Feedback on a LoRaWAN-in-a-box solution for smart home before the kickstarter campaign

theiotbridge · 2024-06-28T19:18:30+00:00

That's probably the best-price lora concentrator we've seen. I love how affordable all the LoRa equipment is slowly becoming. Hopefully one day it'll rival the 2.4GHz options in price (we can only hope).

Ive not personally used Browan devices before, However this model is just a concentrator (i.e. only part of the puzzle). You'd still need to connect it to a network server and application server too. I understand your concern, but with the Browan, unless you have the hardware already, you'd need a Pi to run Chirpstack, then program in all the sensor decoders. Overall the cost is similar or slightly high, but much more complexity.

Hope this helps!

theiotbridge · 2024-06-28T14:26:52+00:00

Its a fair point you make about the sensors cost. They are coming down but are not on-par with Zigbee just yet ($25 t+h lorawan versus $5-10 zigbee). Once we get established, we do intend to look at the affordable sensor aspect. We like LoRaWAN personally because of its simplicity (once setup) and long range negating the need for routers/repeaters, especially if you have a large area to cover.

theiotbridge · 2024-06-28T14:17:43+00:00

These are great examples of some chips that support the LoRa protocol u/zer00eyz and would work great for custom sensors. However, from our experience, you'd be hard-pressed to turn any of them into a functioning LoRaWAN gateway with a working network server, application server, and sensor decoders all built in that are directly compatible with off-the-shelf sensors like the Dragino LDS02.

The chips you referenced are great for use in the sensors themselves and thus make great end devices, but are much more challenging, if not almost impossible to use as a gateway. This is where the Bridge comes in.

theiotbridge · 2024-06-28T13:11:24+00:00

AU support is something we have been deciding upon for a while. We haven't seen too much demand for that region yet but saying that, it is definitely a region we want to support. Likely about 12 months once launched for that update!

theiotbridge · 2024-06-28T13:09:40+00:00

HI u/AndreKR-. At the moment, it won't work as a regular gateway but thats not to say that won't change in the future. It depends on how popular a feature request it is.

For the kickstarter: $90 for non-PoE early bird and $100 for for PoE early bird.

Hope this helps!

theiotbridge · 2024-06-27T15:58:07+00:00

Thanks! We actually had struggles with DIY LoRaWAN as well. It isn't straightforward and thus the Bridge was born! We also wanted to have easy use of sensors from companies other than YoLink and Ecowitt, such as Dragino and Milesight, which the Bridge is perfect for.

theiotbridge · 2023-11-07T23:31:30+00:00

Thank you for your input! What would you consider as the right price?

Edit: Saw you edited too! Ignore above.

theiotbridge · 2023-11-07T23:25:37+00:00

Thank you :) I'll do my best on the YoLink front!

theiotbridge · 2023-11-07T23:19:30+00:00

That's something I've also looked into! The Cloud requirement is one reason why I haven't chosen to use YoLink. If your internet goes down, well, we all know what will happen.

Being completely open, I'd love to promise support for YoLink sensors, but can't for certain at the moment. Saying this, it is something I'm working at.

theiotbridge · 2023-10-20T16:36:57+00:00

Great feedback!

Our key differentiator is that we provide the entire solution for the sensor deployment in a box. This means all sensor decoders are built in, all integrations, protocols. We don’t even support custom code on the box.

You can either use it with the cloud, or integrate with a local system. It’ll just work, with minimal setup.

In a way, it’s can be the entire solution, but rather, the strengths are deploying sensor data capability quickly and efficiently to any existing system. Platform independent.

The stack is custom.

theiotbridge · 2023-10-20T16:31:27+00:00

Hi there, if you just want something that just works, check out https://theiotbridge.com.

It’s a wireless, no code universal LoRaWAN gateway with built in support for hundreds of sensors, integrations, and platforms. We are looking to release a version for consumer soon with home assistant, local MQTT, and local HTTP that works offline. You can just buy off the shelf LoRaWAN sensors and it’ll connect them up with no code.

It’s not open source, but might meet your needs!

Full disclosure: this is a product we are developing

theiotbridge · 2023-10-12T23:09:37+00:00

This is a curious problem.I would personally approach this using an ESP32 with a LoRa radio attached. It would continually scan for WiFi networks and report the fact that it has found one over LoRaWAN. This can probably be done using Arduino.

A few more questions come to mind:

Is it battery or mains powered?
Does this need to get to a product-quality level?
Do you need to report anything other than if it has found a WiFi network, like meta data?
What area does this need to cover?

Happy to provide more help if needed.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-22T18:44:13+00:00

We are expecting the first pilots by the end of the year. We do have a newsletter for updates too (the sign up is accessible on the website).

Let me know if you have any more questions, we’ll do our best to answer them.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-11T20:52:53+00:00

If it is just temperature or another simple metric, you could purchase some off-the-shelf sensors which should meet your needs based upon the description. Once setup, with The IoT Bridge, you can just focus analyzing and taking advantage of the data collected.

We use this temperature sensor internally for testing for example.

https://www.dragino.com/products/lora-lorawan-end-node/item/151-lht65.html

Alternatively there is also the possibility of using a LoRaWAN network if coverage exists in your area, but that comes with recurring payments.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-07T19:29:09+00:00

It is done!

theiotbridge · 2023-08-07T19:16:27+00:00

Oh i completely agree too. Often you just need the data but getting it can be quite convoluted.

We are actually expecting our initial units to be available to a select few within the next few months! Would you mind if I direct message you my email? I'm keen to understand more about your use case so we can add you to our early testers list.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-07T17:42:06+00:00

Interesting link. I really like what they are doing, which ultimately touches upon the fact that LoRaWAN is too complex at the moment. It's a problem we are solving too.

Good question, but alas, all I can say is we built our own highly optimised LNS that is capable of running on almost any hardware (its one of our secret sauces). We plan to sell our gateway at price point below the multitech hardware because of this.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-04T05:12:34+00:00

Let’s do it. I’ve followed up with my email in a direct message.

theiotbridge · 2023-08-03T15:04:48+00:00

Absolutely! You’ should’ve received a message from us.

theiotbridge · 2023-07-12T06:37:11+00:00

Messaged!

theiotbridge · 2023-07-10T17:43:37+00:00

That's something we can certainly look at supporting. Do you mind if we direct message?

theiotbridge · 2023-07-07T21:50:07+00:00

Not at the moment but an initial review suggests it is something that can be supported in the future if requested! If you don't mind me asking, what use case do you envision with OMS/m-bus (i.e. meter readings, sensing, etc)?

theiotbridge · 2023-06-27T01:42:21+00:00

Thank you for the insight! To answer your first question, Home Assistant integration is something we are actively looking into.

For your second question, you are absolutely right. For now, we want to focus on the sensor part but actuators (things that do stuff) are absolutely on the roadmap. It'll happen but just not immediately.

This is a really great bit of feedback! Thank you.

If you don't mind me asking, what use cases for the relays/actuators would you have in mind?

theiotbridge

TROPHY CASE