LoRa is a fantastic solution for long-distance, low-power wireless communications (and popular, judging by the number of projects built around it) and LoRaTube offers an autonomous repeater, completely contained within a piece of PVC pipe. At the top goes the antenna and inside is all the necessary hardware, along with a stack of good old D-size alkaline cells feeding a supercap buffered power supply of its own design. It is weatherproof, cheap, autonomous and thanks to the extremely low standby current, it should last more than five years [Bertrand]’s settlement.
You can make a fast LoRa repeater in about an hour, but while the core hardware can be cheap, supporting electronics and components (not to mention the housing) for off-grid deployment can quickly add significant costs. Solar panels, charge controllers and a rechargeable power supply also add potential points of failure. Sometimes it makes more sense to go for cheap, simple and robust. Eighteen D-size alkaline cells stacked in a PVC pipe are as robust as they are affordable, especially if you can use them for several years.
You can watch [Bertrand] lift a LoRaTube repeater and perform a range test in the video (French), embedded below. Source code and CAD files are on the project page. Black outdoor service cat not included.
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