Microchip Technology ExpLoRer User Manual

ExpLoRer Starter Kit User Guide

2

Introducing: ExpLoRer

3

Why Arduino??

 Open Source

 Industry standard

 Easily accessible

 Free IDEs
 No flashing tools needed – only a USB cable
 Simple structure (setup & loop) with examples

 Excellent HAL

 Re-use projects across AVR, PIC, Cortex

cores

 Hugely popular!

5

ExpLoRer - Arduino

Micro USB:

Arduino IDE

& charging

LiR2450

rechargeable
battery
120mAh, 3.6V

Atmel SAM-D21

Cortex®-M0+ based

microcontroller

Standard headers
for feature expansion
(sensors, GPS, solar)

6

ExpLoRer - Wireless

RN4871
BT-Smart

RN2483a

LoRaWAN

Low-cost

(removable)

PCB IFA

antenna

Footprint for
optional SMA

7

ExpLoRer

RGB LED for status

Indication

Standard headers
for feature expansion
(sensors, GPS, solar)

MCP9700AT

Temperature

Sensor

Blue

LED

8

ExpLoRer - Security

ECC508A

Crypto Device

9

ExpLoRer

Micro USB:

Arduino IDE

& charging

LiR2450

rechargeable
battery
120mAh, 3.6V

RGB LED for status

Indication

RN4871
BT-Smart

Atmel SAM-D21

Cortex®-M0+ based

microcontroller

RN2xx3

LoRaWAN

Low-cost

(removable)

PCB IFA

antenna

Footprint for
optional SMA

Standard headers
for feature expansion
(sensors, GPS, solar)

ECC508A

Crypto Device

MCP9700AT

Temperature

Sensor

Blue

LED

13

Specifications

Microcontroller

Microchip ATSAMD21J18
32

-Bit ARM Cortex M0+

Compatibility

Arduino M0 Compatible

Size

94

x 53 mm

Operating Voltage

3.3V

I/O Pins

20

Analog Output Pin

12

-bit ADC

External Interrupts

Available on all pins

DC Current per I/O pin

7 mA

Flash Memory

256

KB (internal)

and

4MB (external SST25PF040C flash)

SRAM

32KB

EEPROM

Up to 16KB by emulation

14

Specifications

Clock Speed

48 MHz

Power

5V USB power and/or 3.7

Lithium battery

Charging

Solar charge controller, up to 500mA
charge current

LED

RGB LED, Blue LED

LoRa

Microchip

RN2483a Module

Bluetooth

Microchip

RN4871 Module

CryptoAuthentication

Microchip ATECC508A

Temperature sensor

Microchip MCP9700AT

USB

Micro USB

Port

15

Pinout

USB

16

Pins Definition

Definition

Pin index

Blue LED

LED_BUILTIN

13

RGB

Red LED

LED_RED

16

RGB Green LED

LED_GREEN

17

RGB Blue LED

LED_BLUE

18

Bluetooth Wake

BLUETOOTH_WAKE

19

LoRa

Reset

LORA_RESET

45

Bluetooth Reset

BT_RESET

46

Programmable

Button

BUTTON

47

Temperature
Sensor

TEMP_SENSOR

A6

Grove Header

-

14-15

Grove Header I2C

PIN_WIRE_SDA, PIN_WIRE_SCL

33-34

17

Grove connector

 The Seeedstudio Grove system is a seamless set of

open-source plug-and-play components. It simplifies

the study and electronic prototypes by proposing a
wide selection of sensors and actuators

 You can find two types of grove connectors on the

board:

 I2C
 Analogic

18

Solar power

 You can plug on the board a solar panel

 This input has some limitations

 Maximum voltage : 5.5V
 Maximum current : 500mA

 Maximum power : 2.5W

 You can use a 1.5W Solar Panel for example

ARDUINO IDE

Setup

20

Arduino IDE Setup

 Download and install the latest Arduino IDE:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software

21

Board Setup

 In order to install the board you will need to add the SODAQ

board manager URL:

http://downloads.sodaq.net/package_sodaq_samd_index.json

to File -> Preferences -> Additional Board Manager URLs:

