Hey everyone! New HA user here. Been reading docs and watching youtubes for a bit now. I’ve got the auto-discovery devices setup. Now, it’s time to start working on the more custom ones.
My next project will include LoRa. I can make my own using ESP32 or I can purchase something pre-made (i.e. Kincony ALR) but may not give me exactly what I’m looking for since the Kincony ALR is pre-built with known sensors.
I can create my sensor easy enough (famous last words). Right now, I’m trying to figure out the MQTT interface from LoRa for HA. (example: ultrasonic distance over LoRa). Do you guys know of any LoRa/mqtt gateways that are customizable? I do see lots of recommendations for gateways, but I haven’t seen how customizable they are if they would work.
I may just have to learn how to write up my own gateway, but hoping for recommendations on existing gateways.
ESPHome has a proven track record and a superior protocol (native api) then mqtt
It supports a good amount of transceivers with lora modulation
You might also want to drop a sentence or two about the actual use case you have in mind to don’t end up with some x-y problem
For example esp-now doesn’t need dedicated transceivers (the build in radio/antenna is used) and might be perfectly fine for many tasks bridging longer distances
Handy response! Super Useful! I will review the links. I assumed I was limited to MQTT for LoRa.
My initial use-case is monitoring the water level of my pond that is currently beyond my WiFi signal, about 600 feet away. The water-proof ultrasonic sensor (A02YYUW) will measure the top of my pond water (which is different than the HC-SR04, as I have to parse the serial data bytes). I will also probably throw in my battery and temperature sensors off the same chip.
My second use-case is firing a relay to open my gate about 800 feet away, along with getting status of “open” and “close” using voltages on different pins.
In fact you’ll use neither MQTT neither ESPHome API on your ESP as you use Lora and with Lora you can only transmit single payload in mainly one direction
That payload will be received by a gateway around that will transmit it at a LNS (Lora Network Server) that will decode the payload that is encrypted and processes it.
After that, you’ll need to interface the LNS (the Lora server) usually through MQTT. If you use Chirpstack that you can install as app in HA, you interface it with MQTT, same if you use a public Lora network like TTN.
Some Lora gateways support a local LNS inside usually based on Chirpstack which allows you to have your own Lora Network limited at range covered by the gateway.
For the MQTT part, I have posted a while ago how to setup it in my blog: LoRa: Connect your first device and use it in Home-Assistant | Domedia
A few years ago I did a LoRa mailbox (motion) sensor and used OpenMQTT Gateway on the home side to talk to HA. At that time, I don’t believe ESPHome had any LoRa solutions, but as the others above have posted, now there are. I came across the following which seems to provide a nice guide for both the remote node and the gateway using ESPHome.
