Imitating a LoRaWAN(R) with ESP8266/ESP32 and MySensors

[OldSurferDude]

Re: Gateways

Re: Gateways

I got interested in LoRaWAN(R). It actually looks much like MySensors, with long range radios. In fact, MySensors supports the rfm95 radio that is identical (?) to the LoRa radio.

So I built a MySensors Gateway with an rfm95 radio running on an ESP-12F (Arduino board Generic ESP8266 Module) and a MySensors relay node running on an ESP32 WR-32 Development Board (Arduino board DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1). I included Over-the-Air (OTA) code, which is quite handy when it works. I was pretty impressed with a range of 25m through five walls...the WiFi didn't go that far!

Here's the challenge, though. The ESP-12F does not have a lot of storage. Every "node" connecting to it will take a bit of that. How many nodes can attach to this gateway?

I don't think a MySensors rfm95 sensor network could compete with a LoRaWan(R) network on specs. But when a LoRa humidity/temperature sensor goes for € 44, I think a DiY'er could justify a few compromises.

[mfalkvidd]

@OldSurferDude the max number of nodes is 253, as with any MySensors gateway.

The esp-12f has a lot more resources than an atmega328.

[OldSurferDude]

@mfalkvidd Yes, I understand that 253 is the software limit. I was wondering about the hardware limit.

For example, my Asus router has a software limit of 253 devices. But when I get 20-25 WiFi devices trying to connect, the network goes haywire. (pun intended ) I am quite convinced that this is a hardware limitation of the router because the router has to carry some information about each connection.

If the gateway is dumb, that is, carries no information about any connection, then it could truly have 253 connections. After a bit of contemplation, I realize that the name, gateway, implies this.

If that is the case, it is good news for the DiY'er in that this very inexpensive and cheap hardware could stand in for a LoRaWAN, again, with a number of compromises.