LoRa Notecard Mesh Communications

[jdnav1024]

Hi, I am working on a fire sensor network project that we hope to implement with a LoRa mesh network, and would like some clarification on the capabilities of several products:

1. Do LoRa Notecards feature mesh capabilities beyond just a star-of-stars topology?

2. Are Notecards capable of device-to-device communication? We are wondering if data received on a LoRa Notecard can be transmitted serially from one Notecarrier companion board to another (i.e. Notecarrier XM with a LoRa card to Notecarrier XS with its own Notecard(s)).

3. Are LoRa Notecards generally compatible with LoRa-integrated MCU development boards such as the product lines from STM or Espressif?

4. For the Notecarrier XS (and others), is the QWIIC connector the standard serial interface for a host MCU?

5. Do any Blues products have analog-digital conversion (ADC) capabilities for sensor applications?

Thanks so much for your time.

[RobLauer]

Hi @jdnav1024 and welcome to the Blues community!

I’ll see if I can answer all of your questions below:

@jdnav1024

Do LoRa Notecards feature mesh capabilities beyond just a star-of-stars topology?

No - each individual Notecard LoRa connects directly (and only) to a LoRaWAN gateway.

@jdnav1024

Are Notecards capable of device-to-device communication? We are wondering if data received on a LoRa Notecard can be transmitted serially from one Notecarrier companion board to another (i.e. Notecarrier XM with a LoRa card to Notecarrier XS with its own Notecard(s)).

Yes, but it’s not as clean as the other “fallback” capabilities that we have for Wi-Fi to Cellular, or Cellular to Satellite for instance, as it would require using multiple Notecarriers. I did document a LoRa to Cell to Wi-Fi project here on Hackster just for reference.

@jdnav1024

Are LoRa Notecards generally compatible with LoRa-integrated MCU development boards such as the product lines from STM or Espressif?

Probably not, as noted above they only connect to gateways.

@jdnav1024

For the Notecarrier XS (and others), is the QWIIC connector the standard serial interface for a host MCU?

I2C (via Qwiic or wired directly to SDA/SCL pins) or UART (tx/rx).

@jdnav1024

Do any Blues products have analog-digital conversion (ADC) capabilities for sensor applications?

The STM32-based host we provide, Swan, offers ADC capabilities (see datasheet).

[jdnav1024]

Rob,

Thanks for getting back to me! Just for some clarification:

1. How are the two Notecarriers physically connected in the Hackster project? I2C QWIIC connector?
2. If LoRa Notecards cannot connect to external LoRa-integrated MCUs, is the star-of-stars topology limited to a number of Notecards reporting to a singular gateway? In other words, LoRa Notecards cannot act as relays to the gateway for an external LoRa-integrated MCU.

[RobLauer]

Hi @jdnav1024,

1. In that referenced Hackster project, I used two Notecarrier Pi hats stacked on each other. You could connect other Notecarriers via Qwiic/I2C as well. It’s important to remember that if you are literally working with two Notecards that are wired together, you’ll have to change one of their I2C addresses with the Advanced Notecard Configuration - Blues Developers.
2. Yes, you would be limited by the number of active connected devices to your LoRaWAN gateway. However, I believe it’s more a limit of how much/how frequently data is sent by each device.