I’m on a budget and i’m looking to mount a node on a pole in my back yard. I have access to a 3d printer, i have soldering skills, and i’m okay with buying individual components and assembling them myself. I’d like it to look nice but it doesn’t have to if that keeps costs down.
The first goal is reliability, i won’t be able to easily access it once it’s up. The second goal is cheap, i’m on a fairly tight budget. It’s possible the device might be in wifi range where it’s mounted so that would be a nice bonus.
This looks like my best bet. Batteries and metal mount included really sell me on it. I saw mention of upgrading the antenna have you tried that or felt the need to?
The most important thing is the location. LoRa works best with direct line of sight. The higher you can place it, the better.
Of course, a higher gain antenna will provide an advantage. It will narrow the radiation beam, so it shines more to the sides instead of wasting power by covering the areas above and below.
In an area without any obstacles it will extend your range. In an urban area it can overcome some obstacles by better reflecting the signal off of certain surfaces. Or so I’ve been told, I’m not a physicist :)
In our mesh, the most popular antenna for stationary repeaters is Mikrotik Omni, 6.5 dBi. You can use any reputable vendor in your area, but avoid the cheap stuff from aliexpress. They often lie about the gain, and can be a hit or miss.
Be careful about the antenna connectors, though! Most of the ready made repeaters come with RP-SMA connectors. The normal SMA, or even the N-type connectors are certainly more popular with the traditional radio crowd. There are adapters, or ready made cables with appropriate ends available.
Then there’s the interference. You can have the best location and high gain antenna, but if there’s a mobile cell tower broadcasting on a close enough frequency, you’re going to have a bad time. This might be highly dependent on the region and the chosen lora band. (433, 868 or 915 Mhz). If you suspect this might be a problem, the RF filter can be screwed in, in front of the antenna.
Hope I didn’t scare you. Best of luck!
The opposite of scared me, i’m more interested than ever but i think that antenna would put the whole project out of my price range at this time. Whatever i pick will be out in rural country side, rolling hills and plenty of trees, and will be mounted up on a decommissioned wooden telephone pole. Would a beefy antenna make enough of a different to justify being added?
I once did a connection between this, on the top of the hill:
and a SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-E, on the roof of the tall office building, 40km away, under the ideal conditions.
However, it wasn’t until I’ve installed the proper RF filter and this monster of an antenna that the connection became reliable in the nearest city and even villages >50km away.
So you can absolutely start small, and if the need arises, upgrade later.
The higher gain the antenna the more narrow, straight out horizontal, the signal will be.