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Congratulations to BigG for Communal-based Access Control using an Arduino MKR 1300 WAN , dougw for LoRa GeLo MKR - Long Range Geo-Locator MKR 1300 , and fmilburn for MKR WAN 1300: LoRa Marine Environmental Ranger ! You are winners of the Arduino Engineering Kits!
Be sure to congratulate the winners in the comments below!
We sent MKR WAN 1300s to hobo, mau_igna_06, daniloo94 , 14rhb , dougw , snidhi , mahmood.hassan , BigG , and fmilburn in order to demonstrate how engineers would use the MKR line of boards from Arduino! Each kit winner received a Pair of Arduino MKR LoRa Boards and an MKR Relay Shield!
The Grand Prize, an Arduino Engineering Kit, was open for anyone who submitted a project in Arduino Projects or on the element14 community using the tag MKR_smarterworld!
Anyone that submits a completed Arduino MKR WAN 1300 project by the deadline can win the grand prize.
Meet the Finalists:
Communal-based Access Control using an Arduino MKR 1300 WAN by BigG
- Smarter Access Control using Arduino MKR WAN 1300 boards
- Communal-based Access Control using Arduino MKR WAN 1300
The design approach was to split the project into two phases. Phase 1 Smarter Access Control using Arduino MKR WAN 1300 boards, was to develop and test a standalone system using just LoRa between the access panel and the central control panel. Phase 2 Communal-based Access Control using Arduino MKR WAN 1300 took the phase 1 design and expand the functionality by adding in the Internet gateway to allow for communal based access-control. It will also include some BLE functionality to allow for the possibility of configuration control and another user interface.
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LoRa GeLo MKR - Long Range Geo-Locator MKR 1300 by dougw :
The plan was to build the MKR 1300 into a platform with a set of useful interfaces that allow it to be adapted to many applications.
The core interfaces:
- a LoRa radio to enable low cost long range communications
- a GPS receiver (with UART interface) to track the location of the system and provide an accurate time
- a low-power SPI LCD to display graphics and text
- an I2C Grove interface to connect any serial Grove module
- 2 analog Grove interfaces to connect any analog Grove sensors
- a digital Grove interface to connect any digital grove module
These interfaces and connectors were implemented on a custom PCB that results in a clean compact system platform. Application systems were packaged in 3D printed cases tailored to accommodate the necessary features.The first application, which is the subject of this project, was a geo-locator system that can send GPS location data to a LoRa gateway.This system will initially be used to explore the reach of the LoRa radio.Some of the applications. Where you would use the geo-location capability include:
- If you generally don't have your cell phone turned on, this may be used to show where you are or where my car is.
- It could be used to show when you are arriving home.
- It can show how far away your ride is when you are being picked up after work.
- It could be used to tell you to turn your cell phone on and take it out of airplane mode.
The range of the radio will dictate which applications can be useful or how useful they will be.
Part of this initial project was to explore ways to maximize range of the radio.
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MKR WAN 1300: LoRa Marine Environmental Ranger
- Week 1: Making it Portable
- LoRa MER Week 2: Boat in a Box
- LoRa MER Week 3: Building a Shore Station and Starting the Boat
- LoRa MER Week 3.5: Testing Turbidity and Posting Data to Internet
- LoRa MER Week 4: Boat Afloat and New Antenna
- LoRa MER Week 5: Indoor Testing
- Week 6: First Sea Trials
- Week 7: Concept Demonstration
The LoRa Marine Environmental Ranger (LoRa MER) is a demonstration project using the Arduino MKR WAN 1300 to gather and assess environmental data in an aquatic environment.
With the advances in inexpensive microcontrollers, sensors, and low powered long range radio it is now possible to gather environmental data more easily and with less cost than ever before. Open water being less sparsely instrumented than much of the land mass provides an opportunity for new study. The near shore and inland waters are of particular interest in that they are susceptible to human activities and important to marine life. This project makes use of the long range, low power wireless capabilities of LoRa to study this environment.