22

Board Setup

 Then, the SODAQ SAMD Boards package will appear in the

Tools -> Board -> Board Manager

 Install the latest SODAQ SAMD Boards package

 Select the SODAQ ExpLoRer board from Tools -> Board

24

Library Setup

 Import the libraries provided by using:

Sketch -> Include Library -> Add .ZIP Library

 Then you search for the file named ‘OrangeRn2483.zip’ that you

have previously downloaded on

https://partner.orange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/OrangeRn2483.zip

25

Arduino IDE Basis

 Open a sketch example file (.ino)

 From menu : File -> Examples -> OrangeRn2483

 (1) Compile and check if the code has no error

 Press the reset button twice within a second

to place the board into bootloader mode and
is expecting a new sketch

 Select the ExpLoRer COM port assigned

 (2) Upload the sketch to the board

 (3) Open the Serial monitor for debugging

(1) (2) (3)

26

Arduino IDE and

Sketch

setup()

Loop that runs only

once

loop()

Loop that runs

continuously

27

Hardware Serials

 The ExpLoRer has 4 hardware serials:

 SerialUSB this is for debugging over the USB cable
 Serial Serial is attached to pin D1/TX and D0/RX
 Serial1 is connected to the RN4871 Bluetooth module
 Serial2 is connected to the RN2483 LoRaWAN module
 Software Serial refer to https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/SoftwareSerial

 The sketch starts direct after uploading new code or when

connected to a power source. After opening a Serial Monitor the
code will not reset, add the following code to your sketch if you
want your sketch to wait for a Serial Monitor

void setup()

{

// put your setup code here, to run once:

// wait for SerialUSB or start after 10 seconds

while ((!SerialUSB) && (millis() < 10000)) ;

SerialUSB.begin(57600) ;
Serial.begin(57600) ;
Serial1.begin(115200) ;
Serial2.begin(57600) ;

}

void loop()

{

// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

28

Basics sketches

 The Arduino IDE has some examples built in

 Open the ExtractHardwareDevEUI sketch

File -> Examples -> OrangeRn2483

-> ExtractHardwareDevEUI

MAIN FEATURES OF THE KIT

Getting Started

30

Reset Button

 On legacy Arduino board the reset button restarts

your program from the beginning

 On the ExpLoRer board the reset button has two

modes:

 Mode 1: simple click that acts as legacy Arduino reset
 Mode 2: double click that starts the board in a bootloader mode.

In this mode, Arduino sketch is put on hold and the board awaits
the upload of a new sketch.

 Warning:

 When switching between mode 1 and 2 the COM port that you

see in Arduino IDE will change (but remains the same for a given
mode)

31

Push Button

 The ExpLoRer Starterkit has a programmable button

 This example will light the built-in Blue LED when the button is

pushed

void setup()
{
// Configure the button as an input

// and enable the internal pull-up resistor

pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT_PULLUP) ;
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT) ;
}
void loop()
{
// Read the button value into a variable

int sensorVal = digitalRead(BUTTON) ;

// Turn on the LED when the Button is pushed
if (sensorVal == HIGH)
{
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW) ;
}
else

{

digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH) ;
}
}

32

RGB LED

int led = LED_RED; // the PWM pin the LED is attached to
int brightness = 0; // how bright the LED is
int fadeAmount = 5; // how many points to fade the LED by

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup()
{
pinMode(led, OUTPUT) ;
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop()
{
// set the brightness
analogWrite(led, brightness) ;

// change the brightness for next time through the loop:
brightness = brightness + fadeAmount ;

// reverse the direction of the fading at the ends of the
fade:
if (brightness == 0 || brightness == 255)
{

fadeAmount = -fadeAmount ;

}
// wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
delay(30);
}

33

Temperature Sensor

#define debugSerial SerialUSB

void setup()
{
pinMode(TEMP_SENSOR, INPUT) ;
// Set ADC resolution to 12 bits
analogReadResolution(12) ;
}

void loop()
{
// 10mV per C, 0C is 500mV
float mVolts = (float)analogRead(TEMP_SENSOR) * 3300.0 / 4096.0 ;

float temp = (mVolts - 500.0) / 10.0 ;

debugSerial.print(temp) ;
debugSerial.println(" C") ;

delay(1000) ;
}

34

Battery Charging

 USB power and Solar panel sources can be used for charging
 Jumpers JP1 determines which battery is used/charged

