On: Ultraslow radio for decentralized global digital communication (2013)

[mindslight]

Does anybody happen to know of off the shelf LoRa radios that I could use to link two Linux machines with a minimum of tinkering? Preferably with connectors for external antennas. Preferably usable as LoRaWAN gateways down the line, or perhaps even simultaneously.

[jrexilius → mindslight]

You can use the Microchip RN2903 Motes pretty easily. (USB-to-serial connetcion). There are also USB dongles on the market such as these: https://www.tindie.com/products/dlspectrum/lora-private-text...

[mindslight → jrexilius]

Thanks for the pointer. The Microchip I remember has good datasheets, so perhaps that's the way to go.

[heljara → mindslight]

You can use the Meshtastic project to SSH between two computers connected with LoRa: https://meshtastic.discourse.group/t/guide-ssh-over-meshtast...

Not LoRaWAN, but over a DIY mesh network is still pretty cool.

[RcrdBrt → heljara]

Awesome, I'm the author of that thread you linked!

Pay attention especially on the duty-cycle warning/limitations. It might be illegal in your country to follow that guide.

[jimjimjimmy → mindslight]

A lorawan gateway would require an 8 channel concentrator card.

This software provides UDP connection to the card. https://github.com/Lora-net/packet_forwarder

Many RPI gw hardwares exist.

"Link" two linux machines? Expecting IP connections over LoRa?

[mindslight → jimjimjimmy]

Yes, I was thinking IP for simplicity's sake. Just lightweight control packets and the occasional SSH session. I think I've seen references to people doing that.

I was thinking off the shelf concentrator cards would be easier if two of them could communicate with each other in a P2P fashion, and if that was supported by common software.

Is that packet forwarding daemon the thing that is generally used on all LoRaWAN gateways? Like if I got a Mikrotik wAP LR9, would I expect it to be running that? Or better yet, if I plugged a miniPCIe (USB) R11e-LR9 into my own Linux machine, could I expect it to just work with that gateway software?

It seems the basic interface is serial links with AT commands, so perhaps the compatibility issues are trivial once you start playing around with this stuff. It's just hard to tell by reading the overview docs because they seem to be geared towards the LoRaWAN system.