Sorry but I need to ask this, or I'm afraid I'm not totally understanding the goal of this. Let me see if I get it right... The community is able through TinyGS to build a network of ground stations, that will receive the payloads from the sky and relay them through the internet. Correct? But "nobody" is able to transmit from the ground to the sky, correct? If so, what are the messages that the ground stations are receiving from the sats? Is it only sat telemetry? If the regular users are not able to transmit to the sky, what is the goal of building this ground network? Is it a proof of concept? I'm asking this because I've a "shed" on a remote location without 4G and I was willing if I could use this Lora Sats to receive some local telemetry from the shed. As a "trade-off" I was thinking on building a ground station on the city. But if I'll not be able to transmit, the building of the ground station will be only "for the fun".
I am retired for almost half a year.... I don't understand I had time for my hobbies while I was working about 40 hours a week... Again a beautiful project to go... You inspire me too much, thank you ;-) :-)
This is a very good time to be retired and interested in Electronics. We get a lot of stuff cheap. And, as you write, you now have the time tu use them.
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering I think my biggest problem is to prioritize. For me the way of introducing and instructing by Andreas Spiess is so impressive that I like to make all of his projects besides the things I already engage myself ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess I now keep some parts in stock to make sure I enjoy these projects while they're still relevant. Because of this I've just received my first packet from Norby! Thank you sir for bringing these cool projects to our attention!
I'm glad you made this explanation, I have no less than two LoRa modules sat around with nothing to do because even though I searched on the topic, I could not figure out an amateur use for these things!
Well, guess what I'm doing today! :-) Thanks Andreas, another great video. If I have the right board in stock, I'll get a station setup on the west coast of Sweden later today. Love the ham radio related content!
@@AndreasSpiess ahhh I only have 800-900mhz boards in stock, typical LOL. That's a shame. I'll order 2 x 430mhz boards and go back to today's original plan, winlink email over 2m somehow. Unless you think I should put up a 900mhz ground station anyway? Is it worth it?
I have had 4 nodes for months and it’s been a wonderful community project and found horizontal v dipole as a very good antenna for many of the satellites. Great video and open the project to new makers thanks for this video. Simon G8HAM
@@AndreasSpiess I am so frustrated that I spend sometimes 6 days a week driving at my job and have such little time learning about all that you are doing. It's so exciting and I am trying to keep up. I am still trying to get that radio kit built. Nevertheless, you are quite an inspiration for me and I am sure for many others of all age groups. Hey, where is Dishka? I miss the purring at the end of the vids. :-)
As always, very interesting and a new idea for wtdn (what to do next). Do to the fact I am more or less retired, I have to a lot of ideas and IoT projects and only limitted time to realize it 🙈 - I highly appreciate your videos and the stuff you share wich us. Many thanks.
Glad to read that you are retired and have a lot of projects! It is always good to have more projects than time. Then you can chose whatever is the most interesting for the moment ;-)
Okay. Aberdeen, Scotland is very shortly going to get a TinyGS LoRa Station! Thanks for this. Off to assemble the parts/enclosure/cable glands etc. I will also have a look at your antenna video as I like the idea of making one.
This is a video a have been something I been looking for a while. Have been really interested to connect to a satellite with a microcontroller and you got all the information I need in one video. It's amazing. Gonna order a lora board and some stuff then you probably see a ground station in middle of Sweden soon!
Came across this and thought I need to tell the SWISS! Andreas I know you are a clever man so I have no need to explain. Love your channel btw. Only going to give you one line. The Helium Gateway application is a service designed to run on Linux-based LoRaWAN gateways. (You may already know this.) Decentralized Wireless Alliance Technology. Interesting stuff.
I do not like the combination of a LoRa networks and crypto. It makes things more complicated. I am even not sure if it produces false hopes... Do you use it? What are your use cases?
I always wait for your videos. Looks like complete presentation with proper research. Amazing keep going on. I tried to play with LoRa many time but I never get success for long range (not more then few meters) strange.
Thanks for this tutorial Andreas, I have successfully deployed weather tracking and capture 24/7 with the Raspberry Pi, Sdrplay radio and an antenna I built myself fitted in the loft with the Raspberry pi running headless, I have an astronomical telescope in my back garden, as you know the weather here in the UK is very unpredictable even with the latest local forecasts, I can now monitor the weather in real time and know within minutes when is the best time to use the telescope, sometimes just for 10 minutes before it clouds over, what you have presented here is very interesting and I will attempt to pursue a project seeing you had great success with it , nice project for now and the future
Man, I just barley dabble at ESP32 boards for my Home Assistant setup (enviromental data sensors) and you guys build satellite stations ... I use ESPHome and OTA is a blessing, but that uploader looks handy, especially for a dilettante like me ;) Great project for my never ending to do list.
Thanks for this. I have 2 TTGO Lora boards that I am not using for anything. Therefore I will add two GS to the network. I placed the order for the SMA components on Ali.
Andreas, if you check the TinyGS map you should find a few more stations in the American heartland, and also listening on 915MHz, including the first of mine. Many thanks again for an educational and fun video. I'm using the stock antenna with the kits I have purchased, so I do not yet expect to exchange data, but I have the materials to make several ground plane antennas and hope to do that soon. As they used to say, see you on the radio, and thanks.
