LoRa Expansion Card

any progress on prototypes? I have no movement on my side…

I just checked the leadtime for the Murata module (as it is now available at major distributors). They expect to have them somewhere around November.
At this moment I think I’ll wait, but I may decide to go with the other (discrete) design.

I wonder if this would be compatible to talk to openlrs RC control stuff.

I am mot familiar with openLRS but if it uses LoRa, then it most likely will be. If it uses a different protocol, probably not. The chip it is based on is not a generic radio, but specifically for LoRa.

Either you’d need a dedicated expansion card. Or an SDR might be possible.

PCBs are in. I’ll order parts for 5 proto boards today.

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First one is assembled (and at least not completely broken). Made assembly a little more difficult for myself by not ordering a paste stencil.

Next ones should be easier (I hope).

If someone (or multiple someones) can aid in writing a nice library for it I’ll be happy to send one. Since I am running Linux, the library will need to work on that. Also I’d prefer sending it to someone in the EU.

When the software is done and I have working spares, I can send spares on a first come first serve basis.

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I am excited to see this project progress laptop to laptop coms without WiFi would be sick. Cant wait for them to go on sale. I am here when they do <3

Looking forward to these. Porting (or using if a port exists by the time I get my hands on one) Meshtastic to this seems like fun (and porting Meshtastic is usually quite easy, too!)

Have gotten a prototype. Thanks @S115 !

I have managed to get the Meshtastic FW to somewhat start communicating, but it fails trying to actually bring the radio up sadly. I’m sure I just didn’t implement the SPI completely right or something, but, progress!
Here’s my fork of meshtastic with my additions for anyone curious or wanting to jump in and tell me I made a stupid mistake (please feel free to, if you see one!): https://github.com/Doridian/meshtastic-firmware/tree/framework-module

Looking at the schematic, I noticed CS (called SS/NSS in the datasheets sometimes) was not connected to the MCP2210’s IO, so I bodged that in (that is what initially made everything actually start behaving and coming ready, leading into protocol-level issues now)

//EDIT: Ordered eval boards for the MCP2210 (USB-to-SPI) and the LBAA0XV2GT (the radio) so I can see where the communication fault is, since then I can try plugging a RPi directly onto the radio’s SPI lines, which should tell me if the MCP2210 is the issue etc etc

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The second version PCB has been completed. Will be ordering them shortly.
Biggest change is that I have swapped out the MCP2210 for a RP2040. It is cheaper and much more flexible. Also I have decided not to use the retrofit outline anymore. This gives slightly more space, for layout. But mostly this enables space for a chip antenna variant.

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First board of the V2 has been soldered, I’ll need to fix some misaligned components by hand. By the end of the coming week I should have at least two boards ready for software.

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Awesome progress!!! congrats on getting this far! I haven’t had time to further my version so way to go!

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Took slightly longer than a week. But I have at least one board that is willing to take firmware (the other is getting a bit hot :hot_face:).

Have not been able to get the RP2040 to show up as serial port yet though. But at least it is willing to take (Meshtastic) firmware.

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hey great job!!!

Hello! I have also been cooking up my own LoRa card for 433 MHz. It uses an Ebyte module (E22-400MM22S) and a STM32F0 MCU. You can find the design files here!

I did get all the parts and the PCB fabricated, I just need to find time to assemble it all together. I should be able to test it over spring break.

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It has bin a while since I last reported some progress. Mostly because progress has been slow. But today I replaced the flash (that I thought was a form-fit-fuction replacement) and finally got the RP2040 to show up as serial device after flashing FW. The meshtastic FW did not immediately work though (I might have changed some things to try and get the previous flash to work).

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Connected to radio

Owner: Meshtastic 2926 (2926)
My info: { “myNodeNum”: 1731143974, “minAppVersion”: 30200, “pioEnv”: “rp2040_framework_expansion_card”, “rebootCount”: 0, “deviceId”: “” }
Metadata: { “firmwareVersion”: “2.6.8.62421a83”, “deviceStateVersion”: 24, “positionFlags”: 811, “hwModel”: “RP2040_LORA”, “hasPKC”: true, “excludedModules”: 29952, “canShutdown”: false, “hasWifi”: false, “hasBluetooth”: false, “hasEthernet”: false, “role”: “CLIENT”, “hasRemoteHardware”: false }

I’ll call that progress. Now the real testing can start :smiley:

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My Framework 13 and Home base nodes are ready for testing when you get to that point <3

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It seems I am able to receive (868 MHz at least) pretty well. Sending has not been successful, yet. To determine if it is just a signal strength issue, I have ordered an off-the-shelf Meshtastic node. That will take some time to get here, but that will make it a lot easier to debug.

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