Two weeks ago I never heard about LoRaWan or the Things, found some Youtube clips by accident, got interested, started looking around but there are 2 things that started to make me doubt to continue.
Most Youtube clips about LoRaWan seems top be from 2017-18. It gives the illusion that LoRaWan came to a halt 2 years ago.
The sensors are way too high in price for someone that just wants to learn about it. I love in Europe so everything appears to be double the price as in the US.
I have now a The Things Uno, A Dragino with a cheap Arduino Uno clone, and coming 2 ESP32 LoraWan that are in the mail.
However being part of a pioneering open network I want to dedicate my full time and effort to build out this gateway. I love new stuff.
But it is going to be hard to get other volunteers within my region if the price is so high.
I am already happy that I do receive someone else node that appears to be very distant. That person will probably wonder why his sensor suddenly out of the blue starts to have a good connection
Video is really not a very good way to present technical information.
Most technical people are painfully aware of that fact, so most real information doesn’t end up on youtube, and it’s instead the domain of those who are further from the actual practice - with possible exceptions of things like a conference presentation being recorded and posted (though while valid information, its still probably not the information that would be of the most use, or the best way to present it)
The sensors are way too high in price for someone that just wants to learn about it. I love in Europe so everything appears to be double the price as in the US.
While slightly more expensive than more commodity technologies (Semtech wants their cut of every radio) it’s not really the nodes that are expensive, rather it’s the gateways. And some of the sensing technologies people want to deploy - for example a BME680 is rather pricey in small quantity - probably 1.5 to 2x the cost of a radio module.
I want to dedicate my full time and effort to build out this gateway. I love new stuff.
Gateways are indeed key. Which are you considering or deploying?
I already deployed one Raspberry pi 4 and RAK2245 since a few days. No enclosure for the moment.
I am the first in my little town away from the big cities.
But tests with a The Things Uno and a Dragino Arduino shields works great indoors but I probably don’t get further than 50 meters outside. Even at SF12.
I am sadly surrounded by buildings, but indoors it works great.
Well here you have found an opportunity, if the price of sensors in Europe is ‘way too high’ import them from the US, sell them over here and make a huge profit.
Perhaps its worthwhile trying to understand why sensors are sold at the price they are ?
Given how much it costs to put a sensor on the market in Europe, and the quantities that are sold, I doubt manufacturers are makeing substantial profits.
