Lopy - Wifi Bridge

[Apollo]

Hello,

I'd like to use my Lopy to connect my smartphone to my router at home. I assume that is possible but don't know where to start yet. There is almost no internet coverage where I want to use it and my Lopy could help me out.
Smartphone wifi -> Lopy --> other Lopy -> Wifi router with internet access.
Is this possible yet or do I have to wait for the firmware update we are reading about for several months now? If anyone knows this works I'd be willing to pay for the code to get this working. The connection from Lopy to Lopy should be secure so nobody can use it.

There is this: https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/pycom_esp32/tutorial/includes/wlan.html
and this: https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/pycom_esp32/tutorial/includes/lora-mac.html
but when I read "more params can also be given, like frequency, tx power and spreading factor" then I don't know what I need to enter. Of course there is help here: https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/library/network.LoRa.html
But I'm doing this for the first time and don't know which values I have to use for spreading factor and so on...
So any help is welcome, also paid help

Apollo

[bmarkus]

@Apollo said in Lopy - Wifi Bridge:

I wasn't planning to watch Netflix over Lora, but was planning to send messages and maybe listen to a web radio station. This made me think I could achieve 300 Kbit/s: http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/rf-transceivers/sx1272/

LoRa itself is a radio technology with many different options, like bandwith, data rate, error correction rate, etc.

LoRaWAN is a complete network solution specified by Lora Alliance and on the physical level using LoRa technology.

LoRaWAN is using unlicensed frequencies shared with other users another non-lora systems. To let other systems work, there is 1% or 0.1% transmit duty cycle limitation imposed by the regulators.

LoRaWAN is intended to serve sensor networks with one way communication mainly with low speed, low data volume.

If you go for P2P or other protocol but using the 868MHz band rules are still valid. At least in EU. In other regions it may be different.

Your use case is not for LoRaWAN, it is not for Internet applications and not a WiFi, 3G/4G replacement.

[livius]

@Apollo said in Lopy - Wifi Bridge:

Never heard of the duty cycle restrictions, I wish Pycom had mentioned this in the Kickstarter campaign

because it is not PyCom limitation only Lora law restriction.
But you can use Wifi instead Lora from your LoPy. But range must be smaller.
I do not try "1 km" range - but i have succesfully connect 200m by Wifi.

[Apollo]

I wasn't planning to watch Netflix over Lora, but was planning to send messages and maybe listen to a web radio station. This made me think I could achieve 300 Kbit/s: http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/rf-transceivers/sx1272/

Never heard of the duty cycle restrictions, I wish Pycom had mentioned this in the Kickstarter campaign. This is totally useless to me now. I was planning to use this in a more complex project this summer where I had to transmit about 5-10 seconds@32 Kbit/s every minute or so.

Anyone interested in 5 Lopys with extension board and antenna kit? One is opened, the rest not. Shipping in the EU, preferably Germany.

Thanks for your help jmarcelino!

[Apollo]

This post is deleted!

[jmarcelino]

@Apollo

While it could be done, LoRa technology isn't really appropriate for Internet access unless all you're planning is to send very small bursts of data.

LoRa is both very, very, slow (the LoRa radio chip has a maximum theoretical data rate of 38.4Kbit/s) and because of legal duty cycle restrictions in these frequency bands - regulation which exist in most of the world - you get only a few seconds of transmission time per hour (for example in Europe it's 1%, which means you can only transmit data 36 seconds per hour)