The prototype described here is housed in a radio controlled boat. However, the platform can be modified to meet different requirements:
- Stationary Buoy - Moored buoy to continuously monitor a location
- Floating Buoy - Free moving platform to study currents or wind
- Autonomous or Semi-Autonomous Boat - Boat with programmed route or even decision making capability
- Radio Controlled Boat - Operator controlled boat
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Elderly Person in the Community Care: Arduino MKR 1300 WAN by 14rhb
The idea was to build a small network that allowed a warden to monitor the well-being of several elderly persons who would be able to carry on living in their own accommodation whilst still being able to summon help if required. The basis for using the LoRa technology was that they would not need to subscribe to a broadband service and the system could operate just as well in rural areas.
Some parts of the world elderly relatives are cared for and their wisdom respected in the family. Unfortunately, perhaps due to social-economic reasons, there seems to be more news headlines about elderly persons in the UK struggling with a whole host of issues. The social changes in the UK over recent decades means that many older people are living alone and often do not get the friends or family visits that perhaps once was common place. The cost of care homes is sometimes prohibitive or just not agreeable in principle and so these older people stay in their homes. There is likely a period of time from being fully active in retirement to needing specialist or full-time care that they could benefit from some light-duty, low-cost care. This might include:
- Someone to call if they don't seem to be moving during long periods of the daytime?
- If their heart rate seems abnormal.
- Someone they can ask to call around for a minor issue
- Someone they can call out for a major issue, but perhaps not life threatening.
Technology could help in such instances and a simple and common Android App for messaging back to a local 'warden' control centre (WCC) would likely suffice to give some reassurance. Such a solution would rely on the use of a mobile which can be awkward in concept for some elderly people, perhaps with poor vision or dexterity issues. It would also need a paid 3G/4G service provider or home WiFi.
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Arduino MKR WAN 1300: Detecting forestry fire using Lora Protocol by daniloo94
The main objective of this project is create a tool for help firemen and foresters detect and contain fires, before they spread over the forest. In Brazil, this type of event occur practically all year, but is aggravated when the air becomes drier. The number of incidents per year is about 68000, being largely caused by incorrect disposal of cigarettes on the highway. To develop this system, we need to consider that detecting fire outbreaks within a forest is not an easy task due to access barriers and totally unstable environment. o detect the environment changes, we created two types of Forest nodes, the first type of node has based in the presence of smoke on environment. In this node, the microcontroller is able to detect changes in air quality and send an alert message to the gateway when the smoke level reaches a critical value for the environment. The smoke detector node is basically composed of an Arduino Nano, which will be responsible for monitoring the environment during specific time intervals. In addition, it also consists of a NRF24l01, a low-cost radio capable of operating at 2.4 Ghz frequency. And finally, we use an MQ-2 sensor to detect the amount of smoke condensed in the air. e second type of node elaborated for this project, consists of the temperature node, this sensor node is able to detect variations in temperature and inform the gateway when a sudden change of temperature occurs in the environment. This node is composed of an Arduino Pro mini, which will be responsible for detecting the variation of temperature in the environment, a nrf24l01 +, for communication with gateway and neighbor nodes, and a BME280 sensor, a temperature sensor of high precision and low energy consumption . To route the sensor network data to final user, we need a microcontroller able of transmit this data for a long distance. In this case, the LoRa protocol will be ideal due to its long reach and low power consumption. With this, we will use the Arduino MKR WAN 1300 which has a long range chip. However we will need to establish communication with the network nodes to obtain the data. With this we will build one hat (Hardware at top) to facilitate the connection between Arduino and NRF24l01.
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Arduino MKR WAN 1300 ---- Blog 1 Idea by snidhi:
snidhi 's idea was to give the LoRa capability to my old project The SolarBot (Simple Solar BOT ----Finale ) and read the sensor data via LoRa. Another option was to control the SolarBot via LoRa Connectivity and I want to check out if this works without a lag in real-time. Then one can control the SolarBot remotely via Lora and it can be used to send the BOT in hazardous conditions and measure data such as gas leaks, temperature, humidity.
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Smart Little/Special Child Safety Watch by mahmood.hassan:
We all have little kids in our homes and every parent want to make sure that their kids are safe whenever they go outside of their homes. At the same time we also have little kids in our homes or around us how are special or little enough so they cant remember home address or their way back to home if they accidentally leave home and go little far away. And its very tough situations for parents if they cant find their little/special(mentally unstable etc) kids. Also if kids are in any sort of bad situation every parent want to help them but if they don't have any means to call for help or they don't have cell phone or unable to use it then there is no way to help/protect them.
