Würth Elektronik Offers LoRaWAN® FeatherWing

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Würth Elektronik expands its range of FeatherWing development boards to include the Daphnis-I FeatherWing Board. The energy-efficient Daphnis-I radio module installed on the board operates using the LoRaWAN® 1.0.4 protocol (Long Range Wide Area Network). This IoT radio protocol in the EU868 frequency band enables devices to communicate with a gateway located over ten kilometers away. The FeatherWing design enables rapid prototyping for smart factory, smart home, and smart city applications, or for monitoring tasks in agriculture and logistics.

The Adafruit Feather form factor offers the advantage that developers can seamlessly combine Würth Elektronik's ever-growing range of FeatherWings with hundreds of compatible boards from other manufacturers. With the Daphnis-I FeatherWing, Würth Elektronik now offers power-saving LoRaWAN® technology, alongside its various other wireless solutions. The radio module on the Feather board, based on the STM32WLE5CCU6 chip, features remarkably low current consumption of just 63.9 nA in sleep mode. This makes it perfect for battery-powered devices such as sensor networks for IoT applications. The FeatherWing comes with the external 868 MHz Hyperion-I antenna and a UMRF-to-SMA RF cable.

Star networks

The LoRa Wide Area Network architecture has a star topology. LoRa end devices communicate with LoRa gateways, which forward the data packets to a LoRaWAN® server that, in turn, communicates with the application server. All communication is secured with 128-bit AES encryption. The Daphnis-I FeatherWing supports LoRaWAN® classes A, B and C, which means that the module can receive data in response to its transmissions, either time-controlled or with a permanently open download-receive window. The radio module is controlled via a UART interface using an easy-to-use AT command set. It can log on to the network (activation) using either the OTAA or the ABP method. Würth Elektronik offers an evaluation kit for the Daphnis-I module used here, along with a convenient PC tool with a graphical user interface and a software development kit for its entire FeatherWing portfolio. Developers also have free access to Würth Elektronik’s GitHub repository, where they can find examples for testing this product – such as secure connections between the module and a LoRaWAN® network server to transmit sensor data to various cloud platforms. Quick-start examples are available for cloud platforms like TTN, AWS, Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, and Kaa IoT.

The Daphnis-I FeatherWing is now available from stock. The Daphnis-I radio modules are sold without a minimum order quantity.