As a proud sponsor of Team Project Conference from the local university, Thaumatec helped to develop two student projects, one of those, was the winning project, our LoRaMiG – LoRa Main Independent Gateway and it was chosen as the Best Hardware Project. The competition was no piece of cake, the competitors presented amazing devices, however, Thaumatec conquered the day.
The story behind
For a couple of years, Thaumatec has been sponsoring Team Projects Conference at the local University of Science and Technology; this year, Thaumatec helped to develop two student projects. One of the projects was LoRaMiG – LoRa Main Independent Gateway, which was chosen as the Best Hardware Project by the jury at the Team Project Conference. It was a great honour for us because the competition was tough and all the teams presented amazing devices. That’s why we have the need to mention the importance and more details of LoRaMig.
What is a LoRa gateway?
To show it in the simplest way – the gateway is a bridge between devices and the LoRa network. Many of the IoT devices were designed to use a minimum of energy, that’s why they need to communicate with the low-powered network – like LoRa. A gateway, transform the data from devices send by a low-powered network into standard networks – like WiFi. In this case, we created a device who is using GSM signals to be available everywhere.
Why to build a solar-powered LoRa gateway?
Thaumatec built the solar-powered Lora Gateway because we believe, that this device can solve a lot of global problems and help many businesses. LoRa is a low power, wide-area networking protocol, designed to wirelessly connect battery operated devices to the Internet in regional, national or global networks. It doesn’t need much energy (as you can see, can be solar-powered), the network itself is perfectly designed for sending data from multiple sensors.
Why LoRa?
LoRa is the best solution for using a lot of sensors to monitor huge areas, for example, forests, crop fields and vast spaces. If we would have data from fire sensors from the whole forest we could predict it and prevent the destruction of natural environments. Another great use of solar-powered Lora Gateway is for optimizing agricultural results, an example of it would be measuring the humidity of soil for irrigation purposes and use less water.
The possibilites of LoRaMIG
- Long range and low energy network
- Energy efficiency
- Low-maintenance
- Data safety
- Powered by a photovoltaic panel
- Weatherproof
- Works without a service all year
- Can be placed in the hard environment
- Manageable from web application
Use cases
- Fire detection in forest
- River condition monitoring – predict flood
- Control and optimization of agricultural crops
The construction
The core of LoRaMig is Raspberry Pi Zero and LoRaWAN Concentrator IC880A to provide LoRa communication. To connect with the Internet we use Wi-fi or GSM module. With Bluetooth, we can configure working parameters. In future we plan to improve device – install GNSS module, Gyroscope and Accelerometer module for monitoring position. Want to point out, that is the probably the first gateway powered by solar panel, that’s why LoRaMiG opens new possibilities for the Internet of Things. Currently, the new gateway will expand Thaumatec’s LoRa network coverage that is provided by gateways deployed at SM Arka and University buildings.
