Hi we are about to recieve our new reach RS systems. Can anyone suggest where we can get the LoRa 868/915 MHz radios. As we have a couple of the Reach modules and would like the Radios on the drone.
many thanks 
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Hi,
Adafruit shows stock, but I have not seen anything in Emlid Forums or Docs regarding interfacing or upgrading. The software in Reach RS appears different than the latest 2.2.6 flash version v3.0 . Adafruit appears to provide good documentation support. I’m about ready to take the plunge, but it would be nice to know a recommended Lora board. The frequency part, of course, is country and license dependent.
I expect Emlid is busy, but my experience with this forum is that they do usually respond when they feel they are ready. (No association or endorsement of Adafruit)
And, your point of not mounting a Reach RS on a quadcopter appears valid.
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LoRa radios are a little bit more complicated than the ones used for telemetry like 3DR Radio. LoRas from different manufacturers may be partially (in)compatible with each other due to the different firmware abilities. Because of proprietary firmware they also have different configuration interfaces - some use ASCII protocols, some have GPIOs for mode switching etc.
We aim to provide a solution for external LoRa module, but need to work out some supply and compatibility stuff first, so I can’t give any ETA currently.
Don’t forget that Reach RS can also use 3DR Radio or RFD over USB OTG to communicate with Reach modules in case your setup is already using them. If Reach module is connected to an autopilot like Pixhawk/Navio correction data can be transferred over an existing telemetry link via GPS inject in GCS.
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yes, it works if you use ArduPilot and MissionPlanner as GCS. Then you can even use a single 3DR radio link to get both downstream telemetry and upstream RTCM injection.
But there is no way of getting “Differential age” and “AR ratio” information in this shared radio link, because those fields are not part of the ERB protocol.
So for any serious application you still have to have a wifi-link to the rover GPS in order to monitor the AR-ratio.
So I ask again (for the third time) when will the ERB protocol get extended to include that useful information ?
Thank you for an excellent product. But this feature is lacking
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Hi, we are in the same position re LoRa radio for Reach RS. Can’t see any further information, any radio in the shop either. Has this been resolved? Have an order in place for Reach and reach RS and some 3DR radios, but want to run LoRa ideally.
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Would be very usefull to be able to buy a lora addon for the reach. As it is allready part of the RS I would think the choice would not be too difficult as to manufacturer and protocol.
But i’m sure there are considerations. Looking forward to this option.
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Wondering what the issue is here.
I agree with @exosceleton I am reluctant to do a teardown on my RS, but surely Emlid could provide some recommendations?
How far away is a standalone LORA modem for the reach RTK, or should I develop one?
If you are more than 6 months away from having one, how many board members would be interested in helping me make a batch?
Preferred (maybe) option…
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Reach RS uses LoRa for radio, but does not use LoRaWAN.
I can’t give any specific release time, hopefully somewhere around the beginning of the next year.
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Mikhail
Any update on the time frame for the LoRa’s.
I have to get radios but dont want to spend dollars on rfd radios today and see the lora’s out in the next while?
Thanks
Jim
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Hi Mikhail,
are you still working on the separate LORA Modems? While the workaround with 3DR Radios (or similar) works, it would be great if we could use the Reach RS LoRa modem and don’t need external equipment like OTH Adapters and so on which need to be weatherproofed and so on. I often take my reach module from one platform to another and tehrefore always need to search for my OTG adapters and so on. Using LoRa would be great. In most cases my 3Dr Modules work for a connection. Otherwise I need to post process.
I have seen the new Reach M+ and Reach RS+ Models. You state there are new conenctors on the Reach M+ for further peripherals released later on.
In regards of your post where you mentioned the difficulties to attach the LoRa Modem to a normal Reach Module, I suppose this was one step to do (apart from getting away from the Edison of course). As you are usually always very fast with releases and updates I suppose there are larger probles which can’t be solved right now on the older reach modules.
Just as clarification, will there be a solution for normal reach (edison based) modules or will there be a Modem for Reach M+?
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@sebastian_achilles You’ve got the right idea. We are working on a LoRa accessory for Reach M+.
(unfortunately it is hard to get it working with original Reach due to hardware limitations).
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Is there any way you could share a bit more information about the Lora modules already in the Reach RS, what radios ARE compatible and maybe a hint on the connection protocol?
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I just tried my Reach RS with an Ebyte E45 868 MHz LoRa radio modem. As I sort of suspected it does not work, but I too would like to know if there are plans from Emlid to bring out a compatible RS232 LoRa radio modem or provide details on the chipset used inside the Reach RS.
As it is I’ll probably just use the pair of Ebyte radios to make a radio link between the Reach RS base and my tractor-based rover. Its not as simple or elegant but it should work.
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Did you check Qlrs ? They use ebyte modules
As with most other radio modules - even if they use the same modulation that does not mean that they are compatible. LoRa module inside Reach RS is a commercial solution with a proprietary protocol.
Currently we are focused on bringing LoRa connectivity to Reach M+.
When we have any other options - we will, of course, share it with the community.
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Sounds very much like Trimble’s sCMRx. Don’t take offence I’m just kidding!
If you do have a LoRa modem solution in the works that will enable RS232 out then I have some very good use cases especially in the precision ag. world where this could present a very cost effective solution, with a compatible LoRa radio in the tractor / combine / sprayer receiving corrections from a Reach RS portable base.
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Could you disclose the baud rate RTCM the messages are being sent to the Lora radio within the Reach RS from the U-Blox chip?
stty -F /dev/ttyMFD1
I think that will unlock the secret?!??
I’m pretty sure it’s 9600. Although I haven’t probed it with the scope yet. I’m working on tracking down the globalsat Lora radios they use in the reach RS. I have been keeping decent enough documentation for a more pollished post here so stay tuned. *Edit this project is not malicious in nature so hopefully this is received well.
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Are they using MOST-link then as the proprietary protocol over the LoRA channel?