Will selecting a country for first-time firmware update limit the frequencies available?

[uhoh]

I have a LoPy a few months old, just opened the package. Right now I will just do bench testing with receive, or transmit low power into a 50 ohm load. No antenna or deliberate radiation. I noticed the getting started instructions recommend updating the firmware, but it looks like that requires selection of a country. I am wondering if the firmware update will limit available frequencies, or bands. Also wondering if it will load a country-specific table of channel frequency assignments.

One reason I bring this up is that I have just noticed this post mentioning a wrong country selection seeming to lock in the wrong available frequency: https://forum.pycom.io/topic/857/no-transmitted-data-between-two-lopy-s-in-lora-mode/3#

[uhoh]

This post is deleted!

[robert-hh]

@uhoh Hello. No, the question is valid, but was alreayd answered in this board. Yes, selecting the country will limit the frequencies to the ones allowed for that country. But you can change that with later updates, although it is a little bit tricky. Pycom announced a prodecure for that, until then you can go for a manual update (search for "downgrade" or "manual update"), or peek into the file structure of the downloader for that setting.

[jmarcelino]

That was a question only Pycom can answer so us members, 99.99% of the forum, can't really help you.

Try asking @bucknall

[uhoh]

@robert-hh OK those are very helpful, thank you! Does it make sense to mark it as a duplicate then? (I'm new here, not sure how that is done). Also I'm wondering if it Is it just a band limitation (e.g. 800's vs 900's), or might there country-specific band-edge limits or for some countries even possibly a table of channel numbers and frequencies currently in use there.

[robert-hh]

@uhoh Thanks. I cannot answer the latter question, but maybe folks from Pycom can do, like @bucknalla

[bucknall]

Hi @uhoh

The firmware tool limits the bands, i.e. 868~ or 915~MHz. I will get a table added to the docs containing the frequencies for the specific countries in which you can register your device to. You are able to change the frequency lock (via downgrading) however, it is best to contact us if you wish to do this as when you select a country, your board is loaded with a region specific firmware at that frequency.

Thanks, @robert-hh and @jmarcelino for the mention!

[uhoh]

@bucknall Thanks for the quick reply! Are there additional band limits or restrictions currently imposed by country-specific firmware upgrade, or is it just one band or the other (or perhaps both in some cases)?

For example, do all country selections simply give you one of the following, or are there country-specific deviations in the details?

• 868 band: (863-870MHz) 2-14 dBm, LoRa BW (125 and 250 kHz accepted)

• 915 band: (902-928MHz) 5-20 dBm, LoRa BW (125 and 500 kHz accepted)

copied from class LoRa documentation:
https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/library/network.LoRa.html

I'm not asking about LoRaWAN parameters here, just LoRa.

[bucknall]

@uhoh I believe it's just one or the other currently (863-870 MHz and 902-928 MHz)!