Improve Device Range

[jfcisco]

• Read up on LoRa modem configurations
• Consult with FIC regarding modem configurations

Some useful links:

• RH RF95 Driver
• LoRa Design Guide
• General LoRa Documentation

[jfcisco]

Avenues to Explore

RH RF95 Driver Configurations

Transmit power

• By default, Radiohead sets transmit power to +13 dBm
• LoRa modules can be set to transmit at a higher power
  • +20dBm max for Lilygo T-BEAM per datasheet
  • +18dBm max for Ra-02 radio module per datasheet
• Implications:
  • Possibly longer range
  • Higher power entails higher battery discharge (mas madaling ma-lowbat)
  • We have to experiment on how quickly the battery is drained with a higher transmit power vs original power

[jfcisco]

Bandwidth, Chip Rate, and Spreading Factor

• Still reading on how each one affects the range of the radio

• By default, Radiohead uses a medium range setting:

  • Bandwidth = 125 kHz
  • Chip rate = 4/5
  • Spreading factor = 128chips/symbol
  • Cyclic Redundancy Check on (for error correction).

• Per Radiohead docs, "if you are using slow packet rates and long packets with RHReliableDatagram or subclasses (includes RH Mesh) you may need to change the RHReliableDatagram timeout for reliable operations."

  • By default, the timeout was set to seven seconds

[jfcisco]

Consideration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone