Assistance in Hardware Selection

[crbn60]

Good Afternoon from Ottawa, Canada,

I have a personal project to instrument my off-grid camping trailer so I can measure a few different system voltages, some temperatures, location, and maybe some mechanical positions (doors/windows/etc); to pybytes and eventually my own system in Google Cloud over MQTT. As a long-time Python user, I'm pretty excited about the Pycom system! I have zero direct experience with embedded hardware, IoT, or really electronics – though I do have a lot of general understanding as well as a good friend who is an EE.

Here are my draft requirements:

• The trailer has its own fast LTE router that the setup should prefer for network access when it is enabled.
• My apartment is nearby (75-85m, through a building) and I would like to wirelessly transmit between them when the LTE router is not powered on but I doubt this will be possible using WiFi.
• In addition, assuming I can figure all this out, I would like to put a simple sensor in my Land Cruiser to report on system voltage, again wirelessly, using the trailer or the apartment as a gateway. The truck is generally only a few feet from the trailer.

Can you please help me understand what the correct hardware requirements are to get me going? My preliminary list is as follows:

• A LoPy in the trailer;
• A WiPy 3.0 in the apartment;
• Another WiPy 3.0 in the truck;

Some areas where I could use clarification:

• Which expansion boards do I need for this project?
• Which case is currently available to fit these devices?
• Can/should I be using the Pygate for this? I'm not completely clear on how that fits into the picture.
• Would I use BLE or LoRa between the two vehicles?

And, is this a good plan? Will it work? :)

Thanks for any and all input,

A.