Mare & Gal Electronics

Every wine producer needs to know their temperature during fermentation. There are many small producers (like in our family) without high-end equipment for fermenting the grapes and must. We produce wine for our own use (around 1000 litres) and the technology relies mostly on experience and limited information about the fermentation process.  One of the most important paramters is temperature or more specifically, the temperature profile (time dependance), its gradient and maximum value as well. In the past I connected simple I2C sensor to raspberry pi and sent data to mysql database via WiFi connection. It is shame to mention the power consumption of such thermometer.

Loradunchy module on top of the low cost solar cell

Recently, I placed LoRaWAN gateway at the top of the vineyard to cover all future need for connecting winegrowing sensors in all neighbouring vineyards. The r.pi thermometer was upgraded to LoRa and I used my own design, the LoRaDunchy module with small LiPo battery, TMP75 as sensor element and small solar cell for supplying the power. Solar power is somehow overkill for this application, but I want to check the real life solar powered sensor. It would be good experience for future sensors which I intend to place in the field for monitoring the microclimatic conditions (and possible prediction of the vine diseases).

LoraDunchy Connection diagram for thermometer application

Continue reading ‘Preparing wine with IoT sensors’ »

Two PCBs from earlier projects were used in this project:

1. LoRa breakout board
2. Sensor PCB with Si7013 humidity sensor from multisensor LoRa project
3. … and particle sensor.

Finished particle sensor in housing, ready for the TTN

Continue reading ‘Particle Sensor with LoRa’ »

This simple Helical Antenna can be used for most LoRa (and other small wireless device) applications, where space constraints exist. The construction is simple, made from wound solid Ag plated copper wire taken from piece of coaxial cable.

Helical axial antenna for 868MHz

Two options how to use this antenna on the PCB modules

Continue reading ‘Small “rubber-ducky” helical antenna for 868MHz’ »

Lora board with Arduino nano compatibile pinout and simple battery management

Small board with arduino nano compatibile pinout with power management and Murata ABZ LoRa module with STM32L0 microcontroller

Features

• LoRa module: Murata ABZ
• Single cell LiPo cell charger on-board with charging signal internally connected to PA11 (via jumper)
• Buck/Boost switching power supply for delivering stable 3,3V regardless of the batterz voltage
• Battery fuel gauge on-board to control the real status of the battery

Schematic diagram

Continue reading ‘LoraDunchy Arduino Nano pin-compatibile LoRa module with power management’ »

There was no3D model for RAK811 breakout board with GPS tracker, so I made it from the drawings. I added plastic housing to be used with velcro straps. I prepared two models, one with only RAK811 and small LiPo battery and second one, 4mm higher with enough space for additional PCB with custom electronics. Enjoy.

Higher version with additional PCB

Lower version without additional PCB

Base is same for both versions.

Continue reading ‘RAK811 3D model and plastic housing’ »

Murata produces LoRa module CMWX1ZZABZ-xxx based on SX1276 transceiver and STM32L072CZ microcontroller. The soldering of the LGA module is not very hobby-friendly. I constructed small breakout PCB for this module with additional buck/boost switcher and place for SMA connector. The transceiver features the LoRa®long-range modem, providing ultra-long-range spread spectrum communication and high interference immunity, minimizing current consumption. Since CMWX1ZZABZ-091 is an “open” module, it is possible to access all STM32L072 peripherals such as ADC, 16-bit timer, LP-UART, I2C, SPI and USB 2.0 FS (supporting BCD and LPM), which are not used internally by SX1276.

LoRa breakout board

Continue reading ‘LoRa module in DIL form’ »

This is simple antenna for 868MHz built in 5…10 minutes. Take about 10cm of RG214, a plate of PCB with the copper at one (or both) sides. Remove the coax shield and inner dielectric on one side in length of about 85mm. You will cut this to proper length during SWR measurements.

Simple antenna made with piece of coax and piece of old PCB.

Continue reading ‘Quick and dirty 868MHz antenna in 5 minutes’ »

The described device is nearly matchbox-sized board (50 x 24 mm) packed with sensors. Auxilary board is 10x50mm with additional sensors. The module is developed around the Murata ABZ LoRa module, which integrates STM32L072 and samtech SX1276 in tiny 12.5 x 11.6 x 1.76 mm package. The main board is equipped with following sensors:

• Magnetic compass MAG3110
• Thermometer TMP75 for internal temperature measurements
• MPU unit is MPU6050
• RH and temperature sensor Si7013

Small section of the main board can be separated. There aqre 6 sensor on this part of the PCB:

• Thermometer TMP75
• RH sensor SHT31
• RH, T and pressure sensor BME280
• Another Si7013 for external RH and T measurement
• Ambient light sensor VEML6030
• UV sensor VEML6075

There are two 1Mbit EEPROMs on-board for local data logging. Additional pins are available for SPI, 2x UART and I2C interface, where even more sensors can be attached.

LoRa multisensor module

Continue reading ‘Multisensor LoRa Device’ »

This is description of coaxial collinear antenna for 868MHz applications. I designed this for Lorawan gateway.

Antenna tested with lorawan gateway

Continue reading ‘Collinear antenna for 868MHz Lorawan Gateway’ »