DFRobot now showcases the Private LoRaWAN Gateway with Built-in Local Server and Node-RED (US 915 MHz) to serve as an effective and affordable indoor IoT gateway that can enable makers, developers, and smart-home enthusiasts to create their own miniature low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) free of the need to access cloud services. This gateway works within the frequency prevalent in the US915/AU915 band, and crams advanced connectivity, computer power, and local processing capabilities in an easy-to-use gadget.
It consists, in the simplest implementation, of a LoRaWAN gateway, which is built with a multi-core Cortex-A35 chip, a Semtech SX1302 8-channel LoRa chip, so that it can serve a group of multiple sensor nodes simultaneously. It also has 512 MB of onboard RAM and 16 GB of flash disk memory, which gives the device enough resources to locally access high-level applications and flows of data. Perhaps most importantly, it comes with an inbuilt SIoT (Secure Internet of Things) server and installs a visual programming environment known as Node-RED. The tools do not use external cloud systems, keep data confidential, and provide extremely low-latency replies when dealing with automation.
One of this gateway’s biggest strengths is its local processing capability. All the data remains inside the local network as opposed to being sent to remote servers to obtain sensor data. MQTT brokers, parsers, dashboards, and automation can be configured with Node-RED, a drag-and-drop framework and interface that simplifies the creation of an automated workflow, regardless of users having prior code experience. As an example, a sensor of moisture in a greenhouse may automatically activate irrigation, e.g, by configuring the speciality of simple-flow within Node-RED.
The gateway is compatible with Mbps Ethernet and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi access and management to the local network. On the LoRa side, it works with eight channels, which means that several end devices, e.g., soil moisture sensors, weather stations, environmental monitors, etc, can be available at the same time. It is also useful in home automation, smart building, and IoT teaching laboratories due to its small indoor design and simple installation.
Currently, the DFRobot private LoRaWAN gateway is priced at around $99 on the official DFRobot store. It is currently in stock and available for purchase online, with shipping depending on region and distributor availability.