Grasshopper LoRaWAN Development Board

Name: Grasshopper LoRaWAN Development Board
SKU: 9465
Price: 39.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.60 (12 reviews)

(12 Reviews)

STM32L082 Development Board with SX1276 LoRa Radio programmable using Arduino IDE via USB Connector

Designed by Tlera Corp in United States of America

2018-01-13T17:24:25.696Z-2017-07-12T23-06-47.405Z-Grasshopper.top.jpg

2017-07-12T23:06:47.405Z-Grasshopper.botom.jpg

2017-07-13T19:34:48.587Z-Grasshopper.pinmap.jpg

2017-04-18T03:18:19.827Z-Grasshoppers.v01d.jpg

2017-09-04T02:27:59.959Z-Grasshopper.brd.jpg

2017-09-04T02:27:59.959Z-Grasshopper.sch.jpg

Buy with confidence.

Our Tindie Guarantee protects your purchase from fraud. Learn More

Welcome to Tlera Corp!

STM32L082 Development Board with SX1276 LoRa Radio programmable using Arduino IDE via USB Connector

Back in stock! Thank you for your patience! Now supporting LoRa radio, FSK radio, and LoRaWAN! What is it? This is Grasshopper, a small (0.71 " x 1.76") development board with Murata's CMWX1ZZABZ-078…

What is it?

This is Grasshopper, a small (0.71 " x 1.76") development board with Murata's CMWX1ZZABZ-078 FCC certified module containing ST Microelectronics' STM32L082 32 MHz Cortex M0+ MCU with 192 kByte of flash and 20 kBytes of RAM and Sematech's SX1276 LoRa radio. The development board exposes 19 GPIOs to the user as well as 3V3, GND, VIN, and VREF (for the analog sector), has an indicator led on GPIO 13 as well as a power-on led that can be disabled via a solder jumper for lowest power usage, and has an on-board antenna suitable for either 868 or 915 MHz.

In fact, the chip antenna is tuned for a wide band (858 - 928 MHz) which allows the SX1276 LoRa radio to be used in a surprisingly large number of regions of the world including:

Asia AS923
Australia AU915
Europe EU868
India IN865
Korea KR920
US US915 (64 + 8 channels)

The Grasshopper development board is intended to be programmed using an Arduino IDE (just like Ladybug, Butterfly, and Dragonfly), flashing new programs and receiving serial output through the microB USB connector. But we have exposed the SWD port as well for those users who prefer to use traditional tool chains and debuggers.

We have extended our successful STM32L4 Arduino core to the Grasshopper STM32L082 variant to allow all of the usual serial protocols and peripheral utilities expected for an Arduino-programmable development board. First drop of the (alpha) STM32L0 Arduino core is reposited here. We have a GitHub repository of Arduino sketches that run on the Grasshopper here. Here (adapted from Simon Levi's LadybugFC tutorial) is how to get started if you are new to Arduino or have forgotten how to set it up.

The board can be powered from the USB connector or from a 1S LiPo battery (3.5 < VIN < 5.5 V). There is a JST port for connecting a LiPo or power may be applied to VIN and GND on the board edge. The Grasshopper LoRa development board uses an NCV8170 3V3 LDO with 150 mA output for power management. This LDO has a quiescent current of just 500 nA allowing the ultra-low potential of LoRa to be realized in this design. When the power-on led is disabled (cut the trace between solder pads on the back), the Grasshopper uses just 2.1 uA in STOP mode with full data and state retention. The LoRaWAN radio API is designed to keep the MCU in stop mode as long as possible. Proper construction of your Arduino sketch will allow the Grasshopper plus sensor add-ons to last for months on a small LiPo battery.

This test has the Grasshopper blinking the built-in led for 100 ms and then stopping for 5 seconds. The average current is roughly proportional to chosen clock speed. Here is more discussion.

Initial tests show reception out to 150 meters with no direct line of sight (through houses and cars, etc) and >500 meters out in the open. One report shows reception at a 30 meter tower antenna 1.4 km away with RSSI -115 and SNR of -9. This is pretty good performance for this simple pcb antenna! We have added an u.Fl connector so even longer-range can be achieved with an external antenna.

Why did you make it?

BLE and wifi are great and each has its niche. BLE requires low average power (~ 1 mA) and is great for streaming small amounts of data (~1 kByte per second) at short range (<10 meters), while wifi can stream large amounts of data (100s of kBytes per second) at relatively longer range (~100 meters) but at much larger power budgets (10s of mA). LoRa promises the best of both worlds, offering ultra-low power usage (< 1 mA average power) and ultra-long range (> 1 km).

We wanted to get started in this wonderful new radio sector and what better way than with Murata's new LoRa radio module, which offers a compact and complete solution that doesn't require an external antenna and allows a super small development board perfect for remote applications and even for wearable use!

What makes it special?

This is a small development board that has everything you need to get started using the next big thing in wireless technology. Order some pcbs from OSH Park and assemble some of your own or buy a fully assembled and tested board here and see how easy it can be to make LoRa work in your applications!

No country selected, please select your country to see shipping options.

Change Destination Country:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.75)

Documentation: (4.08)

Shipping: (4.75)

Communication: (4.83)

Jc | June 18, 2021

Still going strong a few years later

Bought three of these a few years ago. Still going strong. Bar cutting the LED trace, everything is simple and easy.

One of the boards was in what I had mistakenly thought was a waterproof box for 18 months of wet and windy weather. I only realised the box wasn't waterproof when I took it down after a year and a half to change batteries - the board was still running perfectly though (we probably get more rain in Ireland than Kris gets in Nevada!).

William | Dec. 20, 2020

Compile issue for LSM303AGR and MAX31855 breakout boards

Both LSM303AGR and MAX31855 breakout boards from adafruit fail to compile on any Tiera corp board. For example:
C:\Users\User\Documents\Arduino\libraries\Adafruit_BusIO-master/Adafruit_SPIDevice.h:37:43: error: 'SPI_BITORDER_MSBFIRST' was not declared in this scope
BitOrder dataOrder = SPI_BITORDER_MSBFIRST,
^
C:\Users\User\Documents\Arduino\libraries\Adafruit_BusIO-master/Adafruit_SPIDevice.h:42:43: error: 'SPI_BITORDER_MSBFIRST' was not declared in this scope
BitOrder dataOrder = SPI_BITORDER_MSBFIRST,
^
exit status 1
Error compiling for board Grasshopper-L082CZ.

I really need these to work with the grasshopper board but do not know how to fix this issue. Help needed.
Thank you
Bill

Hiroshi | Dec. 8, 2020

It is a great product!

I purchased Grasshopper and Cricket for Prototype Project.
I think it's an inexpensive and good quality product.

I would like to save average current as described by "Grasshopper power usage".
However, this has not been possible.

In the article, the CPU clock speed is reduced to 32MHz, 16MHz and 4MHz to reduce the average current uses.
But I don't understand how to reduce the clock speed.

How should I program it?

and I have one more question.

This is not the low current expected in the Arduino sample sketch "LoRaWAN_DeepSleep".
It uses about 4mA in Deep Sleep. What is missing to make the current used to be μA?

Response from Tlera Corp | Dec. 9, 2020

Hi Hiroshi,

The clock speed is chosen in the Arduino IDE tools menu before flashing. There is also a dynamic way to change the clock speed while running a program.

Not sure why you are having trouble getting low current when the Grasshopper is in STOP mode. I usually measure 2.1 uA when I disable the power on led or ~300 uA when I don't.. I am not sure how you could be getting 4 mA. Are you measuring current with the USB connected? In this case, the Grasshopper will never enter STOP mode.

Please e-mail me at tleracorp.gmail.com so we can figure out what the problem is.

Kris

Brett | Sept. 7, 2020

Great Product, Great Support

I was able to use this product to build my proof of concept and then use the provided design to integrate the device into a custom PCB solution.

Daniel | July 3, 2020

Awesome gadgets, awesome support

Here are the instructions on how to get the boards working on your computer! (Maybe this should be a little more front and center in the docs)
https://github.com/GrumpyOldPizza/ArduinoCore-stm32l0

As others said: if your board becomes unresponsive, or the COMM port disappears from the arduino menu

1. Plug in the board to your PC. Unplug any other COMM devices that show up in the Arduino menu.
2. Hold the boot button.
3. Tap the reset button.
4. Release the boot button.
5. Go to one of the example sketches for your board and try to upload it to the board.

Your board should now reappear as a COMM device.

Andrew | May 30, 2020

Great little product!

Love this little product, nice build quality, great libraries, documentation is solid given that it's all open source. Shipping was super fast, I think I got the tracking number the day I placed the order. Setting up and using the device was about as easy as any arduino product. The reliable range with default settings, in dense urban environment, with chip antennas was about 1000 ft / 300M. Line of site easily greater than 1/2 mi / 1.6km. Excellent product!

Quick question for you, to use the u.fl antenna connector instead of the chip antenna, do I need to cut the connection to the chip antenna? Or just attach a connector?

