Show HN: FarmNet, an open-source LoRA agricultural sensing/actuation network (opens in new tab)

(framagit.org)

139 pointstehf0x7y ago25 comments

25 comments

21 comments · 8 top-level

tehf0xOP7y ago· 4 in thread

Hey guys, just a bit of backstory as suggested by a mod:

tl;dr is that with this python script and one of the arduino sketches you can get an out-of-the-box remote sensing network with sqlite storage that is very easy to extend and hack on and has proven stable for over a year now.

The background:

I live in the countryside and wanted to find some ways to help out our neighbouring farmers with my trade. One of the things you see a lot of is remote things failing and going unnoticed -- unclosed barriers, electrified enclosures not strong enough, escaped animals, etc. In addition to this, there are some regular maintenance tasks -- opening/closing the chicken coop door, irrigation, opening/closing a greenhouse -- that are trivial to define programatically and can save a lot of time and trouble if automated.

This is the backbone to a set of other projects currently in the pipeline, but it also includes chicken coop door opener in one of the example nodes. I have some neighbours working on remote sensing for their solar-powered electric fence generator using LoRa. Overall this technology's mix of low-power and long-range transmission makes it an awesome tool for cheap, 'low'-tech countryside hacks.

rmason7y ago

Just a tip, in the states the term 'remote sensing' refers to aerial photography of crops either by satellite, airplane or drone. These photos can find problems in the growing crop related to stress.

Things may be different in Europe but over here your use of the term will confuse people. Good luck on your project it has many applications.

https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/fabe-5541

pygy_7y ago

Not sure why this is being downvoted, since it appears to be accurate (searching for "remote sensing agriculture" only yields results about aerial/satellite imagery), and the linked paper contrasts "remote" (aka aerial) with "ground-based".

That usage is quite problematic though, because, by using such a broad term for such a specific application, you lose the ability to use it to describe other valid "remote sensing " instances such as those implemented by the OP.

1 more reply

asynchronous137y ago

> in the states the term 'remote sensing' refers to aerial photography of crops either by satellite, airplane or drone.

Sorry, but that's not even remotely true. (Haha, I kill me). There's all sorts of remote sensing in embedded systems for oil companies and other applications that is just some electronics, sensors, and a radio for sending data back to some central location.

TeMPOraL7y ago

I guess it's "remote sensing" vs. "remote sensors".

xd19367y ago· 4 in thread

LoRa is awesome technology, if you haven't yet played with it. Here in West Michigan, our city's Board of Public Works runs the local power station, which in turn powers snowmelt heated sidewalks in our downtown area. The employees are testing homegrown bricks in the sidewalk with little temperature sensors and LoRa radios that can run for months without needing a recharge, that in turn report their temperatures back to homebase. Super cool.

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20180626/new-smart-bric...

LoRa can be used for all kinds of low-bandwitch medium-range transmission of data. Temperatures, lat-long, you name it.

d21d3q7y ago

I've played with LoRaWAN and I think that it has one major problem. Limited ack frames. In such case you can not be 100% sure about your data. Symphony link claims that they have every frame acked, and firmware uploads, but I didn't test it. LoRaWAN could work with custom channels (private freq), not limited to 1% of air time.

tibu7y ago

I'm not that deep involved in LoRa but isn't there a problem with it that by spamming the network you can take down the whole one with a $3 device?

tehf0xOP7y ago

This could definitely be an issue, but in my use case I think I'd find the perp pretty quickly and scare him off with my pitchfork :) . It's important to space out the messaging, I don't send more frequently than 1msg/minute, and messages are 8-12 bytes, and most sensors are 1 msg/hour.

1 more reply

dbrgn7y ago

In general LoRa (and LoRaWan) are designed to be very resilient against interference, but targeted jamming seems possible: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.02141.pdf

On the other hand, jamming is possible for most radio protocols. I'm pretty sure it's illegal though, even in the license free band.

And LoRaWan in standard mode is inherently unreliable (unconfirmed packages by default). Using it for "passive" logging is fine, using it for critical "active" remote control maybe less so.

StavrosK7y ago· 4 in thread

Does anyone know some cheap LoRa radios I can buy? I'd like to play with it, but so far I only know about the LoPy (expensive but easy to program) and some no-name radios for which sample code is very hard to come by.

tehf0xOP7y ago

At the end of the readme I point out the boards I use, namely the adafruit Lora feather which was the best bang for buck Arduino compatible board, and the Lora/GPS header for raspi which I would not necessarily recommend anymore, but that I can say works with this code.