First, very cool. Later this summer I may build one of these and add it to a makerspace in Wall NJ (the old Marconi Hotel, Marconi as in Marconi Radio). It's now part of InfoAge a Science & History Center.
Hi Andreas! Here a newcomer to the TinyGS project. Running since an hour a T-beam and happy since I saw my station at the TinyGS website. I have a question for you: Shouldn't be better a directional antenna pointing upwards instead of an omnidirectional? I mean, because of the low takeoff angle of the 1/4 ground vertical... 73 de OA4CKN
Also interesting open Data project is Airrohr. The make a open Sensor nework for fine dust monitoring with a Esp8266, BME280 and a SDS011 Dust sensor. Thery nice Sunday projekt.
This is a great video, I think Lora is now on my list. In the video, you build on lots of previous videos and refer to the video numbers. Could you please put a list of the video numbers and their topics in the description? Thanks, R
Great video as always Andreas, I had a board I bought for tracking the weather balloons in another of your videos after 2 hours realised my USB ( tried 3 ) was power and not a data cables, Then couldn't get the TintyGS config thing to work, ended up following the other PlatformIO method but up and running now.
Thank you for the excellent tutorial. So if I am in the USA which freq is most useable? Also I see that when buying the lora32 module we have to choose which freq, but the module label shows 868/915. Can they do both or is it fixed?
Most of these satellites cover the whole world. So if you are in an uncovered area 433MHz would be good because more satellites use and will use this band. If you want to support your Stanford guys, 915 is good. But you might not hear anything because currently they seem to have issues.
I need to get Amateur Radio licence here in UK - not sure where I can take it as in lockdown - I want to learn more and your videos are inspiring Thank you
Looks really cool, and I like that I don't have to be a ham radio operator to use it (which I would like to be, but not there yet). Perhaps a bucket list goal should be to get a cubesat of my own into orbit. It gets cheaper every year, it seems... 👍
Very interesting topic... but what kind of information or uses could you get from those satellites? i mean... what is the current use of that network? Sorry, im learning about this recently
Mr Spiess, any update on the satellite status? Wanted to know if the service is available now, BTW, I have subscribed to your new channel, congratulations
As always your videos leave me with the wish to build. But this video has a lot of information in a short time. Perhaps because you have many videos about satellites I missed some points. I am not sure I can build this one. What type of data do you receive from this assembly ? wich firmware did you chose for your ttgo? I feel I needed a fluxogram...
Dear Andreas! Thanks for your great videos! Can you point me on one you describe these great containers for devices (at 15:27)? I see 'em made out of water pipes, but interested about how they are made.
I just buy such pipes: www.hornbach.de/shop/Sanitaerinstallation/HT-Rohre/S1880/artikelliste.html which are standard where I live. They have waterproof connections an ends. Then I cut them to length and add the 3D printed part from the bottom. Nothing special.
Thank you for a great video again. I was wondering about the polarization of antennas for satellite reception. Do they lose a lot of efficiency when the pointy-end of the ground plane points to the sky or does it not matter? I'm also a fan of the device-fingerprinting method. You should check out rdzsonde firmware for weather-sonde tracking, open-source, unlike mysonde and uses this fingerprinting as well as a great companion app.
Some satellites use circular modulation. The cubesats seem to use linear polarization (antenna size?). Concerning direction: Satellites hardly are overhead you. So a GP is good enough. I know the rdzsonde project but decided to use mysondy. I do not need two ;-)
Hi Andreas, one question. I see your arregement of antennas in your department. Does this means that in order to send/receive information from a satelite through Lora to an IoT device, i have to have such a big antenna like that one? If this is the case, the use case is very limited. Apreciate your thoughts! Patricio from Chile
I showed the antenna used for the LoRa satellite. They are quite small. Other antennas are for other purpose (if you are interested, I mention it in the video)
Thank you for your very nice presentation. What kind of messages do you receive from satellites? You are just listening to it and get whatever data he sends? Can you use those satellites to hop a message sent from your ground station to another ground station?
For the moment we only can listen. Some projects also plan repeaters. I pinned a comment with the address where you can see the latest messages received by the network.
Thank you so much for your inspiring videos. I was wondering if Meshtastic messages currently can be transferred through TinyGS-Satellites from Europe across the Atlantic to the U.S.? Or would it be even possible via the Internet?
As this question was not directly answered. What kind of data is downlinked from thode satellites? Is it IoT that talk over satellites to the next groundstation to then continue over the internet?
@@AndreasSpiess So if I understand this correctly, it only downlinks data from the satellite itself. The sats are not used for uplinking / repeating data sent to them.
It would be really helpful if TinyGS software was available for not only ESP32, but also, for example, Raspberry Pi with a LoRa board connected with SPI. Also, do we know how much a directional antenna with a rotator would help, compared to an omnidirectional ground plane?
1. No Raspberry is needed. It would be too expensive. 2. I regularly get signals from 2000km away with just a simple groundplane antenna. So no fancy antenna setup is needed. More than 2000km is hardly possible becasue the satellite disappears behind the horizon...
@@AndreasSpiess 1 - true, I thought about a scenario where someone already has a RPi active 24/7 for some other purpose, but has SPI pins to spare 2 - that's really cool that it works without any directional antenna - so I guess that a preamp wouldn't improve reception also, 73 de SQ2KTN :)
Hi Andreas, i was wondering if it was possible to replace the LoRA wifi module you used in this video with a raspberry pi + SDR receiver combination? Or are there specific features this board has that makes it much better suited to picking up these satellite signals?
@@AndreasSpiess ah my bad, I didnt mean to say that LoRa=wifi. Rather i was referring to the receiver module you used in this video. Maybe I'll have to rewatch your LoRa video again, but it there a way to check if a receiver has a "good" demodulator?
Sorry for the stupid question, do I need to setup one of these TinyGS devices or a LoRa repeater to help with the Open Source Global Satellite Network?
I just put up the second ground station in Las Vegas, Nevada! Have you released the 3D printer files for your sewer-pipe case? I’d love to make one for my ground station too.
No, I did not share the design because it is individual and not too complicated to create. And I saw that quite some stations appeared now across the US. Cool!
Thanks for this interesting video. I'm sure you know it, but a quarter wave ground plane antenna is not very suitable for receiving signals from above. Don't you think you get better results with a Different antenna?
This is what most people think. But if you work with satellites, you see that 90-degree passes are rare (then the distance is short, and therefore the signal is strong). Most of the passes are where the GP is quite sensitive. A Yagi would be better, of course. But more complicated.
Another great project, very clearly explained, thank you Mr. Spiess! One question to the community: is anybody able to to read the data from the LoraBoard with MQTT for its own use, not only sending it to TinyGS? I wanted also to make some simple recording over time about the number of messages received per day but couldn't successfully connect subscribe to the LoraBoard with my own MQTT server (running on Raspi based on a Docker project from Adreas...:-) . Happy to get any feedback, thank you!
@@AndreasSpiess Already fixed the topic, now having the message in node-red on my local device! thx for reverting back and the push for this great topic. Always happy to see your videos and projects, that's so cool!
Hi Andreas. GREAT video. I notices your 3d printed a holder for the PSU and the Lora ESP board. I checked Thingiverse but could not find it. Do you happen to have a link to your 3D boardholder design (.STL file) ? 73 de Robbert / TA2IX aka PA3BKL, from Istanbul
Hi Sir Andreas, I am a new fan of your videos, since I was looking for guides on my LoRa projects. I really wish I can get help or advise from you if it is okay..:)
Thank you Sir for your reply, I am watching the videos one at a time, they are all great! By the way Sir I also sent a message to your instructables account.
Sehr schön aufgezeigt Andreas. Automatische Firmware Updates für iot....wenn das nicht zu hacken ist, wäre das sicher sehr hilfreich. Von den lora Reichweitenrekorden hab ich gar nichts mitbekommen, damals wurde doch öfters berichtet, wenn ein Ballon Mal 700km und mehr schaffte. Eine GP Antenne macht doch eigentlich eine Halbkugel auf über der Antenne, bringt da eine flexible Halterung wirklich Vorteile, ohne viel Richtcharakteristik? Die wird auf deinem Balkon doch nur schief geweht. 😛
Wenn du sicheres OTA willst: IOTappstory.com. Hier ist es nicht sehr sicher. Deswegen habe ich die Bemerkung über OTA gemacht. Viele Leute denken dass Satelliten hoch über uns fliegen. Das ist aber höchst selten der Fall. Normalerweise ist die Elevation klein, sogar wenn der Satellit genau über uns fliegt ist die Elevation normalerweise klein.. Deshalb ist eine GP ok. Besser ist natürlich eine Beam mit automatischer Nachführung...
This project is just to play around and to learn how things work. Lacuna wants to cover remote areas like watching free wildlife movements where low power and universal coverage are a must. This channel is focused on the technology. The imagination usually comes from the viewers ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess yes i know its all about technology and I love it.. Dog get me wrong, i love your channel. But a sugesttion is to try to talk a bit about how you van use it even if its a strange use case.. Let's say put a tempratrure sensor in some "remote" location or somthing similar..
It's quite impressing that even satellites can communicate on the already very crowded ISM-bands. However, the 70 cm ISM-frequency (433.92MHz) is inside the 70-cm band for radio amateurs, and is secondary priority (must tolerate interference from ham-radio traffic). If you choose to take a full radio amateur exam, you will have a lot more possibilities with respect to frequencies and power. Perhaps one day you also can chat a little with the International Space Station too (NA1SS american operator, RS0ISS russian operator, DP0ISS/OR4ISS/IR0ISS european operator), provided that you live in a place with free sight-of line to the orbit. 20-100W power at uplink should be more than enough with a 1/4-wave antenna.
Here you find the last packets received by the network: tinygs.com/packets
Sorry but I need to ask this, or I'm afraid I'm not totally understanding the goal of this. Let me see if I get it right... The community is able through TinyGS to build a network of ground stations, that will receive the payloads from the sky and relay them through the internet. Correct? But "nobody" is able to transmit from the ground to the sky, correct? If so, what are the messages that the ground stations are receiving from the sats? Is it only sat telemetry? If the regular users are not able to transmit to the sky, what is the goal of building this ground network? Is it a proof of concept? I'm asking this because I've a "shed" on a remote location without 4G and I was willing if I could use this Lora Sats to receive some local telemetry from the shed. As a "trade-off" I was thinking on building a ground station on the city. But if I'll not be able to transmit, the building of the ground station will be only "for the fun".
Merci Vilmals... Andreas. You are doing so awesome. All your videos are very helpful and productive.
I am retired for almost half a year.... I don't understand I had time for my hobbies while I was working about 40 hours a week...
Again a beautiful project to go...
You inspire me too much, thank you ;-) :-)
This is a very good time to be retired and interested in Electronics. We get a lot of stuff cheap. And, as you write, you now have the time tu use them.
Peter! We are in the same boat! But my work is HINDERING my time to learn. Well, we all still have to eat, yes?
@@3rd_Millennium_Engineering I think my biggest problem is to prioritize. For me the way of introducing and instructing by Andreas Spiess is so impressive that I like to make all of his projects besides the things I already engage myself ;-)
Lol. Peter, be careful in retirement. Everyone who knows you are not working will demand your time!
I encourage more use of the little hand pointer 👉
Very exciting to see Lora satellite projects being developed. And many many thanks to Andreas, we have first row seats to the show.
You are welcome!
Thanks to you I've got my next amateur radio project! Watched the video twice!
Cool. Enjoy!
Another great video, thank you!
Does seem that every time you do a radio project my project budget is impacted!!!
🤣
This time maybe you can re-purpose a LoRa board. They are very versatile. And not expensive for a Wi-Fi, BT, LoRa, and FSK transmitter ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess I now keep some parts in stock to make sure I enjoy these projects while they're still relevant.
Because of this I've just received my first packet from Norby!
Thank you sir for bringing these cool projects to our attention!
Cool! I also have a few such boards in my drawer ;-)
@@IanWilkinson-SgtWilko Congratulations! Wow! I have to get going too!
Launched two units today in Aberdeen, Scotland! One on 433mhz and one on 915mhz. Thanks Andreas!
Cool! I hope you will "hear" a few satellites already today.
I'm glad you made this explanation, I have no less than two LoRa modules sat around with nothing to do because even though I searched on the topic, I could not figure out an amateur use for these things!
Excellent!
I'm setting one up in the US heartland. Thanks for your wonderful presentation and explanation!
Very good. The US is much more "populated" now.
Hi Andreas, thanks again for another inspiring video. I accept your challenge. Expect to see a TinyGS ground station in South Africa soon!
Great. The community will love you for that!
@@AndreasSpiess I accept your challenge. Expect to see a TinyGS ground station in Mid-West (Montana) soon!
Very good!
Agreed, Thanks for the interesting Video Andreas. Mike, I'm in Cape Town busy with my GS as of today!
Just received my first packet last night in Salt Rock, South Africa. Using Andreas’ ground plane.
Well, guess what I'm doing today! :-)
Thanks Andreas, another great video. If I have the right board in stock, I'll get a station setup on the west coast of Sweden later today. Love the ham radio related content!
For the moment you only hear 430-440MHz satellites. So chose such a board.
@@AndreasSpiess ahhh I only have 800-900mhz boards in stock, typical LOL. That's a shame. I'll order 2 x 430mhz boards and go back to today's original plan, winlink email over 2m somehow. Unless you think I should put up a 900mhz ground station anyway? Is it worth it?
I placed also an order for a few additional 433 boards. I had more 868 boards from LoRaWAN. But a lot of interesting stuff right now is on 433MHz.
@@AndreasSpiess I'm up and running now, thanks Andreas
I have had 4 nodes for months and it’s been a wonderful community project and found horizontal v dipole as a very good antenna for many of the satellites. Great video and open the project to new makers thanks for this video. Simon G8HAM
Indeed it is an interesting project in many aspects.
Again, a fantastic post! I really appreciate all your efforts in this and other projects. - Jack
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very, very interesting!
Thank you. I also thought there are a few good ideas in the project.
@@AndreasSpiess I am so frustrated that I spend sometimes 6 days a week driving at my job and have such little time learning about all that you are doing. It's so exciting and I am trying to keep up. I am still trying to get that radio kit built. Nevertheless, you are quite an inspiration for me and I am sure for many others of all age groups.
Hey, where is Dishka? I miss the purring at the end of the vids. :-)
Dishka is with my wife upstairs. As always when she is home ;-)
Really cool Andreas -- I learned a lot, never new about the TinyGS project!
I like the project, too
As always, very interesting and a new idea for wtdn (what to do next). Do to the fact I am more or less retired, I have to a lot of ideas and IoT projects and only limitted time to realize it 🙈 - I highly appreciate your videos and the stuff you share wich us. Many thanks.
Glad to read that you are retired and have a lot of projects! It is always good to have more projects than time. Then you can chose whatever is the most interesting for the moment ;-)
A fascinating, and inspirational project that is easily achievable by so many - thank you! 73s
You are welcome! 73 de HB9BLA
Awesome video! I really love these kind of projects !
Indeed, this project contains a lot of innovation
I can't believe it took me this long to run into TinyGS! This is extremely cool. 73's N6SO
Indeed, it is a quite old project ;-) Enjoy!
Okay. Aberdeen, Scotland is very shortly going to get a TinyGS LoRa Station! Thanks for this. Off to assemble the parts/enclosure/cable glands etc. I will also have a look at your antenna video as I like the idea of making one.
@@artbecker5618 not a bad place to live. If the weather is bad, just wait 5 minutes ;-)
@NotMarkKnopfler: Have fun! And a ground plane is ok to begin with before you build a directional antenna...
This is a video a have been something I been looking for a while. Have been really interested to connect to a satellite with a microcontroller and you got all the information I need in one video. It's amazing. Gonna order a lora board and some stuff then you probably see a ground station in middle of Sweden soon!
Very good!
Very well explained!!! i hope this video will attract more users to the tinyGS Community!
I hope so too!
thank you for a very informative video, I successfully setup my TinyGS here in South Africa,
Cool! I hope you were already able to receive some satellites.
Many thanks for this !!! Stay healthy and safe .
You are welcome.
I try it ;-)
great topic. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome!
Came across this and thought I need to tell the SWISS! Andreas I know you are a clever man so I have no need to explain. Love your channel btw. Only going to give you one line. The Helium Gateway application is a service designed to run on Linux-based LoRaWAN gateways. (You may already know this.) Decentralized Wireless Alliance Technology. Interesting stuff.
I do not like the combination of a LoRa networks and crypto. It makes things more complicated. I am even not sure if it produces false hopes...
Do you use it? What are your use cases?
Great video! I am in South Africa and plan on working on setting up a ground station over the next month or so
Good idea!
have you set up your GS yet ?
Quite interesting ! There was a project called SatNOGS about 5 years back , which wanted to create a network of ground stations for LEO-S.
It is live. Usually it uses more complex receivers and antennas.
You are genius.
I watched your movie.
I assembled
I programmed
I matched
I TESTED (I'm also an engineer)
IT WORKS!
Unbelievable!
Cool! Thanks for your feedback.
fantastic and clear instructions - exceptionally well done
Glad you enjoyed it!
I always wait for your videos.
Looks like complete presentation with proper research.
Amazing keep going on.
I tried to play with LoRa many time but I never get success for long range (not more then few meters) strange.
That is strange. If you have a line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver you should get kilometers.
Thanks for this tutorial Andreas, I have successfully deployed weather tracking and capture 24/7 with the Raspberry Pi, Sdrplay radio and an antenna I built myself fitted in the loft with the Raspberry pi running headless, I have an astronomical telescope in my back garden, as you know the weather here in the UK is very unpredictable even with the latest local forecasts, I can now monitor the weather in real time and know within minutes when is the best time to use the telescope, sometimes just for 10 minutes before it clouds over, what you have presented here is very interesting and I will attempt to pursue a project seeing you had great success with it , nice project for now and the future
Good idea to be alarmed if the conditions are good for your telescope!
This is fantastic. I am in one of the fully blank areas on the map and can’t wait to see an icon for my station appear.
Cool. Go for it!
Thank you, Andreas! I wish I could give another like to your video. Will be setting up a ground station today from one of my Meshtastic boards.
Make sure you use a 433MHz board.
Very inspiring. Thanks again Andreas!
You are welcome!
Hello Andreas, thanks for this. I appreciate your support on a project in Africa.
You are welcome!
Sent you a request
I think I misunderstood you. Unfortunately, I have no time for projects. TH-cam is only my hobby.
Man, I just barley dabble at ESP32 boards for my Home Assistant setup (enviromental data sensors) and you guys build satellite stations ... I use ESPHome and OTA is a blessing, but that uploader looks handy, especially for a dilettante like me ;) Great project for my never ending to do list.
We all started as beginners. No worries. You are on the right track!
Thanks for this. I have 2 TTGO Lora boards that I am not using for anything. Therefore I will add two GS to the network. I placed the order for the SMA components on Ali.
Cool. Two more stations in the US...
@@AndreasSpiess in Hungary, but yes.
I thought you live in the US. So sorry for that! My memory gets old...
@@AndreasSpiess No worries at all. I used to live in the UK, but that was a long time ago already.
Andreas, if you check the TinyGS map you should find a few more stations in the American heartland, and also listening on 915MHz, including the first of mine. Many thanks again for an educational and fun video. I'm using the stock antenna with the kits I have purchased, so I do not yet expect to exchange data, but I have the materials to make several ground plane antennas and hope to do that soon. As they used to say, see you on the radio, and thanks.
Cool! Now we hope you can receive data from the US satellites.
Good Stuff Sir. Thank You. Is New Mexico under the path or foot print ?
Sure! Stations in America are more than welcomed
First, very cool. Later this summer I may build one of these and add it to a makerspace in Wall NJ (the old Marconi Hotel, Marconi as in Marconi Radio). It's now part of InfoAge a Science & History Center.
That would be a cool addition to this site, I think.
Greetings from Canada. Lora 915 board ordered!
Cool. Hopefully you will hear the US satellites...
Thanks for a great video! A project to work on with my teen son. Wonder and amazement is fun to share.
Good idea. Other fathers took their kids for "weather balloon chasing" which is also an interesting project...
@@AndreasSpiess much more physical excercise if you chase ballons tho
brilliant video thank you . going to order some lora boards and have a play here in the uk
Have fun!
Great content as usual! I couldn't find any info if the packets are decoded and what kind of data the satellites are sending....
Go to the telegram telemetry channel of the project. Or here tinygs.com/packets you find the latest packets received by the network
Hi Andreas! Here a newcomer to the TinyGS project. Running since an hour a T-beam and happy since I saw my station at the TinyGS website. I have a question for you: Shouldn't be better a directional antenna pointing upwards instead of an omnidirectional? I mean, because of the low takeoff angle of the 1/4 ground vertical... 73 de OA4CKN
Where are the satellites that need the best antenna performance? Overhead you or at the horizon? 73 de HB9BLA
Also interesting open Data project is Airrohr. The make a open Sensor nework for fine dust monitoring with a Esp8266, BME280 and a SDS011 Dust sensor. Thery nice Sunday projekt.
A few years ago we built such sensors in our local IOT group. They are quite easy to build, you are right.
This is a great video, I think Lora is now on my list. In the video, you build on lots of previous videos and refer to the video numbers. Could you please put a list of the video numbers and their topics in the description? Thanks, R
Thank you. I have a few playlists where you should find the videos organized.
Great video as always Andreas, I had a board I bought for tracking the weather balloons in another of your videos after 2 hours realised my USB ( tried 3 ) was power and not a data cables, Then couldn't get the TintyGS config thing to work, ended up following the other PlatformIO method but up and running now.
I test all my new cables for that "feature" and throw all power cables in the waste basket. I was caught with the same mistake, too.
Very interesting project. Is this receiver work in Philippines ?
Yes, it should.
Thank you for the excellent tutorial. So if I am in the USA which freq is most useable? Also I see that when buying the lora32 module we have to choose which freq, but the module label shows 868/915. Can they do both or is it fixed?
Most of these satellites cover the whole world. So if you are in an uncovered area 433MHz would be good because more satellites use and will use this band. If you want to support your Stanford guys, 915 is good. But you might not hear anything because currently they seem to have issues.
Fantastic. Can't wait to use it.
Have fun!
Thnx for this video !!! I really enjoy watching al of your videos ( beter than Netflix but I’m bit a nerd ;) and fan of rf and technology )
I also watch more TH-cam than Netflix ;-)
Another Great video! Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome!
I need to get Amateur Radio licence here in UK - not sure where I can take it as in lockdown - I want to learn more and your videos are inspiring
Thank you
Foundation license exams can be taken online now
Looks really cool, and I like that I don't have to be a ham radio operator to use it (which I would like to be, but not there yet). Perhaps a bucket list goal should be to get a cubesat of my own into orbit. It gets cheaper every year, it seems... 👍
True. But it still not easy as FossaSat and other not properly working Sats show us... And the HAM license is no mot too hard to get.
I liked the comparison of untested and defective systems :-)
It is a good rule of thumb.
Mr Spiess are the satellites shown for example at 3:00 using measuring tape as antennas or do they have another purpose?
Yes. That is usually used as they keep bended easily without getting damaged and recover their original shape without moving parts
@@gmag11 Cool, that's a clever solution! Thanks
The Sputnik-1 in 1957 was already affordable (or available) for the public, as it transmitted radio signals.
True.
Very interesting topic... but what kind of information or uses could you get from those satellites?
i mean... what is the current use of that network?
Sorry, im learning about this recently
You only get data from their sensors. The description of the satellites usually contain information on what they will measure.
My wife is gonna be mad when i buy loras🤣🤣 but i have to try putting Canada on the map
:-)) Maybe this is a perfect chance to call them "satellite ground station" ;-)
Very fascinating. Thanks.
You are welcome!
Another fascinating video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great Job Thank You!
You're welcome!
Mr Spiess, any update on the satellite status? Wanted to know if the service is available now,
BTW, I have subscribed to your new channel, congratulations
I do not know of free LoRa satellites which transfer messages.
As always your videos leave me with the wish to build.
But this video has a lot of information in a short time.
Perhaps because you have many videos about satellites I missed some points.
I am not sure I can build this one.
What type of data do you receive from this assembly ?
wich firmware did you chose for your ttgo?
I feel I needed a fluxogram...
1. You find the data of the satellites on tinygs.com/packets
2. You find the software and instructions on : github.com/G4lile0/tinyGS
@@AndreasSpiess I bought the lora board. Is the antenna that comes with it not good enough?
Dear Andreas! Thanks for your great videos! Can you point me on one you describe these great containers for devices (at 15:27)? I see 'em made out of water pipes, but interested about how they are made.
I just buy such pipes: www.hornbach.de/shop/Sanitaerinstallation/HT-Rohre/S1880/artikelliste.html which are standard where I live. They have waterproof connections an ends. Then I cut them to length and add the 3D printed part from the bottom. Nothing special.
Thank you for a great video again. I was wondering about the polarization of antennas for satellite reception. Do they lose a lot of efficiency when the pointy-end of the ground plane points to the sky or does it not matter?
I'm also a fan of the device-fingerprinting method. You should check out rdzsonde firmware for weather-sonde tracking, open-source, unlike mysonde and uses this fingerprinting as well as a great companion app.
Some satellites use circular modulation. The cubesats seem to use linear polarization (antenna size?). Concerning direction: Satellites hardly are overhead you. So a GP is good enough.
I know the rdzsonde project but decided to use mysondy. I do not need two ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess thank you for my education 🙏
Great video, very interesting, thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it
Lora is winning over traditional FSK, what could be the disadvantage?
Also try to make an episode on starlink sat reception.
LoRa is proprietary and uses quite a lot of bandwidth for the same speed compared to FSK
Hi Andreas, one question. I see your arregement of antennas in your department. Does this means that in order to send/receive information from a satelite through Lora to an IoT device, i have to have such a big antenna like that one? If this is the case, the use case is very limited. Apreciate your thoughts! Patricio from Chile
I showed the antenna used for the LoRa satellite. They are quite small. Other antennas are for other purpose (if you are interested, I mention it in the video)
Thank you for your very nice presentation. What kind of messages do you receive from satellites? You are just listening to it and get whatever data he sends? Can you use those satellites to hop a message sent from your ground station to another ground station?
For the moment we only can listen. Some projects also plan repeaters. I pinned a comment with the address where you can see the latest messages received by the network.
Thankyou Mr Andreas
Using your ham radio
3.6 to 30 MHz -long wire antenna
100 Watts transmitter
What was longest distance you were able to contact?
New Zealand was the longest distance. It is more or less on the opposite side of earth ;-)
Very informative and interesting. Thanks and 73
You are welcome! 73 de HB9BLA
Thank you so much for your inspiring videos. I was wondering if Meshtastic messages currently can be transferred through TinyGS-Satellites from Europe across the Atlantic to the U.S.? Or would it be even possible via the Internet?
I do not know of a non-commercial satellite that supports message transfer (other than HAM radio satellites) :-(
@@AndreasSpiess OK, thank you for your response.
Quiet interesting... I plan to setup a ground station in Roodepoort South Africa.
Good plan. Not many are live there...
As this question was not directly answered. What kind of data is downlinked from thode satellites? Is it IoT that talk over satellites to the next groundstation to then continue over the internet?
Each satellite has different sensors. Bu usually it is voltages, currents, temperature, light levels, etc. You see packets on the tinyGS.com page
@@AndreasSpiess So if I understand this correctly, it only downlinks data from the satellite itself. The sats are not used for uplinking / repeating data sent to them.
@Bombastisch: Yes, for the moment there is no repeater up. Some projects plan to offer such a functionality in the future.
It would be really helpful if TinyGS software was available for not only ESP32, but also, for example, Raspberry Pi with a LoRa board connected with SPI.
Also, do we know how much a directional antenna with a rotator would help, compared to an omnidirectional ground plane?
1. No Raspberry is needed. It would be too expensive.
2. I regularly get signals from 2000km away with just a simple groundplane antenna. So no fancy antenna setup is needed. More than 2000km is hardly possible becasue the satellite disappears behind the horizon...
@@AndreasSpiess
1 - true, I thought about a scenario where someone already has a RPi active 24/7 for some other purpose, but has SPI pins to spare
2 - that's really cool that it works without any directional antenna - so I guess that a preamp wouldn't improve reception
also, 73 de SQ2KTN :)
I've been meaning to play with OSCAR for eons now...really gotta get my rear in gear!
Here in Europe we are well off with QO-100. No movement of the antenna, 24/7 connections. All other satellites are much harder, I think...
Hi Andreas, i was wondering if it was possible to replace the LoRA wifi module you used in this video with a raspberry pi + SDR receiver combination? Or are there specific features this board has that makes it much better suited to picking up these satellite signals?
LoRa is not Wi-Fi. AFAIK you do not get a good LoRa demodulator for SDR receivers.
@@AndreasSpiess ah my bad, I didnt mean to say that LoRa=wifi. Rather i was referring to the receiver module you used in this video.
Maybe I'll have to rewatch your LoRa video again, but it there a way to check if a receiver has a "good" demodulator?
As usual an excellent video!! Any advise for a 915Mhz antenna?
You can build your own, as shown here: th-cam.com/video/6cVYsHCLKq8/w-d-xo.html
In a recent video I showed how to build a ground plane antenna
Thanks. I missed the fact that the antenna can be designed and built for any frequency 😂
Very interesting, thank you so much indeed.
Glad you enjoyed it
Sorry for the stupid question, do I need to setup one of these TinyGS devices or a LoRa repeater to help with the Open Source Global Satellite Network?
The TinyGS devices receive signals fron the sky and transfer it to the network. If you live in an uncovered area, it might be of benefit.
Is the ground plane antenna optimal for this application? Maybe you will suggest making a more perfect antenna for TinyGS?
A directional antenna with two motors would of course be much better.
I just put up the second ground station in Las Vegas, Nevada!
Have you released the 3D printer files for your sewer-pipe case? I’d love to make one for my ground station too.
No, I did not share the design because it is individual and not too complicated to create. And I saw that quite some stations appeared now across the US. Cool!
