With direct line of sight?, no interveening hills/obstructions - in countryside? even gentle undulations where height isnt locally apparrent can form longer range obstruction unless GW antenna is mounted high up. Where will GW be in relation to the stables (height wise) - what does local topological map look like? These devices have small/inefficient antennas c/w say a simple housing mounted dipole and range may be an issue…more/detailed info may help judge…
Out company will soon launch this LoRaWAN IoT Button:
Some nice devices!
Is ther any statemens to the typical battery lifetime?
This heavily depended on the usage obviously. We have calculated that with 2 button interactions per day, the battery should last for 9 years, also considering self discharge.
What is the use case for 2 button presses per year?
Interesting, and what about the case of say a security or operational check where a location is visited for checks and button pushed say ‘I was here and checked’ 2x or 4x per 24hrs? (obviously dont want you to start covering every possible dutycyle in response to forumite requests but I have seen this use case with existing ‘buttons’ ). you may save yourselves some enquiry time if you can generate a usage ‘calculator’ to post on your website 
I’ve been testing oxon button which use CR2430 as does this wee follow.
They say battery lasts a month on 20 on uplinks per day/DR dependant.
https://oxobutton.ch/products/oxobutton-lorawan
@Vanthome1
When will app be available on play?
Also does the device support confirmed msg?
When available on webstore?
Dont forget the TTN FUP - regular confirms discouraged due to 10 dowlink limit and impact on GW reception being detrimental to rest of community…
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Unfortunately your use case and requirements are still not clear (enough).
Please be more specific.
What is the button on the feed bins used for?
Is it pressed by a human, a horse or something else?
When is the button pressed and when does a message need to be transmitted?
Why periodically and what is a period here?
Is battery operation required or is it possible to use mains power?
What is small?
1km or 5km makes quite a difference.
Small and long distance are conflicting requirements.
With these distances a tiny antenne built into a small device is probably not sufficient, an external antenna on the device may be required.
Can you build it yourself from modules and components and mount it in a casing or do you need a finished product that is ready for use?
“cheap and simple”. That is what we all want. 
Do you have a price range in mind?
Which are your most important requirements?
Yes, that’s a good idea, we have a calculator in form of a spreadsheet, we will publish it.
I hope it will be available in 4 weeks from now, at least the button variant. Currently the mobile app and firmware are not finished. Hardware will be assembled this week. Confirmed upstreams are not supported yet by the firmware.
That’s not two button presses a year.
Why calculate a 9 year lifespan on such unrealistic usage?
Such hype does nothing to advance our industry and making such claims amongst a technically literate community like this can only impact on n-fuse’s credibility.
Sorry, it was mean “per day”. Corrected it.
The button will be pressed by a lever as the weight of the feed is removed.
The message could be transmitted once the button is pressed, but I thought to prevent missed actions it would be better to periodically send the button state
Periodically like every 2 hours.
Battery operated
The smaller the better, but ideally smaller than 10 x 5 x 5 cm
The Antenne could be bigger, but ideally the bulk of the device will be small.
Should transmit atleast 250m, but ideally more
Wants to be less than £15
I can build circuitry, I’ve made pcb circuits and programmed Arduinos before, but if theres a finished product thats close to what I want may be easier. (The Dragino LDS01 is a good example, just not sure on range)
Its for personal use, and just at ideas stage, so sorry for the vague level of detail, but I’m just trying to understand what about and where the best compromises are. The technology sounds exactly what I need
Given we now know more on your use case it is probably a good solution - around price point, small form factor. Mount main unit in fixed position on bin, place the magnetic element on moving lever or what ever works and as position changes it will trigger (ope/close) contact for you . Battery powered, decent life for a few cycles per day, largely sealed unit suitable for deployment location. Just need to be careful with mounting/orientation of main unit and if the feed bin is metalic you may need to adapt position/mounting to ensure antenna not detuned or blocked in direction you are trying to communicate with GW(s) etc. IMHO for the price just buy one and try it. Where in the world are you located? Key to reception range, besides node mounting location/environment will be the position and height of receiving GW and any intervening clutter… 250m should be eintireley possible 
I’ve seen similar small units (measuring T&H) deployed in similar environements talking to farm or zoo buildings 200m-1km away from cow sheds, zoo huts, and horse stables…
Thanks. That gives a much better impression of your use case and will prevent many responses from users that will not be relevant for your situation.
The button will be pressed by a lever as the weight of the feed is removed.
So button is actually quite misleading here.
Wat you need is a switch, not neccesarily a ‘button switch’.
If I interprete correctly, the feed bin (as in container?) will contain (large?) supply of horse feed. When the bin is empty a notification needs to be send (regularly until refilled).
The notification signals that the bin needs to be refilled with new supply.
For reliable use in stable environments your solution will need to be dust and moist proof.
A momentary micro-switch will probably be most suitable here. They come in all kinds of models for different mechanical situations (with levers, rollers etc).
But depending on the actual situation an optical or magnetic sensing/switching solution may also be applicable.
You price point is very ‘optimistic’ even for a DIY solution.
Depending on components used for a DIY solution expect at least double that amount for the materials (LoRa devboard, case, external antenna, battery, switch and cabling). And for a finished ready to use product (probably) much more.
This use case requires more than just a ‘simple button’ device.
Please don’t post ‘links only’ without any description.