StavrosK7y ago

Oh I missed that, thanks. My local Hackerspace made some boards that have that LoRa radio and an ESP8266 on them, I might grab some of those as I'm not in the US and Adafruit won't ship here cheaply, thank you.

1 more reply

frazar07y ago

If you're looking for something Arduino-compatible, you should consider the RFM9x family of boards, based on the SX1276 LoRa chips.

Breakout board from Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3072

StavrosK7y ago

Ahh, those are the boards I couldn't find sample code for, thanks! Adafruit is a godsend.

staticvar7y ago· 1 in thread

It would be cool to see this sending data to farmOS running on the Raspberry Pi. farmOS has a nice graphing and mapping UI for assets on farms and I know they have it running on some Pi's.

https://farmos.org/

tehf0xOP7y ago

Oh cool, I'll give this a look! I also want to get integration working with OpenSprinkler in the near future.

wiradikusuma7y ago

Is there any table/matrix to compare basically "for this use that"? Esp in terms of range, speed, bandwidth and power consumption (and maybe licensing?)?

CalRobert7y ago

Thanks!! It so happens I'm signing on a house on a few acres Monday and want to set up remote soil sensors - this seems like just the thing for coordination.

Sendotsh7y ago

This looks very cool, and I actually have a farm project right now that could use it.

chicob7y ago

Cool. I think I have some use for this.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

25 comments

21 comments · 8 top-level

tehf0xOP7y ago· 4 in thread

Hey guys, just a bit of backstory as suggested by a mod:

The background:

rmason7y ago

Just a tip, in the states the term 'remote sensing' refers to aerial photography of crops either by satellite, airplane or drone. These photos can find problems in the growing crop related to stress.

Things may be different in Europe but over here your use of the term will confuse people. Good luck on your project it has many applications.

https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/fabe-5541

pygy_7y ago

1 more reply

asynchronous137y ago

> in the states the term 'remote sensing' refers to aerial photography of crops either by satellite, airplane or drone.

TeMPOraL7y ago

I guess it's "remote sensing" vs. "remote sensors".

xd19367y ago· 4 in thread

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20180626/new-smart-bric...

LoRa can be used for all kinds of low-bandwitch medium-range transmission of data. Temperatures, lat-long, you name it.

d21d3q7y ago

tibu7y ago

I'm not that deep involved in LoRa but isn't there a problem with it that by spamming the network you can take down the whole one with a $3 device?

tehf0xOP7y ago

1 more reply

dbrgn7y ago

In general LoRa (and LoRaWan) are designed to be very resilient against interference, but targeted jamming seems possible: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.02141.pdf

On the other hand, jamming is possible for most radio protocols. I'm pretty sure it's illegal though, even in the license free band.

And LoRaWan in standard mode is inherently unreliable (unconfirmed packages by default). Using it for "passive" logging is fine, using it for critical "active" remote control maybe less so.

StavrosK7y ago· 4 in thread

tehf0xOP7y ago

StavrosK7y ago

1 more reply

frazar07y ago

If you're looking for something Arduino-compatible, you should consider the RFM9x family of boards, based on the SX1276 LoRa chips.

Breakout board from Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3072

StavrosK7y ago

Ahh, those are the boards I couldn't find sample code for, thanks! Adafruit is a godsend.

staticvar7y ago· 1 in thread

It would be cool to see this sending data to farmOS running on the Raspberry Pi. farmOS has a nice graphing and mapping UI for assets on farms and I know they have it running on some Pi's.

https://farmos.org/

tehf0xOP7y ago

Oh cool, I'll give this a look! I also want to get integration working with OpenSprinkler in the near future.

wiradikusuma7y ago

Is there any table/matrix to compare basically "for this use that"? Esp in terms of range, speed, bandwidth and power consumption (and maybe licensing?)?

CalRobert7y ago

Thanks!! It so happens I'm signing on a house on a few acres Monday and want to set up remote soil sensors - this seems like just the thing for coordination.

Sendotsh7y ago

This looks very cool, and I actually have a farm project right now that could use it.

chicob7y ago

Cool. I think I have some use for this.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse