What is it?

LoRa moisture sensor has been popularly used in the open hardware community, but we have got many customers' questions: How I can use your sensor with TTN/ Helium...? For these requests, this LoRaWAN moisture sensor could be a good solution.

Alike the LoRa Moisture sensor, this LoRaWAN version Moisture is still based on Atmega328P, the advantage of this controller is:

1. Arduino Uno compatible, easy to use for open hardware users. Although the LoRaWAN module RA08H itself(with ASR6601 SoC) is programmable, but it is not so popular used/easy-to-use for learners, the Arduino Uno could be much more friendly for users;

2. Low sleep current, less than 1uA. Actually, we considered the RP2040 by Raspberry Pi, (see the blog). But its sleep current is higher, not proper for a LoRaWAN node which needs low power consumption.

This module monitor soil moisture via capacitive method, with waterproof coating, it avoids the corrosion problem that usually happens on cheap resistor-mode soil moisture sensor. There is also onboard AHT10 -air temperature/ humidity sensor, to monitor air status, proper for usage in the greenhouse. This module uses 3x AAA battery as power, with sleep current of 26uA and working current of 4mA, the average working time can be more than 1 year. (with 1 hour message interval, Class A ).

This module is mainly for prototyping/ creating, we provide the firmware frames to users. In the firmware frame, we have set the lower power module, PWM setting, etc, users can simply modify a few codes (Appkey/ AppEUI/ DevEUI), to achieve a LoRaWAN application in few minutes. Also, users can modify the setting, such as LoRaWAN message interval, add/ remove functions freely in the codes. Of course, you need to make sure you have a LoRaWAN router in advance.

Makerfabs prepared a detailed usage guide for you, but again, Note that this is NOT a LoRaWAN end note that is ready to use, you will need to modify the codes, based on our given files, to create a LoRaWAN application. If you are not electronic engineer and do not know about Arduino, consider more before decision.

What makes it special?

• LoRaWAN Nodes, RA08H
• Soil Moisture Measurement based on capacitive Testing
• Low power: 7.1uA when sleeping/4mA in message sending turn around
• Onboard AHT10 sensor to monitor air temperature and air humidity
• Onboard Battery Voltage Measurement
• Full Open Source- all hardware and software open at GitHub
• Compatible with Arduino
• Supply power voltage: 4.7~3.5V