Arduino has just introduced the Arduino PRO Gateway for LoRa based on Raspberry Pi 3 development board, a LoRa gateway mPCIe module, and a metal enclosure.
The strange thing about this product is that it does not feature any Arduino MCU, so why did Arduino design it? That’s because it works as a LoRa gateway for their Arduino MKR WAN 1300 IoT nodes.
The gateway is sold as a kit with a LoRa gateway Embit EMB-LR1301-mPCIe card with SX1301 baseband chipset, an adapter for Raspberry Pi, an aluminum enclosure, a Raspberry Pi 3 model B+, a 5V power supply, an Ethernet cable, and an external antenna.
Specifications for the LoRa part of the gateway:
- Chipset – Semtech SX1301
- Modulation – LoRa Spread Spectrum, FSK, GFSK 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US)
- Number of Channels – 8 LoRa Channels
- Operating Frequency – 868MHz (EU) / 915MHz (US)
- Frequency Range – 860MHz to 1020MHz
- Operating Temperature – -40°C to +85°C
- RF Output Power – Up to +27dBm
- Sensitivity – Up to -137dBm
- Interfaces for the LoRa Module – mPCIe (SPI / I2C / UART / GPIOs) :
- Dimensions – 71x40x1mm
- Operating Voltage – +5V
- Additional Features:
- Listen Before Talk (LBT) capability for improved transmission power management
- On-board uFL antenna connector
- FPGA support for LoRa Spectral Scan
What makes it different from other Raspberry Pi based LoRa gateways is that installation, provisioning and remote management is made through the Arduino Create platform. Some features like Listen Before Talk may also not be available on all competing gateways.
The 868 MHz EU version of Arduino Pro Gateway for LoRa is supposed to be up for pre-order for 350 Euros, but I’m always redirected to the US website, even behind an European proxy when I click on the link, showing the gateway is “coming soon”.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Link to the European site works fine for me, no re-direct https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-pro-gateway
There was a project to redo this Lora GW with multiple RTL-SDRs and a rpi, don’t know what is the status of it.