PineDio indoor LoRa gateway to combine Pine A64-LTS SBC with RAK2287 LoRaWAN concentrator module

RAKwireless has offered Raspberry Pi-based indoor LoRaWAN gateways for development/evaluation purposes for several years, including the more recent RAK7246 LoRaWAN developer gateway equipped with Raspberry Pi Zero W SBC.

But there’s will soon be another option, also not directly from RAKwireless, as Pine64 PineDio indoor LoRa gateway will feature RAK2287 LoRaWAN concentrator module connected to Pine A64-LTS single board computer via a custom-designed adapter board.

PineDio indoor LoRa gateway preliminary specifications:

• SoC – Allwinner A64 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU
• System Memory – Up to 2GB LPDDR3
• Storage – 128Mb SPI boot Flash, MicroSD card slot, optional eMMC flash module
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K resolution @ 30 Hz
• Connectivity
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Optional WiFi & Bluetooth module
  • LoRaWAN via RAK2287 mini PCIe concentrator module based on Semtech SX1302 with support for RU864, IN865, EU868, AU915, US915, KR920, AS923; external antenna
  • GNSS via RAK2287 fitted with via U-blox ZOE-M8Q SiP with support for GPS / QZSS, BeiDou, Galileo, and GLONASS; external antenna
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports
• Misc – RTC
• Power – 5V via micro USB port

The gateway runs Armbian for SOPINE64. While this is not a RAKwireless product per se, the company will involve in the project, and Pine64 and RAKwireless have just published separate announcements about the partnership.

PineDio indoor LoRa gateway is still under development, and several developers have samples, but we still don’t know when it will be up for sale. There’s no price, but since Pine A64 -LTS costs $32 and RAK2287 card goes for $89, the gateway should probably sell for around $150 once the enclosure and adapter board costs are taken into account.

Besides the gateway, Pine64 is also developing LoRa nodes and accessories, including a LoRa back case for the PinePhone, a standalone USB dongle-type end-node adapter, a PineTab adapter, an SPI module, as well as a battery-powered LoRa + GPS stick relying on BL602 WiFi/BLE RISC-V module.

[Update: initially published on May 7, 2021, and updated on May 16, 2021 with PineDio name for Pine64 LoRa products]

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