Response from Tlera Corp | May 30, 2020

Thanks for the detailed review and kind words.

For testing you may simply connect an external antenna. If you want to use the external antenna in the field or permanently attach it you can remove the 0 Ohm jumper resistor connecting the RF trace to the chip antenna (small black passive in line with the RF trace) and disconnect the on-board chip antenna without damaging anything. If you ever want to return to chip antenna use, just solder on another 0 Ohm jumper.

I wonder if the range might be increased if you take advantage of the higher output power available? Something hard for us to test accurately.

Keith | Dec. 16, 2019

Works Perfectly

I purchased two Grasshopper boards to prototype a LoRaWAN product I am working on using MachineQ gateways.

The build quality is excellent, and the boards arrived quickly and well-packaged. I used the example software to connect to MachineQ without any issues. The Prototype is going to require some modifications, so having the schematic and board layout available is very helpful. The complete LoRaWAN library is taking up about a third of the flash and about a quarter of the dynamic memory in the STM32L0, so there is plenty of room for my code.

I'm using an in-door MachineQ gateway, and getting a range of at least a half-mile through other buildings and into my car. This is really good range, especially for a broadband chip-and-trace antenna. The micro-fl connector will allow me to add a better antenna for better range, but I have not tried this yet because I really don't need it. A half-mile in an urban environment is great.

I had a couple of questions, and Kris (onehorse) answered them quickly and courteously.

If you need a small, pretty much bullet-proof, and well-documented LoRaWAN solution, this is it.

Response from Tlera Corp | Dec. 16, 2019

Thanks for the nice review Keith!

Glad to know the one-size-fits-all chip antenna is working so well. I have never done any kind of serious range testing but anecdotal reports such as this make me believe the useful range for most applications would be in the hundreds of meters.

Karl | Oct. 31, 2019

Great Development Board

The documentation was somewhat difficult to go through, but we were able to get the functionality we needed to work. I had an issue with the module not being picked up over usb, but I got a quick response how to solve that. Just exit Arduino, plug in the kit to usb, hold the boot button, then press the reset button. Overall, the examples were great and this module was a really great way to jump right into LoRaWAN for an absolute beginner like me. The LoRaWAN_Callbacks sketch has an example a of downlink for those that may have spent a few minutes longer than they should have trying to find that example.

Response from Tlera Corp | Oct. 31, 2019

Glad you were able to make this work for you. Our goal is to make the Grasshopper development board easy to use but I agree we could do better on the documentation. Still, we hope programming via USB using the Arduino IDE outweighs whatever documentation deficiencies remain. The CMWX1ZZABZ-078 module is quite capable and the examples are there to help you get started. Just let us know if you have any trouble by sensing e-mail to tleracorp@gmail.com.

Amir | Aug. 14, 2019

Great for rapid development

The development board with its integrated MCU+LoRA chipset is great for rapid development.
I was able to setup my Arduino environment quickly and get the device join my private LoRa Network (which is using loraserver.io) in about an hour or so.

Most of that time was spent trying to find where the LoRaWAN library was coming from in the hope I would find some API documentations. Unfortunately, the only documentation that exist is the code (and the examples).
My previous software was using the LMIC LoRA library which is a bit lower level, so it took some time to translate the existing code to the higher level API from the integrated LoRaWAN library.

Amir.

Mike | July 5, 2019

Great product to jump start dev!

I am so happy I found this product to start my LoRa dev projects! It has made it extremely easy to produce demo units.
The two orders I have placed were received quickly with no issues this far.

The documentation while somewhat hard to dig through is pretty thorough. I have been able to figure everything out I needed to using the 2 main GitHub repos linked in the docs.
I have not needed to communicate with seller. This is a good thing and there appears to be timely responses on this and other platforms/forums.

I will purchase many more!

Charles-Henri | June 17, 2019

Awesome

Just received this morning, plugged, installed works like a charm without any issue.

Notice that uploading sketch to device is slow compared to Arduino Zero, but may be there is a trick.

Thanks Kriss.

Response from Tlera Corp | June 17, 2019

Thanks for the nice review. The way we organized the limited flash determines the upload rate, which is rather slow. Nothing can be done about that at the moment, no trick. I hope the functionality outweighs the inconvenience for you. Kris

Julien | Jan. 26, 2019

Grasshopper board

Hello,

recently I bought a Grasshopper board, I'm satisfied by this product this corresponds to the description, there is also a good support.

For me board it's good starting point to make a IoT project with LoRaWAN, lot of implementation can be deployed with this module!

STM32 FAN

+ Show 7 more