Power for ESP32 - Where should I take it from?

[lgryp]

Hi,
I am considering adding an ESP32 with LoRa to my Luba2.
I assume that I have to add a small box with the ESP32 and its LoRa antenna.
But where should I take the power (5VDC or 3,3VDC) from?

Does anyone have experience with the ESP32 add-on?
I can't use Wifi seen the large working area my Luba2 operates on. So, I wan't to try a LoRa connection.
Does anyone have experience with this combination?
Is LoRa performant enough for this purpose?
Do we know how much data is exchanged?

[mikey0000]

Hi, I am considering adding an ESP32 with LoRa to my Luba2. I assume that I have to add a small box with the ESP32 and its LoRa antenna. But where should I take the power (5VDC or 3,3VDC) from?

Does anyone have experience with the ESP32 add-on? I can't use Wifi seen the large working area my Luba2 operates on. So, I wan't to try a LoRa connection. Does anyone have experience with this combination? Is LoRa performant enough for this purpose? Do we know how much data is exchanged?

Well what matters is the data rate, Bluetooth connections get literally spammed with data, so take whatever the ble data rate is and see where that sits with Lora, there IIRC is also lorawan. So plan accordingly. You'd be the first to try this. 5v or 3.3v from the mower is fine, usually there is a voltage reg on the esp32 so YMMV depending on the type, but the chip runs 3.3v I'm pretty sure, so you'd want to bypass the regulator on 3.3v but that also means voltage fluctuations could damage it

[lgryp]

@mikey0000 thank you for your reply.
Looking at the theoretical data rates (BLE 2Mbps vs 50kbps for LoRa) it is clear that purely based on the theoretical data rates LoRa is a no-go. But what is important to know is how much does the Luba2 communicate and what data rate does it need (with and/or without video enabled).
Does anyone have an idea of the effective data rate used by the Luba2 (or other Mammotion mower)?

[mikey0000]

Video is only over WiFi. So you can eliminate that.

[JoshFDXGUS]

I am considering adding a ESP32-C6 to my 2024 Yuka as a BLE Proxy and would look to pull power from the mower for it. I am wondering if anyone has been successful doing this and is it worth it? Does it work and see benefits from it?

All comments welcome.

[mikey0000]

Definitely been done, definitely worth it if you want ble only and local control. Ask on discord. Lots of 5v and 3.3v pins to take power from

[JoshFDXGUS]

by doing this it would add BLE control only through HA correct? Doesn't add any BLE control through the Mammotion app correct?

[mikey0000]

Correct