To solve such issues long range of LORA module come into play. Design and built a smart watch using Arduino MKR 1300 equipped with GPS for the kids. And Other MKR module at home connected with display and alarm. Also internet connectivity is a plus point. Parent can set a Geo fence for the kids so whenever they go beyond that area it can alert the parents with there live Geo location. Also kids can alert their parent about any emergency/dangerous situation by simply pushing a button. Biggest advantage of using MKR module over GSM based is cost effectiveness and low power consumption. To built a Smart community we can also add multiple control modules at different public places and connect all these to one main server. In case of emergency MKR can connect to any of the available control module and alert their parent or law enforcement for timely action and to take preventive measures.
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If you're not familiar with LoRaWAN then you should check out IoT II LoRaWAN for Internet of Things Applications which will introduce you to LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technologies and how they fit into the Internet of Things. LPWAN enables multi-year battery life and allows you to send small amounts of data over long distances a few times per hours in various environments. LoRaWAN is short for Long Range Wide Area Network and it falls under the umbrella of other LPWAN technology. Other LPWAN technologies include NB-IoT, Sigfox, LTE-M, RPMA, Weightless-P, and LinkLab Symphony Link.
LoRa (Long Range) refers to patented wireless data communication technology that is owned by Semtech and LoRaWAN is the network that LoRa operates on. LoRa is licensed by Semtech so it is closed and proprietary, while LoraWAN is an open source communication protocol defined by the LoRa consortium (Symphony Link by Link Labs is another open source communication protocol). As discussed in IoT II LoRaWAN for Internet of Things Applications LoRa uses Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS), a wideband Spread Spectrum technology, simply meaning that CSS spreads the transmission over a wide bandwidth. While LoRa is the physical layer that enables the long-range communication link, LoRaWAN defines the communication protocol, as well as, the architecture for the network. The LoraWAN protocol ensures communication is secure and reliable, adding additional headers to the data packets. It is the most adopted type of LPWAN, promising ubiquitous connectivity for outdoor IoT applications, while keeping network structure and management simple.
Although LoRa is a proprietary property of Semtech, they have licensing deals for LoRa with STMicroelectronics and Microchip. What gives the Arduino MKR 1300 its LoRa connectivity is a Murata CMWXIZZABZ Type ABZ LoRaWAN module which includes an STMicro STM32L0 series ARM Cortex MO+ 32 bit microcontroller (MCU) and a a Semtech ultra long range spectrum wireless transceiver. The ST32 microcontroller includes AT firmaware that you can interface within your sketches. Communication with the module can be achieved via UART, SPI, or I2C peripheral interfaces. The module has pre-certified radio regulatory approval for operatign in the 868 and 915 MHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) spectrum in most regions of the world.
MKR Giveways and Upcoming Livestream Series on MKR with Massimo Banzi Cofounder of Arduino!
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| Contest Details |
Enter to Win:
Propose a Project (or Repurpose an Existing Project) using the Arduino MKR WAN Shield in the comments below! The best project proposals win a pair of MKR WAN 1300 boards and a MKR Relay Shield. should include the Arduino MKR Vidor 4000.
On November 2nd, we'll announce kit winners for the pair of Arduino MKR WAN 1300 Boards and the MKR Proto Relay Shield for the members who submit the best Project Proposals!
The contest is open to anyone who wants to participate. You do not need to win kit in order to enter to win the Grand Prize, an Arduino Engineering Kit. Simply submit your completed project in the form of a blog under Arduino Projects or tag it with mkr_giveaway_projects by January 2nd, 2019 for a chance to win.
On January 9th we'll announce the Grand Prize Winner of an Arduino Engineering Kit for project that best demonstrates how an engineer would use the Arduino MKR WAN 1300 in their project.
Anyone that submits a completed Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 project by the deadline can win the grand prize.
Key Dates:
Propose a Smart Device or Repurpose and Existing Project to Win:
How to Win:
Tell Us How You Would Create a Smart Device using an Arduino MKR 1300 WAN in the comments below. You can propose a project that you competed in the past and upgrade it using the boards and shields. You can also create a new project based uses two Arduino MKR 1300 WAN boards and one Arduino MKR Relay Shield. Because we want to demonstrate how an engineer, or a Maker Pro, would use the MKR line we are interested in project proposals that use the Arduino MKR 1300 WAN to create a smart device that uses LoRaWAN connectivity.
