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Arduino Pro LoRaWAN Industrial Gateways

July 14, 2022 by Damond Goodwin

Arduino has made the leap from the maker world to the industrial sector by combining its smooth user experience with RAKwireless' industry expertise to provide LoRaWAN connection capable of advanced IoT applications.

Arduino Pro and RAKwireless have recently teamed up to expand the capability of LoRaWAN connectivity. The new products feature the differing strengths of both companies—Arudino’s smooth user experience and RAKwireless’ industry expertise. The product lineup includes two new industrial gateways: the WisGate Edge Lite 2 for indoor use and the WisGate Edge Pro for outdoor use.

 

Arduino Pro's indoor gateway

Arduino Pro’s indoor gateway, the WisGate Edge Lite 2, can be used in multistory buildings and has an optional DIN rail mounting system. Image used courtesy of Arduino Pro

 

RAKwireless and LoRaWAN

A gateway is a hardware device used to manage data and messages between two different networks. Gateways are used for connectivity, translation, and security between these different networks. They are used as gatekeepers for different data packets from one source to another. The acceptance or denial of the data packets is dependent on preconfigured settings within the system.   

LoRaWAN has been gaining acceptance across the world recently as a network communication protocol capable of handling millions of messages from thousands of gateways. It is known as a good option for clients looking for low data bandwidth with high connectivity. The LoRaWAN system has been used in everything from smart agriculture applications to industry 4.0 and smart cities

RAKwireless spent eight years developing the hardware and software for the LoRaWAN system. Now, combined with Arduino Pro, RAKwireless powers the WisGate Edge Lite 2 and WisGate Edge Pro, capable of medium to wide area coverage for remote regions and industrial environments. They have been designed to offer customers secure and reliable connectivity for a large range of professional applications.    

 

Arduino Pro Industrial Gateway

The WiseGate Edge hardware has been designed to be user friendly. They come standard with DIN rail or pole mounting options for ease of use and many different tutorials and technical documentation. They can also be purchased with enclosures designed specifically for indoor or outdoor use. The companies hope that the addition of these things will provide users with an intuitive out of the box experience to save time and money on installation.

The setup looks to provide the best LoRa connection ever produced by combining Arduino’s smooth user experience and RAKwireless’ specific industry expertise. The Arduino IoT Cloud platform and the other LoRa components in the Arduino ecosystem complement the MKR and Portenta modules. Together they are capable of creating and deploying a complete industrial IoT and industry 4.0 application setup. 

 

Arduino Pro's outdoor gateway

Arduino Pro’s outdoor gateway, the WisGate Edge Pro, features 2x fiberglass antennas with 5dBi gain and supports up to 16 LoRa channels. Image used courtesy of Arduino Pro

 

Indoor AND Outdoor

The indoor version of the system is the WisGate Edge Lite 2 and the outdoor system is the WisGate Edge Pro. Despite their different functions, both systems share many similarities. The systems are compatible with public networks and work with cloud connected private networks. Both of the systems also contain these features:

  • Secure Ethernet

  • Wi-Fi or LTE connectivity

  • rapid setup and diagnostics

  • backup and data logging via SD card slot

  • fully customizable WisGateOS 

  • powered by RAKwireless

  • based on open source OpenWRT 

With limited cabling made possible by Power over Ethernet, the systems can help save time and clutter in the installation process.

The WisGate Edge Lite 2 offers wide coverage indoors and has an indoor optimized cover. It is ideal for any indoor situation and can be used in multistory buildings. It also features an enclosure designed for efficient cooling with optional DIN rail mounting.

WisGate Edge Pro is ideal for IoT commercial outdoor deployment. It features high transmission power and 2x fiberglass antennas with 5dBi gain. The WisGate Edge Pro supports up to 16 LoRa channels thanks to a Dual LoRaWAN Concentrator. For ease of installation, the kit comes with either din rail mounting options or pole mounting options. 

 

Arduino to Automation

Arduino has made the leap from the maker world into the industrial sector with the addition of the New WisGate Edge Lite 2 and WisGate Edge Pro. They are capable of efficiently managing data and fit a wide range of applications. There are many options available for customers looking into smart cities or for the industrial manufacturing sector.  

 
Featured image used courtesy of Arduino Pro