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SparkX Pro RF - LoRa®-enabled 915MHz
The black version of this board has been retired but the board has gone red! We upgraded to the SAMD21 on the SparkFun Pro RF.
The Pro RF is the mind meld of a Pro Micro and a long-range RFM95W LoRa®-enabled radio. What you get is a very compact, easy to use Arduino with excellent point to point data transmission in the 915MHz ISM band. The Pro RF comes with a LiPo connector, a on-board LiPo charger, and a slide switch for On/Off. The board programs over a reinforced microB connector with a sleek reset button that fits nicely on the side of the board. We've even added our popular Qwiic connector to the edge of the board making it incredibly fast to add sensors and actuators.
Thanks to the Arduino LoRa library, the RFM95W radio is an easy to use packet radio. But it doesn't stop at point-to-point packet radio because closing a few jumpers will give the Pro RF access to the DIO pins on the RFM95W which are necessary to operate in LoRaWAN mode, so you can use the Pro RF as a LoRaWAN node in a distributed sensor network such as The Things Network.
The Pro RF also includes a power switch and 2-pin JST connector for powering from a lithium battery. With the power switch in the off position, the Pro RF will even charge the attached battery!
And stop running out of ground pins! Every pin on the Pro RF is accompanied with a ground connection making buttons and LEDs super easy to connect. And in case your building something to be embedded into clothing or other physically harsh environment the antenna includes a stress relief hole to make sure your wire antenna survives.
Although a short (3 inch) wire antenna is sufficient for short distances (up to 1 mile line-of-sight), LoRa® is theoretically capable of covering extremely long distances (several miles) using the proper antenna. We've included the sketches we used for range testing.
Checkout the Pro Micro hookup guide as a general starting point for the Pro RF.
Experimental Product: SparkX products are rapidly produced to bring you the most cutting edge technology as it becomes available. These products are tested but come with no guarantees. Live technical support is not available for SparkX products. Head on over to our forum for support or to ask a question.
- Example Sketches used for range testing
- Datasheet for the RFM95W
- Schematic
- Eagle Files
- Hookup Guide:
- To get the latest files please visit the GitHub repo
SparkX Pro RF - LoRa®-enabled 915MHz Product Help and Resources
LoRaWAN with ProRF and The Things Network
July 3, 2018
Learn how to make a LoRaWAN node for your next long range IoT project and connect it to the internet with The Things Network!
SparkFun SAMD21 Pro RF Hookup Guide
October 4, 2018
Using the super blazing, nay blinding, fast SAMD21 whipping clock cycles at 48MHz and the RFM96 module to connect to the Things Network (and other Radio woodles).
Comments
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Customer Reviews
4 out of 5
Based on 1 ratings:
Very useful but...
The I2C is not available except through the QWIIC Connector. When it came time to connect a Device, I had to order your custom connector cables.
There needs to be a way to charge the battery without powering the Microcontroller.
There is no way to identify the connectors and pins from the schematic.You need to add a vector drawing to the schematic identifying the physical layout of every connection, because after headers are added to the board which hide the silkscreened labels and it is inserted into a breadboard or custom circuit, identifying the connections is troublesome, especially when in the field away from the picture in the web site which is the only way to identify the connections after adding headers.
Is there any way to factory-reset this module? After successfully loading some example code, it is no longer recognized by my computer and the blue "stat" light doesn't light up. (A second, untouched, SparkX Pro RF is recognized and glows blue.)
Can this module receive packet messages from the SparkX SAMD21 Pro RF 1W module?
I know this item has less output power-- and can't reach back as far as the new 1W module. My set up would just be the 1W module as the 'base station' and sending out pack data to this less expensive module. I don't need to communicate back to the base station
Can you 'mix' these two products ?
Stress relief hole. YES!
Seriously, please put these on everything that's likely to have directly attached wires.
I saw the link for the Pro Micro hookup guide, but I'm still uncertain how to connect i2c sensors to this board. Could I get an example of which pins to use for a single i2c sensor?
The hardware I2C pins for the 32u4 are broken out to the Qwiic Connector, so if we make a Qwiic breakout for your sensor, you can attach it without soldering. Anything else you can connect using something like the Qwiic Breadboard Jumper Cable
You could also run "Software I2C" on some other pins.
I second Mschreib28's comment. I'd love to see the I2C broken out to actual headers as well as the Qwiic connector. Personally the Quiic connector doesn't help making a shield or daughter board for the processor board and that is my preferred way to add accessories to an MCU.