dilong-paradoxus / solar-lora

LoRa implementation for monitoring various sensors on a solar panel setup

solar-lora

A LoRa implementation for monitoring various sensors on a solar panel setup.

As of now, the setup monitors battery voltage, light level, temperature, and humidity. The code is 100% python. The BLUE side also outputs both signal strength values over usb serial and indicates connection status via the neopixel RGB LED. Data is communicated via the LoRa protocol at 915mhz.

Many thanks to Adafruit for example code and documentation for their products!

Hardware

Solar-lora uses two identical modules composed of an Adafruit Feather RP2040 and the LoRa featherwing with a helical antenna. The RED side is connected to a windows computer via usb. The BLUE side lives on a solderless breadboard with a voltage divider and DHT11 temperature/humidity sensor. A light sensor is connected to the Stemma QT port on the RP2040.

Goals

• Fix voltage readings (currently they are way off calibration)
• Make the hardware less sketchy to reduce fire risk
• Move RED side to a dedicated monitoring computer (such as raspberry pi)
• Add seismometer sensor if data rate is not too high
• Add support for multiple radios and bidirectional communication