploy and it will be used in high school student projects in the next couple of weeks.

To make the payload smaller the first byte of the message now specifies the message type in the top nibble and the length of the device unique identifier in the bottom nibble.

0 = Echo

The message is displayed by the field gateway as text & hexadecimal.

1 = Device identifier + Comma separated values (CSV) payload

[0] – Set to 0001, XXXX   Device identifier length

[1]..[1+Device identifier length] – Unique device identifier bytes e.g. Mac address

[1+Device identifier length+1 ]..[31] – CSV payload e.g.  SensorID value, SensorID value

 

Wireless field gateway devDuino client V1

This client is a devDuino V2.2 device with an AdaFruit AM2315 temperature & humidity sensor. This sensor is powered by two AAA batteries and has an on-board support for unique device identification and encryption.

In this first iteration the focus was accessing the SHA204A crypto and authentication chip, the AM2315 sensor and message payload assembly. Reducing the power consumption, improving reliability etc. will be covered in future posts.

/*
Copyright ® 2018 Jan devMobile Software, All Rights Reserved

THIS CODE AND INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.

You can do what you want with this code, acknowledgment would be nice.

http://www.devmobile.co.nz

*/
#include <RF24.h>
#include <Adafruit_AM2315.h>
#include <sha204_library.h>

// nRF24L01 ISM wireless module setup
RF24 radio(7,6);
const int nRFPayloadSize = 32 ;
char payload[nRFPayloadSize] = "";
const byte FieldGatewayAddress[5] = "Base1";
const byte FieldGatewayChannel = 10 ;
const rf24_pa_dbm_e RadioPALevel = RF24_PA_MAX;
const rf24_datarate_e RadioDataRate = RF24_250KBPS; 

// ATSHA204 secure authentication, validation with crypto and hashing (initially only used for unique serial number)
atsha204Class sha204(A2);
const int SerialNumberLength = 9 ;
uint8_t serialNumber[SerialNumberLength];

// AM2315 I2C Outdoors temperature and humdity sensor
Adafruit_AM2315 am2315;

const int LoopSleepDelay = 30000 ;

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Setup called");

  // Retrieve the serial number then display it nicely
  sha204.getSerialNumber(serialNumber);

  Serial.print("SNo:");
  for (int i=0; i<SerialNumberLength; i++)
  {
    // Add a leading zero
    if ( serialNumber[i] < 16)
    {
      Serial.print("0");
    }
    Serial.print(serialNumber[i], HEX);
    Serial.print(" ");
  }
  Serial.println(); 

  // Configure the AM2315 temperature & humidity sensor
  Serial.println("AM2315 setup");
  am2315.begin();

  // Configure the nRF24 module
  Serial.println("nRF24 setup");
  radio.begin();
  radio.setPALevel(RadioPALevel);
  radio.setDataRate(RadioDataRate) ;
  radio.setChannel(FieldGatewayChannel);
  radio.enableDynamicPayloads();
  radio.openWritingPipe(FieldGatewayAddress);

  delay(1000);

  Serial.println("Setup done");
}

void loop()
{
  float temperature ;
  float humidity ;
  float batteryVoltage ;

  Serial.println("Loop called");
  memset( payload, 0, sizeof( payload));

  // prepare the payload header
  int payloadLength = 0 ;
  payload[0] = 1 ; // Sensor device unique ID header with CSV payload
  payloadLength += 1;

  // Copy the ATSHA204 device serial number into the payload
  payload[1] = SerialNumberLength ;
  payloadLength += 1;
  memcpy( &payload[payloadLength], serialNumber, SerialNumberLength);
  payloadLength += SerialNumberLength ;

  // Read the temperature, humidity & battery voltage values then display nicely
  am2315.readTemperatureAndHumidity(temperature, humidity);
  Serial.print("T:");
  Serial.print( temperature, 1 ) ;
  Serial.print( "C" ) ;

  Serial.print(" H:");
  Serial.print( humidity, 0 ) ;
  Serial.print( "%" ) ;

  batteryVoltage = readVcc() / 1000.0 ;
  Serial.print(" B:");
  Serial.print( batteryVoltage, 2 ) ;
  Serial.println( "V" ) ;

  // Copy the temperature into the payload
  payload[ payloadLength] = 'T';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  dtostrf(temperature, 6, 1, &payload[payloadLength]);
  payloadLength += 6;
  payload[ payloadLength] = ',';
  payloadLength += 1 ;

  // Copy the humidity into the payload
  payload[ payloadLength] = 'H';
  payloadLength += 1 ;
  dtostrf(humidity, 4, 0, &payload[payloadLength]);
  payloadLength += 4;
  payload[ payloadLength] = ',';
  payloadLength += 1 ;

  // Copy the battery voltage into the payload
  payload[ payloadLength] = 'V';
  payloadLength += 1 ;

  dtostrf(batteryVoltage, 5, 2, &payload[payloadLength]);
  payloadLength += 5;

  // Powerup the nRF24 chipset then send the payload to base station
  Serial.print( "Payload length:");
  Serial.println( payloadLength );

  radio.powerUp();
  delay(500);

  Serial.println( "nRF24 write" ) ;
  boolean result = radio.write(payload, payloadLength);
  if (result)
    Serial.println("Write Ok...");
  else
    Serial.println("Write failed.");

 Serial.println( "nRF24 power down" ) ;
 radio.powerDown();

 delay(LoopSleepDelay);
}

Arduino monitor output

devDuinoAM2315V1Output

Prototype hardware

devDuinoAM2315V1Bill of materials (prices as at Jan 2018)

  • devDuino V2.2 USD18
  • AdaFruit AM2315 USD30
  • Grove – 5cm buckled cable USD1.90
  • Grove – Screw Terminal USD2.90
  • 10K resistors x 2

RaspberyPI UWP application diagnostic output

Interrupt Triggered: RisingEdge
Interrupt Triggered: FallingEdge
09:39:03 Address 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE Length 9 Payload T  25.0,H  48,V 3.31 Length 20
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-T Value 25.0
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-H Value 48
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-V Value 3.31
Interrupt Triggered: RisingEdge
Interrupt Triggered: FallingEdge
09:39:33 Address 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE Length 9 Payload T  24.9,H  48,V 3.30 Length 20
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-T Value 24.9
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-H Value 48
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-V Value 3.30
Interrupt Triggered: RisingEdge
Interrupt Triggered: FallingEdge
09:40:04 Address 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE Length 9 Payload T  24.9,H  48,V 3.31 Length 20
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-T Value 24.9
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-H Value 48
 Sensor 01-23-32-66-C6-FE-0B-8D-EE-V Value 3.31
Interrupt Triggered: RisingEdge