LORA for model control

Any old or new electronic projects on the go
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Martin
Posts: 744
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 14:11
Location: Warwickshire

LORA for model control

Post by Martin »

LORA is a long range low power system available on 433 MHz everywhere, and also at higher frequencies - but different bands in different countries.

I thought I'd experiment with it so I've ordered a couple of ESP32 modules with built-in LORA and OLED displays. The displays should be useful for experimenting, but the modules are not too large to actually put in a plane and transmitter, if and when I get them working.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000133691142.html

I'm not sure of the legality of using LORA for controlling a plane - but it's a licence-free technology providing you're on one of the allowed bands - so I think it should be okay. Maybe I'm missing something, and it won't be suitable but I won't know till the modules arrive and I've played with them a bit.

The bandwidth is rather low depending on the "spreading factor" you use - but we don't need that much bandwidth for controlling a model. If the link is fairly reliable then we don't need to transmit all the channels at full resolution many times per second, but only send, "These are the biggest changes since I last spoke to you" type messages, with the "absolute position" data only arriving fairly slowly. This was the technique used (to a certain extent) by some of the PCM systems we used on 35MHz

ESP32 also has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth facilities, so it should be pretty easy to provide a link to a phone or tablet for configuration, telemetry monitoring, data logging and so on.

Don't be scared of the ESP32, and its older sister ESP8266. You can program them now using the Arduino IDE, and most libraries work just the same as they do on a Nano or similar. Both chips are much faster and with much more RAM, etc. than the Atmel Mega chips we normally use - the ESP32 especially so. They're also very inexpensive. They do mostly only work at 3.3V - although some pins on some modules are 5V tolerant.
bluejets
Posts: 316
Joined: 19 Jun 2019, 04:09

Re: LORA for model control

Post by bluejets »

Hi Martin,
Seems to have been tried by a few otheres over the last couple of years to varying degrees of success.
Link to one such system here......might save some time in some areas....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1DytEuOXJs
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ozrs
Posts: 114
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 15:21
Location: West Australia

Re: LORA for model control

Post by ozrs »

These guys seem to be doing a lot with these things recently.

https://github.com/AlessandroAU/ExpressLRS
Richard
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