 (1) External battery

 (2) Internal battery

(1) {

(2) {

Solar

Batt

37

BLE Module

Arduino library for using the Microchip RN487x BLE module

#include "RN487x_BLE.h"

#define bleSerial Serial1
void setup()
{
rn487xBle.hwInit() ;
bleSerial.begin(rn487xBle.getDefaultBaudRate()) ;
rn487xBle.initBleStream(&bleSerial) ;
if (rn487xBle.swInit())
{
rn487xBle.enterCommandMode() ;
rn487xBle.stopAdvertising() ;
rn487xBle.setAdvPower(3) ;
rn487xBle.setSerializedName("Microchip") ;

rn487xBle.clearAllServices() ;

rn487xBle.reboot() ;
}
}
void loop()
{
}

39

LoRa® Communication

 Arduino library for using the Microchip RN2483 LoRaWAN

module: OrangeRn2483

 You can find a complete document on this library and its

functions in the library’s file

#include <OrangeRn2483.h>

// The following keys are for structure purpose only. You must define YOUR OWN.
const int8_t appEUI[8] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 };
const int8_t appKey[16] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 };

bool joinNetwork()
{
OrangeRN2483.setDataRate(DATA_RATE_1); // Set DataRate to SF11/125Khz
return OrangeRN2483.joinNetwork(appEUI, appKey);
}

bool SendLoRaMessage()

{
const uint8_t size = 5;
int8_t port = 5;
int8_t data[size] = { 0x48, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F }; // Hello
return OrangeRN2483.sendMessage(data, size, port); // send unconfirmed message
}

Orange Live Objects

Getting Started

41

Let’s get started

 Provision your LoRa end device to join the network

 The devEUI is provided by the ExpLoRer board

Get and note the hardware devEUI of the board by using the
ExtractHardwareDevEUI sketch

 The application identifier (appEUI) is 8 bytes long (16 hexadecimal characters).

 You can use this one 4578704C6F526572
 Or create your own

 The application session key (appKey) is specific for the end-device. It is 16 bytes

long (32 hexadecimal characters).

 It is safer to create your own appKey

 Or you can create one using {FFEEDDCCBBAA9988} as the 8 first bytes and the device’s devEUI for

the 8 last bytes. This option presents a security risk.

 Write down your keys here for safe keeping :

 devEUI =
 appEUI =
 appKEY =

42

Orange Live Objects

 Go to the following URL to access Live Objects :

https://lpwa.liveobjects.orange-business.com/#/login

 You can find some useful videos about Live Objects

on this website :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqiOhIRIpjRvR3Bw0hMLciw

43

Provisioning a device

 Create your device within Orange Live Objects by adding the

activation keys and the right profile

AppKey

DevEui

AppEui

Choose the profile

Michrochip RN2483

44

Provisioning a device

 In addition to the activation keys you have to

choose the profil Microchip RN2483

45

Provisioning a device

 You device is now registered

46

Testing the network

 Open the SendPayload sketch to test your device

 File -> Examples -> OrangeRn2483 -> SendPayload

 This sketch will send 3 payloads
 Modify the file with your own keys in HEX format (0x)

 Here is what your code should look like :

// The following keys are for structure purpose only. You must define YOUR OWN.
const int8_t appEUI[8] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 };
const int8_t appKey[16] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,

0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 };

47

Testing the network

 (1) Upload the sketch to the board

 (2) Open the Serial monitor for debugging

 You should see the following monitor :

(2)

(1)

48

Visualizing Lora Messages

 To see the 3 payloads that have been sent :

 On Live Object select your device

 You are redirected to this page :

49

Visualizing uplinks

 Click on the uplink tab

 You can now see the 3 payloads you just sent

50

Downlinks

 Downlink is about sending payloads from Live

Object to the device

 Click on the downlink tab after selecting your device

 Then you select the send button

 Then you fill in the port number and the data to send in

hexadecimal form and click on send

51

Receiving downlinks

 To visualize your downlink use the GetReceivedData

sketch

 File -> Examples -> OrangeRn2483 -> GetReceivedData

 Then send the payload from Live Object

 Finally open the Serial Monitor

 You should see the data you sent

Thank You

Note: The Microchip name and logo, dsPIC, MPLAB and PIC are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Inc. in the

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