We will announce winners of the (2) Arduino MKR WAN 1300 Boards and (1) on November 2nd, 2018!
The winners are expected to turn their proposed projects to finished projects by December 18th 2018. You do not have to win to submit a finished project. You can simply purchase an Arduino MKR 1300 Board and post your project with the Tag MKR_Giveaway_Projects. Post them in Arduino Projects or anywhere on the element14 community with the tag so that we can find it.
We'll Announce the Grand Prize Winner for the Best Project that Shows How an Engineer Would Use an MKR Board on January 9th!The Grand Prize Winner Receives an Arduino Engineering Kit!
Directions: Step 1: Log in or register on element14, it's easy and free. Step 2: Post a project proposal in the comments below. Videos, pictures and text are all welcomed forms of submission. Step 3: Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Livestream! We want you to be able to listen to all the livestreams before completing your finished project. Sign up for these events using the links below:
Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino, and Dominic Pajak, a project person and retro computing geek from Arduino, will be giving a 5 part series of livestreams on the commercial uses of Arduino. The next livestreams will be on October 26th and will cover Arduino MKR Vidor 4000 – Democratizing FPGA . Be sure to tune in to ask Massimo any questions you have about commercial uses of Arduino!
Click on the "Enroll Now" buttons below to ask your questions and learn more:
Previous Livestreams:
Recorded Live Stream: Massimo Banzi and Dominic Pajak: Arduino MKR: IoT Prototype to Production!
Recorded Live Stream: Massimo Banzi and Dominic Pajak: Arduino MKR and Wireless IoT Connectivity!
Recorded Live Stream: Arduino MKR VIDOR 4000 - Democratizing FPGA!
The deadline to submit your finished or repurposed project is January 2nd in order to give you plenty of time to submit your finished projects after the boards have been shipped. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prizes |
Here is a GitHub Link to Getting Started with the MKR WAN 1000:
https://github.com/gonzalocasas/arduino-mkr-wan-1300
Here is a GitHub link that provides an APIs to Communicate with LoRa and LoRaWAN Networks:
https://github.com/arduino-libraries/MKRWAN
Did You Know?
Smart City IoT Projects Currently Account for the highest global hare of IoT Projects worldwide!
The Grand Prize
After all the the MKR boards and shields have been sent out we'll be awarding an Arduino Engineering Kit to the best project that shows how an engineer would use the MKR line to repurpose an existing project or a new project.
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| Theme | Lora and LoRaWAN enable inexpensive, long-range connectivity for IoT devices in rural, remote, and offshore industries. It has applications in industrial automation, manufacturing, precision farming, smart grid, pipeline monitoring, environment monitoring, smart cities, and healthcare. It is usually suited to applications in which data has to be gathered and aggregated from a number of remote locations. The arrangement of a network is known as the network topology, including nodes and connecting lines. LoraWAN topology, as detailed in element14 Essentials: IoT II, uses a star of stars topology.
The star of stars topology of LoRaWAN makes it suited to the aggregating function while the long range (up to 5 km urban and 15 km rural) makes it suitable for precision farming, smart grid, or smart cities, where data has to be gathered from a localized area but one that nonetheless can stretch for a few miles or kilometers. The LoRa physical layer enables communication between sensor nodes and base stations relaying data between the sensor nodes and the network server.It is deployed in a stars-to-stars topology. The star of stars topology of LoRaWAN makes it suited to the aggregating function while the long range (up to 5 km urban and 15 km rural) makes it suitable for precision farming, smart grid, or smart cities, where data has to be gathered from a localized area but one that nonetheless can stretch for a few miles or kilometers. The LoRaWAN network is deployed in a star-to-star topology, where base stations relay data between the sensor nodes and the network server. The LoRa physical layer is used for communication between sensor nodes and base stations over a wireless channel. An IP-based network handles connections between the gateways and a central server.
