Datasheet

Overview

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los

Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them

there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

Sending data over long distances is like magic, and now you can be a magician with this range of powerful and easy-

to-use radio modules. Sure, sometimes you want to talk to a computer (a good time to use WiFi) or perhaps

communicate with a Phone (choose Bluetooth Low Energy!) but what if you want to send data very far? Most WiFi,

Bluetooth, Zigbee and other wireless chipsets use 2.4GHz, which is great for high speed transfers. If you aren't so

concerned about streaming a video, you can use a lower license-free ISM frequency bands (https://adafru.it/mOE) such

as 433MHz in ITU Europe or 900 MHz in ITU Americas. You can't send data as fast but you can send data a lot

farther

Also, these packet radios are simpler than WiFi or BLE, you dont have to associate, pair, scan, or worry about

connections. All you do is send data whenever you like, and any other modules tuned to that same frequency (and,

with the same encryption key) will receive. The receiver can then send a reply back. The modules do packetization,

error correction and can also auto-retransmit so its not like you have worry about

everything

but less power is wasted

on maintaining a link or pairing.

These modules are great for use with Arduinos or other microcontrollers, say if you want a sensor node nework or

transmit data over a campus or town. The trade off is you need two or more radios, with matching frequencies. WiFi

and BT, on the other hand, are commonly included in computers and phones.

These radio modules come in four variants (two modulation types and two frequencies) The RFM69's are easiest to

work with, and are well known and understood. The LoRa radios are exciting and more powerful but also more

expensive.

All variants are:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-rfm69hcw-and-rfm96-rfm95-rfm98-lora-packet-padio-

breakouts

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