Wow, wow, wow, so meaty!
Thank you!
Vrry interesting satalite LoRa topic
:-)
Thanks for this interesting video. I'm sure you know it, but a quarter wave ground plane antenna is not very suitable for receiving signals from above. Don't you think you get better results with a Different antenna?
This is what most people think. But if you work with satellites, you see that 90-degree passes are rare (then the distance is short, and therefore the signal is strong). Most of the passes are where the GP is quite sensitive. A Yagi would be better, of course. But more complicated.
Your systems boud rate is greater than my system that's why I watch this video 3 times.😊😊
Good for my statistics ;-) Thank you!
Another great project, very clearly explained, thank you Mr. Spiess! One question to the community: is anybody able to to read the data from the LoraBoard with MQTT for its own use, not only sending it to TinyGS? I wanted also to make some simple recording over time about the number of messages received per day but couldn't successfully connect subscribe to the LoraBoard with my own MQTT server (running on Raspi based on a Docker project from Adreas...:-) . Happy to get any feedback, thank you!
I assume you have to change the sketch. It is open source.
@@AndreasSpiess Already fixed the topic, now having the message in node-red on my local device! thx for reverting back and the push for this great topic. Always happy to see your videos and projects, that's so cool!
Hi Andreas. GREAT video. I notices your 3d printed a holder for the PSU and the Lora ESP board. I checked Thingiverse but could not find it. Do you happen to have a link to your 3D boardholder design (.STL file) ?
73 de Robbert / TA2IX aka PA3BKL, from Istanbul
Unfortunately, I did no more find it. These usually are one-off designs for me. 73 de HB9BLA
It seems SWARM Tile also uses LoRa module SX1278. Have you made tests with their systems?
No, I do not know SWARM.
Hi Sir Andreas, I am a new fan of your videos, since I was looking for guides on my LoRa projects. I really wish I can get help or advise from you if it is okay..:)
There is a LoRa playlist where you find a lot of information.
Thank you Sir for your reply, I am watching the videos one at a time, they are all great! By the way Sir I also sent a message to your instructables account.
I just noticed your last few videos don’t have numbers in the title? The numbers seem to be helpful make easy references and searches?
Always about the last 10 videos have no numbers...
Sehr schön aufgezeigt Andreas. Automatische Firmware Updates für iot....wenn das nicht zu hacken ist, wäre das sicher sehr hilfreich. Von den lora Reichweitenrekorden hab ich gar nichts mitbekommen, damals wurde doch öfters berichtet, wenn ein Ballon Mal 700km und mehr schaffte. Eine GP Antenne macht doch eigentlich eine Halbkugel auf über der Antenne, bringt da eine flexible Halterung wirklich Vorteile, ohne viel Richtcharakteristik? Die wird auf deinem Balkon doch nur schief geweht. 😛
Wenn du sicheres OTA willst: IOTappstory.com.
Hier ist es nicht sehr sicher. Deswegen habe ich die Bemerkung über OTA gemacht.
Viele Leute denken dass Satelliten hoch über uns fliegen. Das ist aber höchst selten der Fall. Normalerweise ist die Elevation klein, sogar wenn der Satellit genau über uns fliegt ist die Elevation normalerweise klein.. Deshalb ist eine GP ok. Besser ist natürlich eine Beam mit automatischer Nachführung...
@Cheetah: Was genau is BS? Hier wird die Modulation LoRa eingesetzt, nicht LoRaWAN wie z.B. bei Lacuna.
@@AndreasSpiess nvm then, mich stoert nur der Begriff IoT
Awesome
:-)
This is realy interesting tecnology but i would also like to see some more videos about what people typicly use it for..
This project is just to play around and to learn how things work. Lacuna wants to cover remote areas like watching free wildlife movements where low power and universal coverage are a must.
This channel is focused on the technology. The imagination usually comes from the viewers ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess yes i know its all about technology and I love it.. Dog get me wrong, i love your channel. But a sugesttion is to try to talk a bit about how you van use it even if its a strange use case.. Let's say put a tempratrure sensor in some "remote" location or somthing similar..
Did you test to send telecommands to a cubesat? how to configure a ground station to do it?
This depends on the cube sat and which ones do support message transfer. So far, I do not know one :-(
Extrem cool!
I like it too. What we were able to achieve with a minimum effort...
It's quite impressing that even satellites can communicate on the already very crowded ISM-bands. However, the 70 cm ISM-frequency (433.92MHz) is inside the 70-cm band for radio amateurs, and is secondary priority (must tolerate interference from ham-radio traffic). If you choose to take a full radio amateur exam, you will have a lot more possibilities with respect to frequencies and power. Perhaps one day you also can chat a little with the International Space Station too (NA1SS american operator, RS0ISS russian operator, DP0ISS/OR4ISS/IR0ISS european operator), provided that you live in a place with free sight-of line to the orbit. 20-100W power at uplink should be more than enough with a 1/4-wave antenna.
You are right. These satellites, BTW, use the HAM band and not the ISM part. 73 de HB9BLA
Is it possible to do this without a ham licence?
(Sorry for my bad english)
Yes, if you only receive. Or transmit inside the ISM band.
@@AndreasSpiess thank you for the quick response