The Things Network: Rise of The Smart City
It’s not just wired or short range wireless sensors that are having an immediate impact on IoT on the evolving smart city. Long-range alternatives such as LoRaWAN provide a long-range alternative to connect power-efficiently as part of a smart city grid. It also allows enterprise to communicate sensor data through a single gateway for cloud analysis. Retrofitting an existing building or city for an Internet of Things system can be challenging involve a complex installation of networks based on wired or short range sensor. An IoT network based on LoRaWAN is significantly less complex and simplifies power efficiency by eliminating power source wiring for GSM, LTE, or WiFi sensors using sensor batteries that last for years opposed to months. It also provides a secure and reliable connection through dense buildings and a smart city environment. LoRaWAN offers flexibility when selecting different operating accounts such as the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band with minimal or no spectrum costs or operating through an external service with addition flexibility and low connection fee. In South Korea SK Telecom is connecting 99% of its customers through Semtech’s LoRaWAN. It has also used LoRaWAN to increase the recycling of waste by 46%, reducing costs by 83%. LoRaWAN applications are also heavily for implementing precision metering from smart meters installed throughout an entire building. It’s estimated that more than a billion end users will securely access real-time data from over 200,000 LoRa gateways by 2019.
LoRaWAN is one of the LPWAN technologies used by The Things Network in Amsterdam. You can read about their relationship with Premier Farnell and the element14 community in Case Study | The Things Network – Creating a global public IoT data network. A Dutch entrepreneur named Wienke Giezeman, came across an early version of a LoRaWAN gateway at a Hackerspace in 2015. This led to the realization that he only needed 10 of them to cover the entire city Amsterdam. The Things Network was crowd sourced by citizens of Amsterdam and put together in only six weeks. The Things Network network server includes a router, broker, and handler, which processes data packets from the LoRaWAN gateway. It has an AWS Bridge that connects TTN to the AWS IoT platform. From there it spread to other cities around the world.
Here in Chicago, Comcast provides LoRaWAN coverage through its Machine-Q services (the other cities included in Comcast's coverage include Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; and Washington D.C.) In Thailand, Kiwi Technology and Precise Digital Economy collaborated to develop a network of sensors to help regulate public utilities. Elsewhere, LoRaWAN technology has been used commercially to make the world smarter through enabling intelligent water leakage detection, flood sensors, street lighting, waste management, parking, and more.
Beyond the Smart City: Connecting a Smarter World
The demand-side management (DSM) of energy systems, the need to transition toward clean and sustainable energy, has drawn the attention of the global energy sector, under intense environmental pressure. Constructing a smart grid with an energy-Internet backbone is at the core of government attempts to transition toward a clean energy future. An example of this can be found in China, in 2016 the Chinese government announced new policies to combine the Internet with smart energy in order to demonstrate new clean energy technology. In India, LoRa enabled street lights offer ultra low energy consumption that will pay for itself in four years.
LPWAN technology, such as LoRaWAN will play a role in the connected world of tomorrow. According to control theory, you must maximize a system’s observability to enhance the system’s controllability. This requires abundant information on both the supply and demand side. The IoT provides a reliable tool that can collect information at zero marginal costs. The technical complexity of adding distributed energy sources to the current power automation architecture, restricting the acceptance of DSM applications in the real world. LPWAN technology offers a possible solution to overcoming barriers in the communication infrastructure and the technology required to establish a smart grid that includes clean energy as a distributed energy source. That is because LPWAN enables minimum power consumption and maintenance.
LoRaWAN can also be utilized as part of a smart IoT system, in combination with other LPWAN technologies. For instance, any telecom operators are working with NB-IoT, LPWAN technology, on a city scale to connect the Internet of Things as part of the Smart City. NB-IoT works seamlessly with mobile GSM and LTE networks in licensed frequency bands. By contrast, LoRa technology operates on an unlicensed frequency band, allowing you to build up LoRa gateways similar to the way WiFi routers are used in homes. LoRa technology is ideal for outlying regions without cellular network coverage, or establishing private networks with specific requirements for quality and security. The ability to operate on unlicensed bands, ability to operate in outlying regions without cellular network coverage, makes LoRa technology ideal for rural areas, opening up the technology for smart agriculture. In Australia, a LoRaWAN based network is being used to grow the smart agriculture industry, giving Australian farmers real-time data on soil moisture, rainfall, crops, water levels, and livestock through a netwokr of in situ low-cost wireless sensors.
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In the Comments Below: Propose a Project (or Repurpose an Existing Project) using the Arduino MKR WAN 1300 Board!
We'll Send an Arduino MKR WAN 1300 Board and a MKR Relay Shield to Use in Your Project!
 | Smarter_World_TermsandConditions.pdf |
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