LoRa & LoRaWAN
ChirpStack, The Things Network, Meshtastic — long-range, low-power, off-grid radio.
LoRa is the right radio when nothing else reaches: a cattle-trough sensor 5 km from the house, a flood gauge in a basement, a soil sensor in the back forty. Battery life is measured in years.
For the network server / hub above this layer see Smart Home Hubs; for the chip in your node see MCU Platforms (look at STM32WL); for the broker carrying the messages see Message Brokers.
Network servers (the LoRaWAN brain)
- ★ ChirpStack — open-source LoRaWAN Network Server + Application Server; runs comfortably on a Pi. The default for self-host LoRaWAN. Web UI, MQTT integration, multi-tenant.
- ★ The Things Stack (TTS) — open-source server from The Things Industries that powers The Things Network (TTN). TTN is the free community public network; you can run TTS yourself if you outgrow it.
- Helium Network — community-built LoRaWAN coverage; pay-per-use for data ("Data Credits"). Requires HNT credits; coverage is patchy depending on city. Worth it if a Helium hotspot is near your remote site.
- AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN / Azure IoT Central LoRaWAN — managed clouds; pay-per-message.
- LoRaServer — the ChirpStack predecessor; do not use for new deployments.
Gateways (the radios)
- ★ RAK Wireless RAK7268 / RAK7289 — the "WiFi-router-shaped" gateway; indoor-rated; 8-channel; ChirpStack or TTS Built In; best home / small business pick.
- ★ Dragino LPS8 / LIG16 / LG308 — popular budget gateways; well-supported by ChirpStack.
- Multitech Conduit — industrial; pricey; for serious deployments.
- Mikrotik wAP LR9 / LR8 — the "I'm already a Mikrotik shop" pick.
- DIY: RAK2287 / RAK2245 + Pi — concentrator HAT + Raspberry Pi; budget; works.
- Heltec HT-M01 / HT-M01S — entry-level single-channel gateways; avoid for production (single-channel = bad LoRaWAN citizen).
Nodes (the things on batteries)
- ★ Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 — ESP32-S3 + Semtech SX1262; cheap; great dev board for LoRa learning. Battery + USB-C.
- ★ LilyGo T-Beam / T-Echo — ESP32 + LoRa + GPS; the trail-tracker hardware.
- ★ STM32WL — single-chip MCU + LoRa radio; the "production node" answer; see MCU Platforms.
- Seeed SenseCAP — productized environmental nodes (CO2, soil, water).
- Dragino LSE01 / LDDS75 — soil moisture / leak sensors; turnkey.
- Adeunis Field Test Device — for surveying coverage before you commit.
Meshtastic — the off-grid mesh
- ★ Meshtastic — not LoRaWAN. A mesh chat / GPS-tracker firmware over LoRa for ESP32 / nRF52 boards. No gateway / network server required; nodes mesh peer-to-peer. Killer use cases: hiking groups, off-road convoys, festivals, disaster comms.
- iOS / Android Meshtastic apps speak BLE to a node over your phone; SMS-style messaging.
- Range: with a directional antenna and clear line of sight, 30+ km has been achieved between two nodes.
- Pairs nicely with Heltec / LilyGo T-Beam / RAK WisBlock boards.
Frequency planning (region matters)
- EU868 — Europe, 868 MHz, 1 % duty cycle; strict.
- US915 — North America, 902-928 MHz, 8 sub-bands (ChirpStack default
Sub-band 2). - AU915 — Australia / Brazil; same frequency, different sub-band defaults.
- AS923 / IN865 / KR920 / CN470 — Asia variants.
- Always buy hardware for your region. A US915 gateway in EU868 is illegal and won't talk to anything.
What goes well with LoRaWAN
- ★ MQTT bridge — ChirpStack / TTS publish decoded payloads to your MQTT broker; HA picks them up.
- ★ Cayenne LPP / CBOR / JSON payload codecs — the standard "self-describing" payload formats; ChirpStack has codec scripting in JS.
- Grafana + InfluxDB — for long-term LoRaWAN sensor archives. See Time Series Databases.
- HA's "ChirpStack" / TTN integrations are community-maintained; MQTT bridge is the reliable path.
Pick this if…
- Default self-host network server: ChirpStack.
- Cheap public network for a few sensors: The Things Network (TTN).
- Pay-per-use commercial coverage: Helium (verify your area first).
- Default home gateway: RAK7268.
- Off-grid mesh chat / GPS: Meshtastic.
- Production single-chip node: STM32WL.
- Just learning: Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 + a Heltec or RAK gateway.